Gender Tapestry
Gender Color Classification
Upload your selfie to help train a neural network and become a part of a community mosaic.
When you upload your selfie, the AI will assign you a colour based on your face, and will generate a two-tone image of you which will be added to the mosiac.
This work brings together different classifications of gender into a socially built construct, a mosaic of color and a generative work that builds and grows into something new over time.
Upload a selfie to help train a neural network and become a part of the artwork.
This classifier is part of an experimental artwork to show gender as a literal spectrum, conceived as a 3D color space, and that gender is a unique experience based on the sum of our lived experience, our histories, and our environment.
Your selfie has been added to the AI's training data, and will become a part of future iterations of the mosiac. Check back later to see new versions of the mosaic.
See the mosiacUsers can submit an image of their face which is then classified using a multi-label classifier that works with several pronouns. The user will receive, instead of a gender, a custom mixed color based on RGB. The custom color is used to render the output as a simplified, Warhol-esque image in both light and dark variations. This generated image is then incorporated into a library of images – a dataset used to create a colorful mosaic of GAN-generated works where the user’s image is added to the GAN to disrupt the outcome. As more people are classified, more colors are added to the library, prompting  both the GAN results and the mosaic to grow with increasing complexity.
We are at a critical juncture of technological and sociological advancement, both with the surge in AI training and with recent sociological advancements in how we think and talk about gender. The time is ripe to merge those developments and to realize that we cannot train machines in the outdated social mores of the past, but rather think ahead to a new stage of development and understanding of ourselves and our AI.
J. Rosenbaum is an artist and researcher based in Melbourne, Australia. Their work explores the intersections of art, technology and society. They are completing their PhD in Art at RMIT University. Their awards include the Midsumma Australia Post Art Prize in 2017 and the Fiona Meyer award in 2016 and they have produced work with grants from the City of Melbourne Covid-19 Arts Grants, Test Sites and Melbourne Fringe.
