Artist Spotlight: Anne Spalter

At the intersection of fine art, algorithmic and digital software, artist Anne Spalter challenges the “Modern Landscape” through Playform’s No-Code AI

Digital mixed-media artist Anne Spalter is an academic pioneer who founded the original digital fine arts programs at Brown University and The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the 1990s. With a decades-long goal of integrating art and technology, Spalter has authored over a dozen academic papers and the seminal, internationally taught textbook, The Computer in the Visual Arts (Addison-Wesley, 1999). Alongside her studio practice, Spalter continues to lecture on digital art practice and theory. She is on the Digital Art Acquisitions Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

For the digital art component of her mixed media practice, Spalter uses custom software and algorithms to transform both still and video source footage—which she captures in high resolution during multisensory experiences such as riding the Coney Island Cyclone; walking through an open-air flower market in Bangkok; and gazing down from a helicopter over downtown Dubai—into psychedelic, vibrantly rendered “Modern Landscapes.”

We sat down with artist Anne Spalter to discuss the integration of technology and digital tactics in art, and how AI will change the future of design. 

Playform: You received your undergraduate degree in mathematics from Brown,  and then went on to receive your MFA in painting from RISD. Do you find that your eclectic and diverse background led you to utilizing new technologies like AI as an artist?

Anne: Definitely for the digital art component of my mixed media practice. I use custom software and algorithms for both still and video source footage, and using AI in my work is another element of digital integration in art. So, my background leads me to a balance between technology and art, exactly where Playform is situated between.

P: What themes or symbols do you specifically explore in your work?

A: Highways and bridges; modes of transportation such as planes, ships, and UFOs; bodies of water from oceans to swimming pools; signalling structures such as lighthouses; and largely empty landscapes often featuring skyscrapers and urban landscape or clouds, mountains and water/seascapes. The compositions frequently include or are based on circles and spheres and use patterning to create geometric order. The works usually incorporate specific times of day, using the lighting and colors of sunset, sunrise, or twilight. Like recurring characters in a story these symbolic images come and go in different combinations and I have approached them with a range of both traditional and digital media. They often have simultaneous physical and spiritual references–acting as both objective landscape elements and tools for inner exploration.

P: What about Playform AI stands out to you as a tool for artists?

A: I have been using AI in my work for over a year now, and continue to be fascinated with the ways in which it can act as a collaborator and inspire new approaches to making compositions.  The process is at times frustrating but also full of serendipitous surprises. Frustrating because it can be very hard to predict, but sometimes not knowing what the outcome will be can inspire new creations. Playform gave me new ideas, new inspirations. Also I would say the way that Playform allows for easier ways to match stylings. I have a long-standing interest in color theory and a little bit of an obsession with Hans Hoffman. This came together in my recent AI-based work using Playform when I managed to get Hoffman’s colors on to a series airplane images. I’ve used plane imagery in all types of media over the years, but never so vividly.

P: What are the biggest challenges that arise when working with a relatively new tool such as AI training?

A: You never know what you’re going to get which is both exciting and fun and sometimes frustrating, as I mentioned before. After working with the tool for some time, I feel that I have a grasp and understanding of what the results will be, and then I come back to find that the results are not at all what I would expect. Other times I input things that I have no idea what they’ll look like, and maybe I get something really wonderful. I keep thinking, “oh now I understand it,” but like I said it’s very hard to predict. When you get something that does work it’s very exciting. That’s the excitement of a tool like Playform.