Norbert Schoerner’s AI art redefines image-making
Norbert Schoerner uses machine-learning technology to translate text into images – explore his AI art here and at his ‘Decoy’ exhibition at London’s Fitzrovia Chapel
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

Generative Adversarial Network, or GAN, is a machine-learning framework that can create new data – whether image, sound or video – by analysing and transforming large datasets. It is the technology behind Deepfakes, which have stirred widespread controversy of late for their potential to spread misinformation and cause reputational damage.
In the hands of German artist and photographer Norbert Schoerner, however, a GAN has become an artistic collaborator. Feeding brief textual vignettes into the framework, he generates digital PNG files that are at once alluring and disquieting. They challenge conventional notions of art-making, as well as our understanding of what we see when we look at an image.
His exhibition ‘Decoy’, currently on view at a Gothic revival chapel in London’s Fitzrovia, brings together 14 abstract, eerie pieces produced with the assistance of a GAN. It follows on a project titled Pictures I Never Took, which investigated the relationship between text and image, creation and perception.
The exhibition is split into two parts: the first consists of a series of plates laden with text, which the photographer likens to opthamologists’ charts. ‘They describe photographic images and encounters,’ explains Schoerner.
The second part sees the texts fed into a ‘story-to-image generator’ – a GAN-based system that has been trained on machine-learning image datasets, to give visual form to what has been described in writing.
AI art: ‘a new imagination at work’
Schoerner describes the works as ‘worlds presented by a new imagination at work, an intelligence other than our own; they are flowers of unknowable romance pulled from unfamiliar fields of information’.
Beyond opening our eyes to the aesthetic capabilities of artificial intelligence, he would also like us to reconsider the way in which we connect with art. Referring to ‘this age of sensory and visual overload’, he questions whether we ever spent enough time in front of the same image – or if we’re so accustomed to skimming that we fail to remember with precision. The images we’ve seen become distorted in our minds, like the ones created by his GAN-based system.
He concludes: ‘This inability to hold on to facts and experiences, I want to suggest, limits the extent of our imagination and can be a challenge to our emotional wellbeing.’
INFORMATION
Norbert Schoerner, ‘Decoy’, until 2 October 2021, Fitzrovia Chapel, fitzroviachapel.org
-
S94 Design makes the most of its uptown location to blur the lines of art and design
S94 Design brings displays from Kwangho Lee, Donald Judd, Max Lamb and more to its Rafael Viñoly-designed location
By Julie Baumgardner • Published
-
Oasi Cashmere is taking Zegna back to its roots in the Italian Alps
Oasi Cashmere – an environmentally-conscious, all-embracing cashmere collection – is inspired by the Oasi Zegna nature park in the lush Biella Alps
By Jack Moss • Published
-
Lynda Benglis’ seductive hall of mirrors and juicy neon eggs in London
American artist Lynda Benglis subverts expectations with new bronze sculptures and otherworldly coloured eggs in a new solo show at Thomas Dane Gallery, London
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Lynda Benglis’ seductive hall of mirrors and juicy neon eggs in London
American artist Lynda Benglis subverts expectations with new bronze sculptures and otherworldly coloured eggs in a new solo show at Thomas Dane Gallery, London
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
London show celebrates the male physique in photography, from muscle hunks to scruffy punks
‘A Hard Man is Good to Find!’ – newly open at London’s Photographers’ Gallery – is a delectable survey of queer photographs of the male body created in London between the 1930s and early 1990s
By Benoit Loiseau • Published
-
The best London art exhibitions: a guide for March 2023
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, and those around the UK in March 2023, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Harriet Lloyd Smith • Published
-
Eric van Hove brings Morocco to Mayfair in a sculpture exhibition at Connolly
At Connolly in London’s Mayfair, Eric van Hove’s ‘Fenduq’ sees British poise collide with the raw grace of Moroccan creativity
By Flora Vesterberg • Published
-
Inside Shoreditch Arts Club: east London’s new hub for cultural and culinary delights
Shoreditch Arts Club, opening on 7 March, is a new private members' club set within the landmark Tea Building that aims to evoke ‘the curiosity of an avid art collector’s home’
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Mike Nelson at Hayward Gallery: a dystopian thriller that’s impossible to forget
We review Mike Nelson’s epic survey show ‘Extinction Beckons’ at Hayward Gallery, London, a monumental exhibition filled with dark humour, unsettling encounters, and modernist dreams lost to capitalism
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Olgaç Bozalp’s journey through forced migration, longing and childhood nostalgia
Photographer Olgaç Bozalp’s powerful series ‘Home, Leaving One For Another’ is now on view at 10 14 Gallery, London
By Saskia Koopman • Published
-
Seven exhibitions to welcome London’s Centre for British Photography
Opening on 25 January 2023, the new Centre for British Photography in London is set to build on the Hyman Collection and will be holding seven shows, on until 30 April
By Martha Elliott • Published