Anthrocinematica
ANTHROCINEMATICA is an AI video collection composed of 500 perfect loop sequences.
Each sequence zooms in on a single photo from a wall of photos in one of thirteen rooms, where each room is located in one of five different countries (Ethiopia, Finland, India, US, Japan).
In addition, each room has two dimensions, one where the wall of photos are of people and places in Japan and the other is of people and places in the US.
This all forms an imperfect yet idealistic microcosm of human life both on a global scale, but also a personal one as the duality of each room reflects my Japanese heritage, as a son of immigrant parents, and having been born and raised in the US.
Leaning into the nature of AI, these concepts are also blended together in unusual and subtle ways, which helps to show how the world is not black and white, but it is a blend of many different elements to form what makes us all human.
Released on Braindrops on March 29,2024
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Collection highlights
Each piece focuses on one photo, zooming in to a video of that photo, which transports you to the exact moment captured in the photo. Then it zooms back out to a full view of the room, showing you all of the photos on the wall. Finally it zooms back to exactly where you started, creating a perfect loop video.
The AI generated image of each room has an effective resolution of 40k by 40k pixels, 1.6 gigapixels in total. There are 13 rooms, so a grand total of almost 21 gigapixels. You need to take 800+ photos on a Fuji x100v to get the same number of pixels. Plus of course there are the AI videos on top of that.
On top of the daunting task of creating a conceptually cohesive AI video collection of this scale, all 500 pieces were manually edited in Final Cut Pro. It was an insane amount of work but it was the only way I could get it done with the quality I wanted. Also it would not have been possible to create this collection without the absolute latest AI features from Runway (multi motion brush) Magnific (large upscales) and MidJourney (v6).
The duality of each room reflects my Japanese heritage, as a son of immigrant parents, and having been born and raised in the US. This side-by-side video montage shows two "twins" in the collection, so you can see how the Japanese/US versions manifest. This is only really possible with AI at this scale.
I wanted to choose countries that would bring a distinct visual style to each room. Some of the countries I chose were in homage to friends. Ethiopia was chosen to honor Kiya and JoeyL.
The first AI artist I truly fell in love with was Jenni Pasanen. She showed me how AI could be more than just a technical wonder, but a magnificent work of art. She is the reason why I picked Finland as one of the five countries.
Every piece in the collection was given a unique title. I looked at each one, trying to feel the core emotion of the photo and video, then came up with a title to match that emotion. And sometimes I used the title to add more dimension and context to the piece. This piece of a woman could have been titled "Mother" but instead I titled it "CEO", which adds more depth to the character and plays against the male stereotype of a CEO.
Each piece has one of five sound edits that compliments the country that the room is set in. The ambient noise in the background was recorded in that country. If you listen carefully, you can hear the Japanese "minmin mushi" cicadas in this piece.
When AI is used to generate people, they tend to be the idealized version of beauty, yet they also have oddities, like one too many hands. These mistakes can be viewed as flaws in the AI or they can be viewed as a metaphor for the flaws in humans. I think holding them both equally at the same time helps to create more depth and complexity between the subject and the medium, highlighting both our dreams and our fears.
The imperfections in this collection are not only from AI, but also human imperfection. It shows how we sometimes struggle and need the help of others. This piece shows a woman who is helping a man who has had a bit too much to drink, maybe because he had a hard day or maybe because of a character flaw.
I spent time exploring facial expressions and using them to help tell the story. It is hard to get AI video to do exactly what you want, especially with faces, but sometimes you get a serendipitous generation that is truly spectacular. The facial expression in this one, truly made the piece.
I liked playing around with the idea that the photo that is being zoomed into does not tell the whole story, if anything it tells quite the opposite story. In this piece, it shows a photo of a couple in love, just about to kiss, but when the video segment plays, it tells a very different story of what was happening in that moment.
There are some easter eggs in this collection, subtle references to NFT and crypto culture. When I saw this photo come up in the AI generation (left), I knew I had to make a nod to the creator of Bitcoin. The title is "Satoshi and his brother". It also has a "twin" piece that is called "Crypto bros" that adds a bit of satire (right).