Simulated Drawings - Spurious Engravings

ALEXANDER HAHN

electronic media artist

Current and past works exploring what computers do best - simulation.

photo: © Stephan Rohner

Titian’s The Submersion of the Pharaoh’s Army in the Upper New York Bay as seen in the Fogg Museum

2015/22

12 plates, laser engravings, each 30.5 × 40.6 cm on Arches 300 lb/640 gsm watercolor paper

Edition: 3 + 1EA

In 1997 a friend of mine bought three woodcuts with horses, knights and waves. According to the antiquarian, they were the last sheets of an originally twelve-part portfolio, all in mint condition, probably the work of an unknown artist from the late 19th century who specialized in horses. In reality, it was «The Fall of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea» from 1515-1517 by Titian (Titiano Vecellio, 1490-1576). (See plate # 4)

On a visit to Harvard University's Fogg Museum in 2015, I first saw a complete copy of this large print (112.5 × 221.5 cm). I photographed it, retouched the images in Photoshop, and replaced Titian's contemporary city in the background with a view of New York and the Brooklyn Bridge. I engraved the twelve panels into heavy watercolor paper with the help of a laser, completing the circle of light entering the camera lens, being digitized and issuing once again as light of memory burning itself into the paper.

A.I.: Simulated Drawings - Spurious Engravings

Sunset

Date: 2019

Medium: pigment ink on paper, 12 A.I. rendered pen sketches

Dimensions: 11 x 14 in.

Edition: 3

• Annotation:

12 sketches with cotton gloves, blanket, tissue paper and Sunset magazine box, as seen during the installation of a photo exhibition in March 2018. Rendered using mobile-optimized artificial intelligence (Deep Learning) technology.

A.I.: Simulated Drawings - Spurious Engravings

Male Nude in Landscape sighted by a Drone - Self Portrait

Date: 2018

Medium: pigment ink on 4 pt. stone paper, 6 sheets

Dimensions: 13.5 x 24 in.

Edition: 3

A.I.: Simulated Drawings - Spurious Engravings

Cerebral Atoll

Date: 2001 - 2015

Medium: pigment ink on fine art paper (12) and glass (2), mixed media

Dimensions: 14 prints à 11 x 14inch

Edition: 3 + 1 EA

Collection: Kunstmuseum Solothurn

• Annotation:

Panoramic view, looking outwards from the center of the human brain, digital elevation model created from a b/w MRI.

A.I.: Simulated Drawings - Spurious Engravings

Liquid I

Date: 2014

Medium: pigment ink on fine art paper

Dimensions: 18 prints à 9x 16 inch

Edition: 3 + 1 EA

Collection: Graphische Sammlung, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

Albert Bosshard‘s unfinished 1916 Mt. Tödi Panorama completed

Date: 2015

Dimension: 12 prints à 60 x 70 cm

Technique: 3D-digital elevation model (DEM), pigment ink b/w on bamboo paper

Edition: 5 + 2 on glass + 1 EA

A.I.: Simulated Drawings - Spurious Engravings

Crash at Minisceongo Creek

Date: 2019

Medium: pigment ink on paper, 17 sketches

Dimensions: 7.5 x 11 in.

Edition: 3

• Annotation:

17 stills from an aerial video recording the flight of a wayward small drone over Minisceongo Creek and its crash, rendered using mobile-optimized artificial intelligence (Deep Learning) technology.