{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1572110"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1572110/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NN4833/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NN4833/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NN4833","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1572110/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1572110","accessionNumber":"E.57-2021","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"The Butcher's Son","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"<i>The Butcher's Son</i> was created by Mario Klingemann using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) trained on stick figures and images of the human body from the web. The piece is part of Klingemann’s Imposture Series, which sought to transform stick figures into figurative “paintings” to explore posture and the machinic depiction of the human body.\n\r\nA GAN is a machine learning model that generates new data, such as an image, that resembles a given dataset. Developed in 2014, it consists of two neural networks: a generator, which creates a new image from random noise, and a discriminator, which evaluates the new image’s similarity to the training dataset. GANs “learn” by analysing many images to recognise patterns. As both networks improve, the process continues until the generator has produced an image almost indistinguishable from the dataset. The distinct aesthetic results of this process – the visible AI “artefacts” and the surreal, occasionally grotesque and non-human forms generated by the machine – are important for Klingemann as the complexity of the human figure challenges and reveals the limits of AI capabilities in the 2010s.\r\n\r\nMario Klingemann (b.1970) is a German artist who works with machine learning, code and algorithms, and is interested in generative and evolutionary art, data visualisation and robotics. Since learning programming in the early 1980s, he has explored human creativity, questioned the capacities of advanced technologies to emulate and augment these processes, and sought to understand and subvert the inner workings of opaque systems.\r\n","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mario Klingemann","id":"AUTH362167"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"paper: Hahnemuhle cotton rag","id":"x39400"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Artificial intelligence","id":"THES392486"},{"text":"Digital art","id":"THES289934"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2023NN4833"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"MB2E","shelf":"DR59","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"giclée prints","id":"THES252758"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2017","earliest":"2017-01-01","latest":"2017-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Courtesy of Colección SOLO","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"75","unit":"cm","qualifier":"image","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"50","unit":"cm","qualifier":"image","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"80","unit":"cm","qualifier":"paper","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"57","unit":"cm","qualifier":"paper","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"The Butcher's Son, 2017 from the Imposture Series by Mario Klingemann","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.57-2021"],"accessionNumberNum":"57","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2021,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2021-01-26","availableToBook":false}}