Fluid Subjects: Exploring Fluidity in Identity and Corporeality Through Art, AI, and Augmented Reality
In Fluid Subjects, I aim to capture the essence of evolving, non-binary identities. By transforming my sculptures into AI-generated hybrids, I reclaim and redefine feminine forms as fluid and undefinable. Each piece is an invitation to reimagine identity beyond the constraints of gender, technology, and the body. – Ida Aniz
Project Overview of Fluid Subjects
Fluid Subjects explores the intersections between technology, corporeality, and feminist theory. The series navigates the shifting boundaries of identity and physical form in the digital age, presenting a blend of organic and AI-generated aesthetics that question the stability of identity, body, and gender. Through sculpture, AI-generated imagery, and 3D-augmented reality (AR) elements, Fluid Subjects offers a layered, interactive experience where physical and digital forms coexist and evolve.
The Artistic Process: From Physical Sculpture to Digital and Augmented Reality Art
The process begins with physical sculptures that evoke organic and vulvar forms, which are then photographed and input into a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). This AI-based process generates surreal reinterpretations of the original sculptures through multiple iterations, revealing alien-like, fluid subjects. Ida Aniz refines these images using advanced photo-editing software, creating striking, seamless integrations of organic and digital textures.​​ These digitally generated images are then brought into the physical world as fine art prints behind acrylic glass, which preserves their vivid colors and gives them a sleek, almost futuristic finish.
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The unique digital twist in Fluid Subjects is the addition of augmented reality elements in collaboration with AI: each fine art print in the series is paired with an AR counterpart accessible via a smartphone camera. These AR experiences bring up digital 3D objects that echo and evolve from the printed image, inviting viewers to engage with each work dynamically via their smartphones and WebAR technology. Just like the 2D motifs, they were also created in a dialogue between the artist and AI. By using InstantMesh by TencentARC on Hugging Face, Aniz creates a raw 3D object for each piece of her series, before she refines and optimizes the shapes and textures manually in Blender.
Conceptual Inspirations: Feminist Theory and the Monstrous in Art
Aniz draws inspiration from feminist theorists like Donna Haraway and Yvonne Volkart, particularly their discussions on the concept of monstrosity. In feminist theory, the monstrous often represents the Other—the deviant and unfamiliar that lies beyond normative categories. Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto conceptualizes the cyborg as a hybrid of human, animal, and machine, destabilizing traditional identity frameworks. This hybridity is key to Aniz's work, where organic, human-like forms are fused with alien, AI-generated shapes, resulting in an ambivalence that is both unsettling and captivating.
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Yvonne Volkart’s concept of fluid subjectivity, which embraces the instability of identity, also plays a significant role in Fluid Subjects. Aniz's works visually manifest this fluidity, as the continuously transforming shapes symbolize the ever-changing, non-fixed nature of identity. The use of vulvar forms, transformed into something unknown, can be interpreted as a feminist act of reclaiming and redefining female corporeality.
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Fluid Subjects ultimately questions the boundaries between the human and the technological, the organic and the artificial, inviting viewers to reflect on the fluid, hybrid possibilities of identity in a digitized world.
The Works
The use of vibrant colors and organic, vulva-resembling forms serves to further emphasize the tension between the familiar and the alien. The pink, rainbow, purple, and silver tones evoke a sense of corporeality and sensuality traditionally associated with the body, particularly the feminine body, while simultaneously pushing these associations into the realm of the surreal or "otherworldly."
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The choice of pink, a color often tied to femininity, draws immediate attention to gendered perceptions, but Aniz destabilizes this association by integrating silver and rainbow hues, which suggest something futuristic, digital, or even cosmic. This creates a hybrid of the organic and the technological, underscoring the series' theme of fluid, evolving identities that exist beyond traditional gender norms.
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The contrast between these alien-like forms and the bold, popping uni-color backgrounds in pink, blue, green, and turquoise creates a visually striking effect, forcing the viewer to confront the object directly. The use of bright, flat backgrounds heightens the surreal quality of the images, as the organic forms are suspended in a space that feels detached from natural contexts. This placement isolates the forms, making them appear both familiar and estranged, inviting the viewer to question their relationship with the body and the environment.
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Through this visual language, Aniz highlights the tension between the body as a site of identity, gender, and sensuality, and the ever-evolving influence of technology on how we perceive corporeality. The colors and alien-like distortions of familiar forms challenge the viewer to embrace fluidity, transformation, and the potential for new, non-binary forms of existence.
Silver Subject is both elegant and alien, featuring a metallic, reflective surface that transforms with the light. Set against a bright pink backdrop, its folds and glossy finish blur the lines between organic and digital, embodying fluidity and transformation.