Light and colour combine to form shapes from which eyes, mouth and nose emerge. Initially close and indistinct, then distant and clearer.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII – She Said: ?!
Music Video
2025
2 min.
English
AI-generated images are increasingly being used to achieve a photorealistic and hyperrealistic aesthetics. However, diving beneath the surface of the image towards latent space reveals entirely new, abstract, schematic images that are usually hidden from the viewer.
The music video for the song She Said: ?! by the artist IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (Barcode) is an experimental, visual investigation of AI-generated animations computed with a very small number of steps. The images are in tension between their almost non-representational aesthetic and the representational image motif – a balancing act between recognition and non-recognition. The music video explores this balancing act using the human face as an example.
Another key point is the iterative generation of AI faces. On the one hand, this refers to the training process of AI models, in which images are generated again and again until they are considered good. On the other hand, it refers to the human being, who generates images until something recognisable in them. The music video reflects on the processes of AI image generation itself with an aesthetic inherent to AI image generation.
The work process began with visual studies. Several hundred AI videos were then generated and animated by hand rhythmically to the music. Using depth estimators, the images were then transformed into 3D models and rendered as point clouds in Blender. By transforming the images into 3D models, it was possible to work with an artificial depth of field. This is intended to further intensify the tension between recognising and not recognising.
The music video's experimental approach of declaring unfinished AI images as protagonists contrasts with the seemingly endless flood of photorealistic AI images. The work does not aim to imitate an image aesthetic such as photography, but to explore a new aesthetic inherent in AI. It is an attempt to approach the new imaging process of AI as unconventionally, openly and curiously as possible.
Festivals
URTIcanti Iinternational Music Film & Video Festival. Italy, 2025.
AI Film 3 – AI Film and Art Festival Arizona. USA, 2025.
Credits
A Music Video by Niklas Poweleit
Music IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII – She Said: ?!
Other works
Niklas Poweleit