Pseudo-hallucination’ through Mapping Painting the Post-digital Age

Abstract

Through two painting cases, Pulse and Kaleidoscope, this paper examines how physical painting expands its boundaries by utilising the characteristics of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) and its generated images instead of directly using AI tools. This research proposes that imperceptible ‘errors’ often occur in the generated images and evoke the experience of pseudo-hallucination, where viewers experience vivid but fictional elements. It further argues that Gen-AI produces pseudo-hallucination through the algorithmic mapping process, and painting evokes such sensation through the artists’ intuitive mapping. Above all, these glitch moments of generated images resonate with Slavoj Žižek’s claim (2008) that ‘errors’ are crucial to accessing the truth of the subject, as we cannot fully present ourselves through semantic and semiotic order. Glitches allow us to glimpse different possibilities. Painting practice that embeds the ‘glitch’ features of Gen-AI may thus enable reflection upon subjectivity in the post-digital age.

Keywords: painting, gen-AI, pseudo-hallucination