(Identity, Empathy) is a series of portraits that aims to inspire empathy by leveraging generative AI to expand one’s sense of self. Following the idea that our bodies are simply containers for our souls, this project imagines a reshuffling of genetic code to demonstrate my soul expressed in various human forms along the spectrum of masculinity, femininity, and gender expression. 

How does the soul experience the world differently based upon the body it inhabits? How does your perception of the subject change based upon the images you see? The result is a necessary exercise in empathy, and an expansion of my worldview beyond my own lived experience. 

These images are generated using Astria, a text-to-image AI tool which allows me to train the model with images of my own likeness, then generate images based on text prompts.

Computational media such as generative AI offers a new angle to consider personal identity. How might one show up in a virtual form and what might influence that form? Dr. Fox Harrell, director of the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT on phantasmal media:

“... The great expressive power of computational media arises from the construction of phantasms - blends of cultural ideas and sensory information. These ubiquitous and often unseen phantasms - cognitive phenomena that include sense of self, metaphors, social categories, narrative, and poetic thinking - influence all of our everyday experiences.”

While the portraits in this project are not “real” in the physical sense, they embody signals of my human experience; that is, evolving in my masculine identity to avoid causing internal or external harm, and instead aiming to create safety, foster harmony, and model what I wish to see in the world: Empathy.

ICONIC PORTRAITS: Berlin-based multidisciplinary photographer and performance artist Johanna Keimeiyer approaches identity and the iconization of artists by portraying herself as famous stars including Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Karl Lagerfeld, Frida Kahlo, John Lennon, the Joker, Marilyn Monroe, and Freddie Mercury, among others. We also see the artist pictured without makeup in the center of this collage. You can view more of Johanna's work at keimeiyer.com

(Identity, Empathy) expresses my humanity by joining computational tools with human insight toward non-binary perspective. Boundary-less creativity is unlocked by shifting from fixed notions of identity toward a fluid spectrum. 

I was introduced to the concept of boundary-less creativity through Drag Story Hour, which was featured at ONBOARDERS Conference in December 2022. A step beyond the binary reveals novel ideas, perspectives, and identities. Upcoming generations, and our future workforce, will understand this concept. In the future, we can expect to encounter perspectives which might not yet exist in our field of view.

While social consciousness on gender gradually evolves, the machines which increasingly govern our lives are founded in a binary world of 1s and 0s. Problems emerge from this gap as machines gain influence in a world which evolves beyond that of its technical foundations. Implicit and explicit biases are encoded in computational systems. 

In her award-winning book, Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World, Dr. Meredith Broussard coins the term technochauvinism, the belief that technology is always the solution. With computational systems deployed in consequential use cases such as mortgage lending, criminal justice, and more, technochauvinism can result in serious harm, often upon women and people of color. Though AI is often espoused with visions of limitless possibility, Dr. Broussard’s work identifies that there are indeed limits to how technology could and should be used.

Technology should be used to enhance, uplift, and extend our humanity, not replace it. Like many inventions throughout history, technology is a tool which can advance our human potential. However, technology is not the solution for everything, and we must be thoughtful with how we deploy it. In a world where AI can automate so many aspects of our lives, what then becomes important? Our humanity is the key. Simply put: We need more Human.

Humans’ innate abilities of creativity, reasoning, and moral judgment can only be mimicked, not replaced by machines. At the beginning and end of all innovation is human talent. In a brave new world, we must prioritize humanity in its entirety, not just the slice of humanity with which we identify. We might best achieve that by exercising one of our greatest human abilities: Empathy.

(Identity, Empathy) is a series of portraits that aims to inspire empathy by leveraging generative AI to expand one’s sense of self. Following the idea that our bodies are simply containers for our souls, this project imagines a reshuffling of genetic code to demonstrate my soul expressed in various human forms along the spectrum of masculinity, femininity, and gender expression. 

How does the soul experience the world differently based upon the body it inhabits? How does your perception of the subject change based upon the images you see? The result is a necessary exercise in empathy, and an expansion of my worldview beyond my own lived experience. 

These images are generated using Astria, a text-to-image AI tool which allows me to train the model with images of my own likeness, then generate images based on text prompts.

Computational media such as generative AI offers a new angle to consider personal identity. How might one show up in a virtual form and what might influence that form? Dr. Fox Harrell, director of the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT on phantasmal media:

“... The great expressive power of computational media arises from the construction of phantasms - blends of cultural ideas and sensory information. These ubiquitous and often unseen phantasms - cognitive phenomena that include sense of self, metaphors, social categories, narrative, and poetic thinking - influence all of our everyday experiences.”

While the portraits in this project are not “real” in the physical sense, they embody signals of my human experience; that is, evolving in my masculine identity to avoid causing internal or external harm, and instead aiming to create safety, foster harmony, and model what I wish to see in the world: Empathy.

ICONIC PORTRAITS: Berlin-based multidisciplinary photographer and performance artist Johanna Keimeiyer approaches identity and the iconization of artists by portraying herself as famous stars including Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Karl Lagerfeld, Frida Kahlo, John Lennon, the Joker, Marilyn Monroe, and Freddie Mercury, among others. We also see the artist pictured without makeup in the center of this collage. You can view more of Johanna's work at keimeiyer.com

(Identity, Empathy) expresses my humanity by joining computational tools with human insight toward non-binary perspective. Boundary-less creativity is unlocked by shifting from fixed notions of identity toward a fluid spectrum. 

I was introduced to the concept of boundary-less creativity through Drag Story Hour, which was featured at ONBOARDERS Conference in December 2022. A step beyond the binary reveals novel ideas, perspectives, and identities. Upcoming generations, and our future workforce, will understand this concept. In the future, we can expect to encounter perspectives which might not yet exist in our field of view.

While social consciousness on gender gradually evolves, the machines which increasingly govern our lives are founded in a binary world of 1s and 0s. Problems emerge from this gap as machines gain influence in a world which evolves beyond that of its technical foundations. Implicit and explicit biases are encoded in computational systems. 

In her award-winning book, Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World, Dr. Meredith Broussard coins the term technochauvinism, the belief that technology is always the solution. With computational systems deployed in consequential use cases such as mortgage lending, criminal justice, and more, technochauvinism can result in serious harm, often upon women and people of color. Though AI is often espoused with visions of limitless possibility, Dr. Broussard’s work identifies that there are indeed limits to how technology could and should be used.

Technology should be used to enhance, uplift, and extend our humanity, not replace it. Like many inventions throughout history, technology is a tool which can advance our human potential. However, technology is not the solution for everything, and we must be thoughtful with how we deploy it. In a world where AI can automate so many aspects of our lives, what then becomes important? Our humanity is the key. Simply put: We need more Human.

Humans’ innate abilities of creativity, reasoning, and moral judgment can only be mimicked, not replaced by machines. At the beginning and end of all innovation is human talent. In a brave new world, we must prioritize humanity in its entirety, not just the slice of humanity with which we identify. We might best achieve that by exercising one of our greatest human abilities: Empathy.