Strange Loops is an exploration into generative deep learning models and self-referential patterns, questioning the notions of identity and the uncanny. I trained a machine learning algorithm on a database of my selfies, then used it to computationally generate more selfies; from there, I took to Google’s Trainable Machine and ml5.js Image Classifier to see if it was able to distinguish the real faces from the imposter faces.
From [ Wolfram MathWorld ]:
A strange loop is a phenomenon in which, whenever movement is made upwards or downwards through the levels of some hierarchical system, the system unexpectedly arrives back where it started. Hofstadter (1989) uses the strange loop as a paradigm in which to interpret paradoxes in logic [...] and calls a system in which a strange loop appears.
What does this mean in more interpersonal terms? I define a strange loop as a self-referential, possibly cyclical, feedback loop of affect between two subjects– in the scope of this project, my physical self and my digital self. Then, we must ask: where does the machine stand in this relationship, both as the vessel and as the perpetrator? I propose that we may begin to accept the machine as a facet of ourselves not just digitally, but also tangibly, within our so-called "real lives"...
