Latvia via AI

Latvians are often preoccupied with defining and safeguarding their identity. As part of the project, three artificial intelligence image generators were involved – DALL-E, DeepAI and Stable Diffusion, but rather than focusing on their technological capabilities, I was more interested in the ideas, stereotypes, prejudices, and ideologies that their human inventors imparted to them. I asked them to create images on various general topics, with each caption including the words “Latvia,” “Latvian,” or “Latvia’s,” depending on the grammar. I selected and categorized the images into a total of 31 themes, which together form 31 exhibitions. Each exhibition will be on display for a day. Through this project I sought to explore how young artists in the early stages of their careers perceive Latvia today, before they learn to show us the world as we want to see it.

Arnis Balčus

Date – Subject

1 — Culture & Traditions
2 — People
3 — History
4 — Nature
5 — Cuisine
6 — Economics
7 — Medicine
8 — Education
9 — Towns
10 — Countryside
11 — Festivities
12 — Science
13 — Military
14 — Animals
15 — Architecture
16 — Music
17 — Art
18 — Dance
19 — Cinema
20 — Sports
21 — Literature
22 — Photography
23 — Theatre
24 — Fashion
25 — Politics
26 — Police & Crime
27 — Media
28 — Interiors & Design
29 — Celebrities
30 — Leisure
31 — Future

The exhibitions are open daily from 2-8pm, on 25 May – until 10pm. Openings held on – 1, 2, 8, 12, 17, 22, 25 and 31 May 6.30pm where special excursions will be organized (in Latvian).