Generative Art Using Neural Visual Grammars and Dual Encoders
Whilst there are perhaps only a few scientific methods, there seem to be
almost as many artistic methods as there are artists. Artistic processes appear
to inhabit the highest order of open-endedness. To begin to understand some of
the processes of art making it is helpful to try to automate them even
partially. In this paper, a novel algorithm for producing generative art is
described which allows a user to input a text string, and which in a creative
response to this string, outputs an image which interprets that string. It does
so by evolving images using a hierarchical neural Lindenmeyer system, and
evaluating these images along the way using an image text dual encoder trained
on billions of images and their associated text from the internet. In doing so
we have access to and control over an instance of an artistic process, allowing
analysis of which aspects of the artistic process become the task of the
algorithm, and which elements remain the responsibility of the artist.
Authors
Chrisantha Fernando, S. M. Ali Eslami, Jean-Baptiste Alayrac, Piotr Mirowski, Dylan Banarse, Simon Osindero