Driessens and Verstappen work as a duo with technology where the creative process is no longer completely controlled by the artists. In their #Spotter project they question if a machine (a generative adversarial network or GAN) can develop a similar preference for and imagination about birds as they do. From this idea they build the #Spotter. The Spotter consists of a camera and an intelligent computer which learns to observe animals and by making pictures creates its own imagination of what these animals look like. In Artis the Spotter will be introduced to ibex, mandrils and fish within their own habitats. This project focuses on the perception of intelligent machines which need to learn the most minuscule steps of recognition. How can a computer separate an animal from its environment and how do we do this as humans? The work is placed within a tradition of Artis in which artist observe and depict animals. From an abstract image generated by the Spotter slowly something appears that we recognise as animal. Visitors of Artis can join the artists in their research and follow how the Spotter learns to perceive the animal.

Animation of the #Spotter learning process at Amstelpark