Carly Sheil – Author’s Response

A bicycle built for two Vitruvian men

Ah, a symphony of images to decry those who would say that AI is incapable of ‘drawing’ bicycles (myself the one who tried to trick it so)! Constructions of flesh and machinery abound here – castrated but not prostrated, they stand tall but often withered. Attempts at human writing have been made, the forms familiar but mysterious.

They stand tall but often withered.

Circles are a running theme, certainly a strong part of bicycles but now also clear that they are a part of humanity, of divinity, and of science. How fortunate we are so complex that as of yet we cannot manufacture ourselves as readily as bicycles, nor our creations replicate bicycles so readily as we can ourselves.

CS 01-06-2023

Prometheus made from lemons, giving lemonade to humanity

Life has certainly given this Titan lemons, and he appears as stoic about both situations. In neither image is the lemonade visible, so perhaps it is metaphorical – and now Zeus might torment him eternally for whatever he has passed on to humans. Is it perhaps commentary on how we suffer for our art, our skills, our gifts to humanity?

Can he now move at all or must he forever be digested by the world?

In one image Prometheus is suffering the mental torture, a mind cracked and eyes sunken, and a grim expression that betrays what horrors he has seen either internal or external. In the other image he suffers a botched back, an overbearing weight upon him, and more lemons than he has been able to juice. His body has merged entirely with stone, can he now move at all or must he forever be digested by the world?

CS 01-06-2023

Robot meat grinder carrying stacks of paper to the steampunk computer

I expected to see the robot struggling with the paper, carrying it upon their shoulders but here the robots have both chosen to carry their paper inside, not seeming to suffer at all for the effort. The meat they are grinding is subtle also, perhaps it is the human at their core, deep inside that is moving their parts like a puppeteer inside a Dalek costume – the human element to all of this, and the key to the robots being able to carry at all.

An amalgamation of folktale and future

Somewhat Ghibli-inspired perhaps, almost like an amalgamation of folktale and future, these cuboid creatures stare sightlessly forward and back – the former that is looking forward has an almost wistful hopeful expression, and the one gazing backwards appears neutral as it simultaneously spews fumes into the future. Is it commentary on the two paths we might go down with our great technologies?

CS 01-06-2023