AVATARS 02: Malcolm X. 2024
AVATARS is a speculative portraiture series that merges Afro-Futurist aesthetics with cutting-edge AI technology to reimagine identity in the digital age. Developed through the UT Dallas HEArts Grant, the project transforms text prompts into hyperreal digital beings using AI diffusion platforms. These figures are refined through generative image editing, and animated using facial recognition software, blending virtual presence with evocative sound design. The resulting works are not simply digital portraits, but expressive avatars, embodied memories that collapse time, culture, and imagination. By rendering both historical figures and personal archetypes, AVATARS prompts viewers to consider how technology reshapes the boundaries of selfhood and visibility. The series invites critical reflection on representation in the age of AI and offers a layered meditation on how art, memory, and machine learning coalesce to form new modalities of storytelling.