Hyperrhiz 29
Ganbrood’s Post-Digital Art: Generative Adversarial Networks and Blockchain in Creative Practice
Merve Güven Özkerim
Giresun University
Citation: Güven Özkerim, Merve. “Ganbrood’s Post-Digital Art: Generative Adversarial Networks and Blockchain in Creative Practice.” Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, no. 29, 2025. doi:10.20415/hyp/029.e02
Abstract: This essay explores the creative practice of Bas Uterwijk, also known as Ganbrood, who integrates generative adversarial networks (GANs) and blockchain technology into his art. Drawing on his background in photography, special effects, and 3D animation, Ganbrood reinterprets classical mythology and art history through AI-based tools, producing symbolic and allegorical works that delve into human curiosity and fear. Based on our interview with the artist, we examine his artistic journey, the ways he incorporates emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain, and the broader socio-cultural implications of his practice. We also discuss power relations in the art world and the shifting meanings of concepts such as originality, creativity, uniqueness, and aura within post-digital creative contexts.
Keywords: AI, power relations, blockchain, chimeric, generative adversarial networks.
As can be seen in many examples throughout the history of art, artists contribute to the production of technology with their innovative and creative ideas or inventions, or they experiment as early adopters of these technologies. In theoretical debates about aesthetic and creative practices, artists can reshape their perceptions of themselves and the world through important technological inventions such as literacy, linear perspective, the printing press, the camera, the computer, the internet, software (Drubay et al., 2024). Focusing on the post-anthropocentric dynamics of creativity, this paper explores how these technologies are reshaping artistic approach through the lens of Bas Uterwijk's work as Ganbrood.
Recently, many artists have been using blockchain technology to exhibit, archive, produce, and sell their works, while incorporating artificial intelligence into their creative practices—ranging from visual explorations and sound experiments to literary endeavours, generative text, and code-based creation.
In this essay, we aim to talk about the creative practices of Bas Uterwijk, one of the artists who uses artificial intelligence and blockchain technology in his artworks, whether exhibiting or producing, and to determine the focal points of the interview we conducted with the artist. To this end, we will talk about the works of the artist and the technologies used to produce them. For this we will take into account some post-anthropocentric views (Waelder, 2022), which suggest that creativity should be seen as a collaborative endeavour involving various actors, both human and non-human. We will also include the generative power of algorithmic expression and human-machine co-operation and its interaction with cultural forms.
Bas Uterwijk uses the pseudonym Ganbrood, inspired by the idea that his art is ‘shaped’ or ‘created’ by GAN (Generative Adversarial Networks) technology (Knaack, 2023). Throughout his professional history, the artist has worked in fields such as photography, special effects, 3D animation and video games, and in recent years, he has been continuing his artistic production by creating synthetic images with the help of GAN technology and diffusion algorithms. He reinterprets western art history and classical mythology through allegorical and symbolic narratives with artificial intelligence technology. In some of his works, he skilfully combines elements of Art Nouveau, classical Japanese art and 20th century comic book art. In this process, the artist reveals the timeless dimensions of unknown realms and a unique aesthetic that oscillates between the recognisable and the mysterious (Vass, 2023). With transitions between times, post-apocalyptic and dystopian connotations, Ganbrood holds a mirror to the subjects of humanity's curiosity and fear. Ganbrood utilises a randomness similar to ‘process art’ while bringing together many different actors in the universe he creates. Artificial intelligence software and algorithms provide broad parameters for the artist to work within, embracing and shaping randomness.
In the process of creating data sets, the artist can be likened to a painter preparing a palette of colours. The harmony of the colours added to this palette can be predicted, but the final result is determined by a series of decisions by the artist as well as randomness. In this process, Ganbrood's many years of professional background, technical skills and deep artistic intuition contribute to the creation of a unique language and different layers of meaning. The artist positions artificial intelligence (AI) as a metaphorical mirror, tracing the inner nature of human beings and their collective past. In doing so, he creates chimeric/hybrid transitions between different life forms such as humans, animals, plants and planets, initiating a new kind of visual and conceptual discussion.
This aesthetic discussion technically starts the ball rolling through GANs. GANs can generate new and unique images using the data distribution they learnt during the training process. These networks usually consist of a generator and a discriminator. The generator tries to generate a sample that fits a random noise distribution to the data distribution, while the discriminator tries to determine whether the generated sample belongs to the actual data distribution. During the training process, the generator and discriminator are trained alternately and this process is based on game theory principles. Once the training is complete, the generator can generate new examples by learning the distribution in the dataset instead of memorising it. Therefore, the images produced by the generator will not be exactly the same as those in the training dataset, but will be new content reflecting the general characteristics of the dataset (Chen,et al. 2020). Through this conflict, created through rival GANs, a dynamic balance is created in Ganbrood's creative practices. This dynamic balance transforms the resulting images into a version that the artist can work on. The result, in contrast to long-form generative artworks (see: Hobbs, 2021), usually ends with the artist's intervention and retouching. In an interview with Kate Vass (2023), the artist summarises this process as follows:
I usually work with various notebooks with which I use a combination of init images and prompting to get a result that I sometimes feed to a second algorithm. Finally, I almost never use the raw outputs, but try to use what I have learned as a photographer by post-producing the images in color, contrast etc. (Vass, 2023).
