Anicka Yi ÚK¥, 2025

ÚK¥ bespeaks the artist’s generative exploration of algorithmic variety. Based on a pattern that is abstracted from all the combined photographic imagery that is fed into the algorithm that spat out its composition, the work is both figurative and abstract.

Borne by a process the artist calls “self-cannibalization,” the work is a product of Yi’s experimentation with machine learning. During this process, she employed several machine learning models at once. Each of these models started from the original “Anicka Yi” model, but then evolved in new directions by mixing in a profusion of novel imagery from algae, bacteria, and fungi, tissues and cells, flora and fauna, machines and electronics, paint strokes and fluid media, geological formations, and landscapes (aquatic, terrestrial, and cosmic).

Each new machine learning algorithm created by Yi functions as a layer of “paint” and generates unique imagery, from brush strokes and washes of color, to blood cells and fish eggs, scratched and ruptured skin, clumps of algae, polyps and crustaceans, and the undulations of a deep ocean floor. Drawing from this abundant pool of unique imagery, Yi digitally collages the visuals to create an illusion of depth, layering foreground, middle ground, and background to synthesize the final digital painting.