The Shell Record by Anna Ridler

Centered on the history of shells as a medium of exchange, this standout AI project was created using a dataset of shells collected from the Thames in early 2021.

The project, comprising moving images generated by a GAN trained on these shells, reflects on themes of value, trade and the history of shells as one of humanity’s earliest forms of currency. The piece is not static, as the work is bought and sold, it evolves, expanding its dataset and altering its visual presentation. By training her own dataset, this work embeds the natural history of the Thames into the digital realm and the blockchain as only AI could. The difficulty, time and effort of projects like this also involve countless artist choices—yes, even for an AI work, Mr Chiang.