Here, a different process works than the image illusion created by blended artistic styles that we can see in artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT and DALL-E. In the process that develops to include the artist's own cosmos of emotions and thoughts, the critical points are determined by the artist due to the use of artificial intelligence technologies as a tool of artistic creativity. In this context, the conscious, subconscious or unconscious choices made by the artist to the algorithm, data sets and the result are effective in the stylisation process. On the other hand, as we mentioned at the beginning, including the impact of non-human actors and algorithms in the criticism and interpretation of creative practices in works produced through human-machine interaction will help us to make sense of these works. In this respect, we need to include these new actors, ‘machine behaviour’, in our evaluation.
...Under post-consciousness, the subject doesn't merely misrecognise reality (false consciousness) or have their perception mediated by algorithms (algorithmic consciousness), but experiences a form of consciousness that is itself partly synthetic, shaped by continuous interaction with and exposure to algorithmically-generated cultural forms. This represents what is, perhaps, a third-order simulation, over and beyond Baudrillard's (1994) simulacra, where not just reality but consciousness itself becomes subject to algorithmic generation and manipulation. This form of consciousness doesn't just obscure social relations but fundamentally reconstitutes our forms of life through algorithmic processes that blur the boundaries between human and machine experience (Berry, 2024).
To further contextualize this shift in creative agency, Berry (2024) introduces the notion of 'post-consciousness; artificial intelligence is automating cultural production, restructuring human experience and social consciousness, and that this transformation will have profound implications for the future of human creativity and experience.
Therefore, since the artist cannot be completely isolated from the effects of artificial intelligence in the cultural ecosystem, whether he/she uses artificial intelligence or continues to produce with traditional methods, it becomes necessary to include all these theoretical frameworks of post-consciousness in the process of interpretation and criticism of the work. With this approach, in our interview with the artist, we tried to deepen Ganbrood's creative journey, how he integrated technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain into his art, and the broader socio-cultural effects of all these with the answers we received from the artist. We also touched upon power relations in art and the reinterpretations of concepts such as originality, creativity, scarcity, uniqueness and aura in post-digital creative practices.
Accordingly, the artist uses Web3 platforms as a complementary and supportive technology to exhibit and sell his works produced through artificial intelligence and to bring his works to collectors in a more independent way, bypassing the gatekeeping mechanisms of third parties. In the interview, the artist cites two main reasons for the adoption of blockchain technology. First, unlike traditional mediums such as painting or sculpture, digital art is not inherently scarce, necessitating the use of cryptographic technology to offer a synthetic form of scarcity. This reflects historical practices such as the limited production of photographic prints or engravings. The second, like many artists, is to generate income and search for alternative sources of income due to the decline in photography work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, exploring different aspects of this technology, in 2021 he started to mint his work as NFT through Hic et Nunc (Tezos). The artist continues to produce interesting creative projects based on artificial intelligence using various Web3 platforms. Through these platforms, the artist can work in harmony with digitally born artistic practices and find solutions to some extent to the copyright and certification problems of digital art.
References
Berry, D. M. (2024). The inversion and algorithmic condition. StunLaw.stunlaw.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-inversion-and-algorithmic-condition.html
Chen, H., Zhao, L., Qiu, L., Wang, Z., Zhang, H., Xing, W., & Lu, D. (2020). Creative and diverse artwork generation using adversarial networks. IET Computer Vision, 14, 650-657. doi-org.sussex.idm.oclc.org/10.1049/iet-cvi.2020.0014
Drubay,D., Alexander,A., Gravil,E., & Stiles, S. (2024). Is AI art sustainable? Right Click Save. rightclicksave.com/article/is-ai-art-sustainable
Vass, K., (2023). Interview with Ganbrood. Kate Vass Galerie. katevassgalerie.com/news/ganbrood-interview
Knaack, N. (2023). “AI is how I could truly express myself” – how artificial intelligence gave Ganbrood artistic freedom. Culture3. culture3.com/posts/ganbrood-on-finding-ultimate-creative-freedom-with-ai
Waelder, P. (2022). In R. Kelomees, V. Guljajeva, & O. Laas (Eds.), The meaning of creativity in the age of ai. Estonian Academy of Arts.
Hobbs, T. (2021). The Rise of Long Form Generative Art. Tyler Hobbs. tylerxhobbs.com/essays/2021/the-rise-of-long-form-generative-art