During this seminar, we engaged in a collaborative endeavour involving Birds on Mars, who had previously cooperated with Roman Lipski on "Artificial Muse", to undertake a profoundly poignant project. Käter, an architect and painter hailing from rural Baden Württemberg, is grappling with dementia, progressively disengaging from reality and increasingly retreating into his internal realm. Despite having dedicated his life to painting, his artistic style has recently undergone alterations coinciding with the onset of dementia.
Throughout this project, we meticulously sifted through, digitized, and organized Käter's extensive body of work. Following the careful photography of over 100 pieces, we subjected them to software capable of interpreting their forms and colors, instructing an artificial intelligence to continue his stylistic trajectory as if he had not been afflicted by illness, or to speculate on its potential evolution should dementia advance. In a bid to involve Käter in the project, albeit in a capacity where he may not fully comprehend the nature of artificial intelligence, we presented him with still images generated by the AI, which he subsequently embellished in his altered style.
Subsequent to the seminar, collaboration commenced with curators to develop an interactive installation. This installation serves to encapsulate Käter's unique world, shedding light on the artist both with and without the influence of his illness, while concurrently raising awareness about dementia itself.
