Flag


2022

Flag trains a neural network on an impossible dataset: 70 factorial flag permutations—a number so vast it exceeds computational comprehension. Confronted with more symbolic possibilities than any system can synthesize, the machine fails to produce coherent national symbols. What emerges instead are fragments, glitches, shards of pattern that embody political breakdown through computational breakdown.

These generated images are then individually reworked, searching for structure within algorithmic failure—revealing how artificial intelligence processes political symbolism when overwhelmed by infinite variation. Each manipulated flag documents a kind of collapse: systems, both human and artificial, struggling to maintain coherent meaning when faced with unlimited interpretive possibilities.

As this country divides into warring camps, unable to agree on basic human rights or civil liberties, what remains are shreds of a great ideal—unrealized and in tatters. And so, for each of these proto-states, a new flag, a fragment of the original. Some full of fury and anger, of belief in lies and delusional memories of the country’s past. And some trying to hold the beauty and generosity of liberty and equality.

Tabula Rasa - AI / machine learning generated images

Hallucinations - Manipulated AI / machine learning generated images

Manipulations - Manipulated AI / machine learning generated images