SBMA exhibit features intersection of pop culture, deepfake technology and digital art
As far as Detroit-based artist Tyanna Buie knows, she's just about the only artist to use deepfake technology to create digital and print art.
Buie’s “Re/Faced” exhibit, on display through Sept. 26 at the South Bend Museum of Art, uses the app Reface to superimpose her face onto videos, pictures and gifs of figures recognizable from pop culture. The collection was created to be a humorous commentary on current events in addition to re-imagining pop culture with Black women in spaces where they have not been equally represented.
For example, in her most well-known piece from the collection, “I’m Speaking,” Buie’s face is the face of Kamala Harris and Mike Pence during a famous moment during the 2020 vice presidential debate.
Things to see:Three exhibits open at South Bend Museum of Art
“Deepfakes” are pieces of synthesized media (video, audio, picture etc.) made with artificial intelligence used for a variety of purposes. They have been used to make jokes, spread disinformation and, in Buie’s case, to make art.
Famous examples include deepfakes of Barrack Obama and a separate one of Mark Zuckerberg. Although technology exists to regulate and recognize deepfakes, some experts are concerned about the amount of misinformation they can spread.
The Guardian reported in 2020 that 96% of 15,000 deepfake videos were pornographic, with 99% of those mapped faces from female celebrities grafted onto porn stars' bodies.
It’s also not just videos. It was revealed earlier in July that the upcoming documentary about Anthony Bourdain, “Roadrunner,” uses AI and 10 hours of recordings to create about 45 seconds of audio that had not previously existed, causing an outcry on social media.
In response to using deepfake technology as art, Buie notes she is aware of the issues the technology has been used for in the past, especially in spreading misinformation and being used in revenge pornography.
“That’s the tricky part,” she says. “How do you add to this culture instead of perpetuating (its issues)?”
The exhibit
For Buie, she uses the technology with the help of the free app Reface to create self portraits mapped onto the faces of references to pop culture.
“I want the audience to have fun interacting with these moments in pop culture history,” she says.
The exhibit consists of four prominent sections. The first is titled “Afro Surreal Self-Portrait Series #1,” in which Buie is superimposed onto images found in popular culture and history. For example, she is Daenerys Targaryen from "Game of Thrones," the rapper 6ix9ine and 2019 "Bachelorette" personality Hannah Brown saying, “You don’t get to decide what I can and can’t do.”
A second wall features “Afro Surreal Self-Portrait Series #2,” made up of similar images on print paper, the same medium she uses in her traditional print work.
A projected video, the third installment in the gallery, features clips of footage from the events of 2020, including the Black Lives Matter protests, news coverage of the pandemic, debate reels preceding the November election and footage from the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
In between and during these clips, Buie appears in the form of reaction gifs and videos, such as a clip of Michael Scott from “The Office” and a gif of Barrack Obama making a confused face.
She notes in her video that she does not alter any of the news reels or footage. Rather, she places her face on the reaction images. She also notes by picking these well known images from pop culture and placing her face on them, it is obvious that she is not trying to deceive anyone.
Buie says she initially made the video to be purely reactionary, because she feels so much of what is posted online has to have some sort of call to action or mission.
The final part of the exhibit is three larger self-portraits that hang along the back wall. Made with the same technique, Buie appears as famous people.
In “Dismissed,” Buie is Queen Charlotte from the Netflix drama “Bridgerton.” In “This is America,” Buie is Childish Gambino in his iconic music video. In “Cleopatra Jones,” Buie is Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, in a piece named after the 1973 movie starring Tamara Dobson.
Buie notes "Cleopatra Jones," in particular, seeks to reclaim the whitewashed version of Cleopatra from the 1963 film.
“I also think this is a vanity project,” she says. “I have fun seeing myself on someone else’s body.”
She says she has noticed many people became concerned with their image on videocalls this past year, in addition to what they look like on social media. Her project is also a response to the desire to look like celebrities.
“Let’s just get over the fact that's not my body and move on,” she says.
In addition to creating the gallery’s work as a way of creating something ironic and fun for herself, Buie notes the project has serious overtones as well.
By placing her face onto videos and images from well known pop culture moments, Buie says, she is showcasing Black women in spaces where they have been excluded and under represented, such as in politics and movies.
“You don’t see me, but I see me,” Buie says.
How to create deepfake media art
Museum curator Mark Rospenda says the museum originally invited Buie to exhibit before the pandemic. However, during the initial periods of lockdown last spring, Buie didn't have access to the equipment she uses for her printwork.
“This is a pretty drastic departure from what she does,” Rospenda says. “I think she made this change because of what happened in 2020.”
She first created the video that plays in the gallery entitled “Call and Response” on her phone with the help of Detroit-based artist Chelsea A. Flowers.
She gathered newsreels and footage of events from 2020 through early 2021 and then typed various reactions such as “throwing shade” into the Reface search bar to create the corresponding reacting images.
“I would definitely call this work pandemic work,” Buie says.
Initially, she wanted to focus on images of Black women like herself, but then she realized she could be anybody she wanted.
“It’s really pushed me out of (my) comfort zone,” she says.
Buie says she largely made the show for her own benefit as a fun and humorous conglomeration of technology, art and pop culture.
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“Pop culture is this beautiful equalizer,” she says. “It brings people together.”
What Buie especially likes about the show is that the artwork is an accessible medium anyone can undertake themselves because the Reface app is free.
Rospenda says the deepfake technology was new to him until he saw the exhibit and downloaded Reface himself just to see what it was about.
“It’s really kind of fun and disturbing that the technology exists,” he says.
Rospenda noted the importance of how the technology is being used by Buie as a way to create art, not sow political misinformation, for example, and she is not trying to trick anyone.
“It’s taking back the use of the technology from misinformation to how the artist sees fit," he says. “I feel like we are privileged to have this work here."
On exhibit
- What: “Re/Faced” by Tyanna Buie
- Where: South Bend Museum of Art, 120 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., South Bend
- When: through Sept. 26; reception to be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Sept. 3
- Hours: noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays
- Cost: Free