AI on Acid by Glen Wexler

AI on Acid: vol. 1

Glen Wexler returns to Nifty Gateway with “AI on Acid” dropping 4/19 at 4:19pm ET on the 80th anniversary of the first acid trip. The collection is an adaptation of the research project “LSD & Creativity” (1958-1962) by pioneering psychedelic researcher Dr. Oscar Janiger.

The visual prompts for the AI are Wexler’s photograph of the same handcrafted figurine provided to the artists to interpret during the original study along with representational samples of paintings created during the research to inform the AI of the materials available to the artists. Each generative image is then individually edited and enhanced by Wexler.

Wexler observes, “Following my recent documentation of nearly 300 works from the original study in preparation for a coffee table book about the artwork from Dr. Janiger’s study, it’s remarkable to see machine intelligence produce results that are randomly unexpected, yet similar to the abstract interpretations by the artists in Janiger’s study, ranging from colorful representations to full-blown hallucinogenic deconstructions. It occurred to me that the psychedelic experience bypasses the ego and frees the mind to make unexpected neural connections resulting in an altered perception of reality. In a similar manner, artificial intelligence, which presumably is void of ego, is making random associations based on millions of data points. Now more than 60 years following the research project, it’s curious to see cross-cultural influences that include the original figurine reinterpreted as a Yoda-like character. Not unlike the human experience with psychedelics, there appears to be references to universal interconnectivity.”

This drop features one ranked auction and three open editions.

Collectors of the ranked auction will be contacted directly by the Nifty Gateway team to select their accompanying 1/1 in the order of final bid amounts. Once their selection of a 1/1 is submitted, the following collector will be eligible to choose from the remaining options (selection must be made within 24 hours or a random NFT will be awarded from the remaining options).