Clinton Van Arnam

Windows

Many claim that the eye is a Window to the soul. The duality of vision and consciousness has been conveyed throughout human history. Various cultures represent the gaze of “one eye” as a dualism of “inner and outer” sight. This symbology has been represented by the “eye of Wisdom” in Islam, the “eye of God” in Christianity, the “eye of Shiva” in Hinduism, the “eye of Dharma” in Buddhism, and various other cultures and religions. In the current age of rapid information, and large data sets, what does the “eye of the machine” represent? 

This project was created using machine learning algorithms. The AI was trained using a collection of images from data scrapes of the eye. The latent walk was then converted into a real time ASCII video to represent the iconography of the machine. Windows opens the door to explore the future of consciousness in machine learning, and to create an abstract poetic vision of what this future might entail. 

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Clinton Van Arnam

Clinton Van Arnam is a media artist and graphic designer currently working in Los Angeles. Growing up in the rural areas of southern New Mexico, Clinton’s fascination with the visual world and sound started at a young age while gazing at the vast desert landscape. When he was 18 years old, he left New Mexico to pursue music and move to Los Angeles. In his first six months of living in Los Angeles, he lived homeless in a van and started writing music on his laptop. This sparked his interest in sound design and media arts. Eventually, his journey led him to pursue the academic field of electronics and art. He now studies Design Media Arts at the University of California Los Angeles and focuses his attention on visual art and sound interaction. His work explores ideas relating to consciousness, human machine interaction, and spirituality.