Meet Hypereikon!
Hypereikon (IG: @hypereikon) is a Chilean artistic duo based in Buenos Aires. They explore an innovative synthesis of naturalistic elements with surreal, post-natural textures and forms. Hypereikon's practice reconstructs concepts of the living world through an algorithmic lens, creating evocative, dreamscape-like visions. Their distinctive aesthetic experience has been exhibited internationally and featured in various magazines.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got interested in AI art?
I am María Constanza, and together with Sebastián, we form Hypereikon, an artistic duo that explores the poetic and artistic possibilities of generative arts. We both have previous experience in the visual and musical arts, always from a digital perspective. In this journey, learning and experimenting with AI models for image, video, and sound generation felt familiar, bringing us closer to thinking of life as a conglomerate of data and information circulation in the contemporary era where files become material for transformation and plasticity thanks to their digital nature.
How do you approach the creative process when working with AI?
Our approach to working with AI is based on a deep interest in the possibilities of imaginaries emerging from the search to synthesize digital files and immerse ourselves in their multiple results.
The question of technique and tools is constantly changing, we are fascinated by finding different possibilities and fields of representation and signifiers of the image in each model. Each model has its own way of composing, texturing, and filling with meaning the arrangement of pixels that makes up an image. Therefore, each new model that appears represents a new challenge and a new field of exploration that is filled with different ideas that we believe are significant to raise. The process ends up being like an imaginary prosthesis with which to exercise ideas, thoughts, and their limits, dismembering ideas and signifiers from the figurations and textures.
In our eagerness to seek post-natural imaginaries, we always find it interesting to put into practice what we conceive of as "entity" in these models, and how we think about the living, the symbiotic, and the non-human. We are interested in reimagining the idea of nature and capturing it from our experience with the forests of southern Chile.
How do you balance your work in AI art with other professional or personal pursuits?
It's funny to think that we started as a musical project that turned into a generative art duo. This has allowed us to develop ideas and work fields in an intuitive way and with the desire to connect with different spaces and collectives, carrying out installations, concerts, workshops, and works.
The moment of creating is playful and exploratory, navigating the latent space without a defined objective, but rather from what emerges, to be able to raise and think about connections that might not occur without the use of the technique.
It must also be fun to look for information, articles, new research, and see the work of other artists to understand in which direction they are taking their exploration.
It has been very joyful for us to work on our own work but also to work on other projects, as it has meant talking with other concepts, ideas, and imaginaries. I think it is very good to have a balance and have the time to work on our own work but also to work with other people.
In your opinion, how does AI redefine the concept of creativity and artistic agency, and how do you see it impacting the future of art?
In our practice, we consider AI conceptually as "artificial imagination". The work of creating with models is a constant exercise of researching imaginaries, searching for and deconstructing concepts and ideas. We consider the technique as an imaginary prosthesis that expands and derives our own perceptions of what we seek as results, in a transformation of our own ideas. In this sense, we believe that technologies in art expand our agencies.
For more of Hypereikon’s incredible work, make sure to visit their Instagram account: @hypereikon