Piyanon Somboon
Abstract :
In an era defined by an accelerating environmental crisis (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2023), the communication of ecological awareness faces a profound challenge. Traditional documentary imagery, while vital, often confronts a wall of “compassion fatigue,” a phenomenon where audiences become desensitized to repeated images of suffering (Sontag, 2003). This creates an urgent need for new aesthetic strategies that can re-engage audiences emotionally.
The symposium’s theme, “SYNTHESIS: AESTHETICS,” directly addresses this need. It invites us to explore how new forms of creation can generate novel sensory experiences. This project posits that Generative AI, a new frontier for artistic creation (Epstein et al., 2023), offers a powerful pathway for such a synthesis. It provides a medium that moves beyond literal representation to synthesize complex emotional and symbolic perspectives.
This creative project, “Selfie of Despair in a Human-Dominated World,” is an aesthetic exploration centered on a deliberate conceptual synthesis. At its core, the project takes the “selfie”—a visual act emblematic of 21st-century human self-representation and perspective—and synthesizes it with the profound, silent suffering of the non-human world confronting its destruction.
This artwork leverages Generative AI to render an impossible, yet emotionally resonant image: the non-human subject turning the lens on itself to capture its own despair. This act of synthesis is not intended as a stark critique. Instead, it aims to create a reflective dialogue. The synthesized image functions as a disquieting mirror, reflecting the consequences of our human-dominated world back upon us.
This work explores the potential for what might be termed an “Aesthetics of Synthetic Empathy.” This is an aesthetic experience designed not to document reality, but to generate a new, visceral form of empathy that bypasses conventional fatigue. It ultimately invites viewers to question and contemplate the complex, intertwined relationship between humanity, our technological creations, and the natural world we are transforming.
Objectives :
As a creative project responding to the theme “SYNTHESIS: AESTHETICS,” this artwork series, “Selfie of Despair in a Human-Dominated World,” holds the following conceptual and aesthetic objectives:
- To synthesize two profoundly contradictory concepts: the “selfie,” an act emblematic of human-centric perspective and self-representation, and the silent “despair” of the non-human world.
- To utilize Generative AI as a medium to render the impossible—the non-human subject capturing its own fate—thereby visualizing a new kind of “emotional truth” that transcends the limitations of documentary photography.
- To propose and explore the potential of an “Aesthetics of Synthetic Empathy,” aiming to provoke a new form of emotional engagement that can bypass traditional compassion fatigue.
- To initiate a reflective dialogue about the consequences of our human-dominated world, using the synthesized image as a mirror for the audience to contemplate the complex relationship between humanity, technology, and nature.
Conceptual Framework :
The conceptual framework for this creative project is built upon the synthesis of three core pillars, directly responding to the “SYNTHESIS: AESTHETICS” theme.
- The Crisis and The Fatigue: The foundation is rooted in the urgent reality of the environmental crisis (IPCC, 2023), coupled with the critical acknowledgment that traditional documentary aesthetics often lead to “compassion fatigue” (Sontag, 2003). This establishes an aesthetic void that demands new visual languages.
- The Medium as Synthesizer: The second pillar positions Generative AI not merely as a tool, but as an inherently synthetic medium (Epstein et al., 2023). It is a medium capable of processing abstract concepts, emotions, and impossibilities into tangible “emotional truths.”
- The Semiotic Synthesis: This is the core act of the work. The framework executes a synthesis of two conflicting semiotic systems:
System 1: “The Selfie”—A symbol of agency, self-representation, and the human-centric perspective.
System 2: “The Despairing Nature”—A symbol of silence, victimhood, and the non-human world.
By forcing System 2 (Nature) to perform the act of System 1 (The Selfie), the artwork synthetically generates an impossible perspective.
The outcome of this framework is the proposition of an “Aesthetics of Synthetic Empathy.” This is an aesthetic experience designed to provoke reflection and emotional resonance by confronting the viewer with an image that is simultaneously familiar and profoundly alienating.
Process / Methodology :
The methodology employed for this creative project is one of Artistic Inquiry, driven by practice and reflection. The process did not begin with a rigid technical method, but with a conceptual question: What happens when we synthesize the human perspective with the suffering of nature?
- Conceptual Synthesis: The process began by establishing the core conceptual synthesis: appropriating the “selfie” as a semiotic sign for human agency and self-representation.
- Collaboration with AI: The artist fed abstract and emotional concepts (e.g., “despair,” “confusion,” “destruction”) into Generative AI models, rather than specific visual commands. The AI thus served as a “visual brainstorming partner,” generating thousands of potential interpretations of these concepts.
- The Critical Curation: This was the most crucial stage of the methodology. The artist’s role shifted from that of a traditional “maker” to that of a “Critical Curator.” The artist did not select the “prettiest” or “most realistic” image, but rather the singular image that most potently ignited an “emotional truth.”
- Aesthetic Reflection: The process culminates in reflecting upon the curated result. The artist analyzes which synthesized elements (e.g., the synthetic gaze, the distorted lighting) are responsible for producing this “Aesthetics of Synthetic Empathy.” The methodology is therefore a continuous loop of proposing, generating, curating, and reflecting.
Techniques and Materials :
The “materials” for this creative project are entirely digital and algorithmic, comprising two specific, primary tools:
- DALL-E (Text-to-Image): This served as the core material for synthesizing the still images. DALL-E functioned as the conceptual canvas, responding to ideas and generating the aesthetic drafts.
- RunwayML (Image-to-Video): This was employed to synthesize “motion” onto the selected still images, adding a dimension of time and life.
The “technique” utilized in this work was deliberately not one of precise, technical prompt engineering, but rather a process of “Conceptual Negotiation.”
This technique involved the artist feeding abstract emotional concepts (e.g., “bear’s despair,” “selfie in a burnt forest”) into DALL-E. The artist’s role then immediately shifted from “maker” to that of a “Critical Curator.”
Instead of micro-managing the output, the artist’s technique was to sift through hundreds of generated results to find the singular image that most potently ignited the project’s intended “emotional truth.”
Result / Conclusion :
The “result” of this creative project is not empirical data, but the realized artwork series, “Selfie of Despair in a Human-Dominated World.” The work successfully synthesizes two profoundly conflicting conceptual poles: the hyper-human-centric act (the selfie) and the silent, overwhelming despair of the non-human world.
The primary aesthetic “finding” of this project is the proposition of an “Aesthetics of Synthetic Empathy.”
This is an aesthetic that does not aim for documentary truth. Instead, it utilizes the “impossible image”—the animal as the agent of its own tragic representation—to provoke a new form of emotional resonance. These images function as a synthetic mirror, inviting a reflective dialogue about the consequences of our human-dominated world and aiming to bypass the compassion fatigue often associated with traditional activist imagery.
Ultimately, in response to the “SYNTHESIS: AESTHETICS” theme, this project concludes that the most potent synthesis offered by the AI era may not be merely technical. Rather, it is the synthesis of meaning, emotion, and dialogue, prompting urgent new questions about our complex and intertwined relationship between humanity, nature, and the very technologies we create.
References :
Epstein, Z., Hertzmann, A., Akten, D. K., Seaver, N., Gal-On, K. M. A., Bogin, B., Martino, M., Elliott, L., & Li, S. (2023). Art and the science of generative AI. Science, 380(6650), 1110–1111. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adg6221
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2023). Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/
Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the pain of others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.