A reading in the context of Boris Groys‘ media theory
The exhibition project “Face & Fiction – AI, Identity and Illusion” examines how photography’s claim to truth is shifting in the age of generative artificial intelligence. Its starting point is a set of photographs of the artist’s own face, used as training material for an AI model. From this data, new portraits emerge in which identity is no longer documented but algorithmically constructed. The project thus sits at the intersection of photography, machine learning and contemporary media art.
Self-Design and Visibility
The works can be read productively alongside the ideas of the philosopher and media theorist Boris Groys. Groys understands digital media not primarily as means of communication but as spaces of public visibility. For him, the internet is a permanent exhibition space in which people continuously shape, publish and redesign their identities. His term self-design describes this process of aesthetic self-construction.
This is exactly where “Face & Fiction” begins. The face is not treated as a fixed characteristic but as open visual material. Training an AI model produces countless variations of the same person – realistic, convincing and yet fictional. The works thereby challenge the classic notion of photography as proof or document. Instead of depicting an authentic self, they generate a multitude of possible identities.
According to Groys, visibility has become more important today than authenticity. Digital images gain their cultural significance not by accurately reproducing reality, but by circulating publicly and attracting attention. Against this background, the question shifts from “Is this image real?” to “What reality does this image create?” The project makes this shift visible by presenting AI-generated portraits that appear photographically credible even though they were never taken.
The Artist as Organizer
Another central idea of Groys concerns the changing role of the artist. In his view, contemporary art increasingly consists in organizing images, data and information rather than solely producing new objects. This observation applies to AI art in particular. The creative process includes selecting training images, developing prompts, fine-tuning a model, critically selecting the results and presenting them curatorially.
The project makes this process transparent. It shows not only finished images but also points to the conditions of their making: datasets, algorithms and models. The focus thus shifts from the individual image to the entire production process. Here, art does not arise in the finished work alone, but in the relationship between dataset, model, selection and exhibition.
The Model as Archive
Equally important is Groys‘ understanding of the archive. Generative AI does not produce images out of nothing; it processes existing visual worlds. Every new image emerges from a cultural memory stored in datasets. The model trained on the artist’s own face is also an archive – a condensed collection of photographic information from which ever new variations arise.
Presenting the works on digital monitors reinforces this idea. Unlike a traditional photographic print, the images have no material original. They exist as data and only become visible at the moment they are displayed. The exhibition space itself thus becomes part of the work.
From Depiction to Construction
“Face & Fiction – AI, Identity and Illusion” is therefore less a technical demonstration of artificial intelligence than a media-philosophical inquiry into the relationship between image, identity and the public sphere. The project does not ask whether AI will replace humans, but how algorithmically generated images change our understanding of authenticity, memory and personal identity.
In Boris Groys‘ sense, the exhibition becomes a place where images are not only viewed but where it becomes visible how digital culture produces identities. The work thus reflects a central development of the present: the transition from photographic representation to the algorithmic construction of the self. It shows that artificial intelligence not only brings forth new images, but also new ways of seeing, remembering and perceiving oneself.