I chose Anna Ridler (1985) as my icon, especially for her work Mosaic Virus (2019). I first say this installation at Ars Electronica in Linz (Sept. 2019) and later at the exhibition AI: More than Human in Groningen (Dec. 2019), and it fascinated me both times.
Mosaic Virus is an installation based on machine learning trained on tulip images, and creates new images based on the current Bitcoin price, please see video for how this looks (link because the video settings did not allow to be shown here). I like how Ridler stresses all these parallels between the tulip mania in the 17th century and the current bitcoin mania. It shows how history repeats itself and how we humans go absurdly crazy over quite abstract things. The most precious tulips were the ones with stripes, which were caused by the so-called mosaic virus disease. In my view, this draws a parallel with the viruses that can infect our computers and internet nowadays. Moreover, the imaginary tulips created by the AI are like the still life flower paintings of the 17th century, which were also imaginary as not all these flowers where blooming at the same time.
In all of her works, Ridler uses creative ways to collect information and creates interesting connections. For example, she created love letters based on the potential of photons (Alice & Bob, 2017), she investigated taboo terms of society by looking into which words were not recognized by autocorrection on a phone (No Replacements Found, 2015), and she investigated the position of women in Saudi Arabia by analysing Wikileaks data (Wikileaks: Women, 2016).
Ridler’s work inspires me to see more connections in the world and to look for creative ways to get data. Moreover, I think it is cool to combine new techniques, like machine learning, with old media or older conceptual ideas, like Ridler chose still life paintings.