Artist Charlie Engman’s unsettling AI images of the human body
CNNCNN — Too many fingers or too many teeth — as generative AI imagery exploded across the internet last year, these bodily mishaps became both a punchline and a tell-tale sign that these photographs weren’t real. And so it deconstructs physical gestures and human bodies… in just this really raw and sort of a guttural way.” Engman toys with human and animal anatomy, aiming for a “balanced dissonance.” Charlie Engman By leaning into AI's distortions, his images explore larger questions about what we consider normative bodies to be. Though “Cursed” does naturally veer into the realm of horror filmmakers, Engman steered clear of visual references and instead began reading texts related to critical disability theory. “Those are the things that body horror is also talking about, actually probably in a very similar way.” Allegorical animals, such as swans, make repeat appearances, building out a familiar visual language in Engman's world. There may be a “ceiling” to this new wave of generative AI imagery in how accurately a computer program can understand and depict the world, Engman acknowledged, and he’s curious, not anxious, about what happens next.
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