“Hive Mind” is a collection of 26 portraits that pay tribute to the global studio of digital artists collaborating with AI presently, who are all pushing the boundaries of what is possible with these tools. Those working with AI have witnessed the fast evolution of the tools and their respective aesthetic ‘improvements’ toward a near perfect photo-realism.

Instead of chasing this ‘perfection of form’ however, Lily reveres the imperfect formal anomalies cast through the diffusion process, when AI models are pushed past their various training parameters, and begin to fill noise with uncanny and surprising beauty. For Lily, these artifacts are born from the computational ‘mind’ of artificial intelligence, and are indicative of the tool as much as paint drips and or chisel marks.

These portraits continue the artist’s interest in exploring pattern and texture through AI tools, while also directly referencing her day to day life, in this case her child’s recent dance with a skin condition, and all the ways self-image can be altered by such ailments. Life weaves into the written prompt as a conceptual form of journaling that dissipates challenges into a shared conversation held by the art itself.

Hive Mind is both a celebration of the anomalies of the skin and the anomalies of AI, a celebration of the beauty of imperfections found in life and latent space.