From left: Daniel Ambrosi and professors Don Greenberg and Alex Kwan view one of the artist’s works in Rhodes Hall. Alumni Digital Artist Dreams His Creations in Pixels and Neurons Stories You May Like Artist Alum Has an Unusual Medium: Earth Itself After 50+ Years, Computer Graphics Pioneer Remains a Powerhouse Prof Cornell Biennial Turns Artistic Eyes on Planet’s Uncertain Future An architecture and computer graphics alum returned to the Hill this summer to draw images from landscapes—and memories By Joe Wilensky When Daniel Ambrosi ’80, BArch ’82, MS ’85, walks along a trail in an Ithaca-area state park with camera in hand, he is seeing these woods on multiple levels. He is recalling his previous visits to the same place, comparing new reference photos to those he took years ago—and imagining what artificial intelligence will do with his meticulously crafted works once he uploads them. Photographing the landscape in Robert Treman State Park. Ambrosi is a digital artist who constructs large-scale, panoramic prints that are enhanced by AI, which adds surprising and seemingly endless details to his creations. The resulting works are pictorial feasts that envelop the viewer—comprising anything from complex geometric patterns to the vast array of imagery dreamed up by Ambrosi and his AI partner. And “dream” is accurate in more ways than one. Not only is the dizzyingly complex computer vision program Ambrosi uses a customized version of an open-source technology called “DeepDream,” but he also draws on his experiences with psychedelic substances to inform his memories of the natural vistas he photographs and re-creates in pixels. Ambrosi returned to the Hill this summer for a six-week artist residency in computer graphics, with the aim of creating a new batch of large-scale artworks. The residency has been a full-circle experience for Ambrosi, who earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s in computer graphics at Cornell. Detail of “Cayuga Inlet,” one of Ambrosi's works in progress. As a student, he was inspired by the region’s natural beauty and worked with professor Don Greenberg ’55, PhD ’68, a legendary computer graphics pioneer who became Ambrosi’s mentor (and who is still actively teaching). This summer’s residency reunited Ambrosi with Greenberg, who is providing facilities and computing resources. “Not many faculty have the opportunity to work with their best technical and innovative students 40 years after they graduate,” Greenberg said at the beginning of the summer, “and I am greatly looking forward to how Daniel is able to merge two separate but related disciplines.” Not many faculty have the opportunity to work with their best technical and innovative students 40 years after they graduate. Professor Don Greenberg ’55, PhD ’68 Stories You May Like Artist Alum Has an Unusual Medium: Earth Itself After 50+ Years, Computer Graphics Pioneer Remains a Powerhouse Prof Throughout the residency, Ambrosi has also been collaborating with Alex Kwan, PhD ’09, a professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, whose research in psychedelic neuroscience has informed Ambrosi’s approach. As Kwan notes, psychedelics are now being studied for their therapeutic potential in treating mental illnesses such as depression. Among his lab’s major discoveries in recent years: that a single dose of psilocybin can lead to long-lasting rewiring of neural connections. Emil GhingerAmbrosi (far left) works with Greenberg (far right) and fellow graphics researchers in 1981. “I was particularly thrilled to see how our work has inspired Daniel’s art,” Kwan says. “For example, one of his new pieces was inspired by our psilocybin study; its dream-like imagery includes elements that reach out and make connections, just like neurons.” As Ambrosi explains, the customized AI engine he uses is not an image generator—though he has nothing against them. A closer look at “Dreamscape Memories,” the new collection Ambrosi is developing. “DeepDream was not created to make art, and it was not trained on other people’s art,” he says. “It was part of a computer vision system tasked with image classification. It’s trying to make sense of what it sees. In my case, it’s seeing my photography.” Ambrosi adds that one of the remarkable things about his AI partner is that, like humans, it seems to exhibit “pareidolia”—the ability to perceive order in random imagery. “When we see a rabbit in the clouds, that’s pareidolia at work,” he says. “When we dream, we hallucinate, we imagine; we see things that aren’t really there. The AI also seems to be exhibiting that behavior.” For Ambrosi, this creative process is a collaboration: a 50-50, human-AI workflow. “It’s not sentient, obviously,” he says, “but it feels like a partner.” Ambrosi’s creations are typically large-scale, backlit fabric artworks, measuring up to 16 feet wide by eight feet high. Detail of “Treman No. 1.” His first exhibit, “Dreamscapes,” fittingly debuted at a major conference for AI developers and researchers in San Jose, CA, in 2016. Despite all the technology involved, Ambrosi says he is most strongly influenced by the grand-format landscape artists spanning the past 400 years, such as Claude Lorrain, Frederic Church, and David Hockney—and by 18th-century English landscape architect and gardener Lancelot “Capability” Brown. “They’re incredibly detailed, scientifically accurate, luminous landscapes where light reigns supreme,” he explains. “My paints and brushes happen to be cameras, computers, and AI.” Top, from left: Ambrosi, Greenberg, and Kwan view one of the artist's works in Rhodes Hall. Photos and video by Jason Koski / Cornell University; art detail images provided by Ambrosi. Published August 8, 2024 Comments Steven Ludsin, Class of 1970 18 Aug, 2024 I took art history courses and became interested in abstract expressionism. I particularly liked Jackson Pollock’s works. I connected his art work to Jungian psychology and got an A for that paper. My home in East Hampton, NY is 2 miles from Pollock’s studio and home. I started to create digital abstract expressionism with my iPad, Apple Pencil and a software program Procreate. I sold one of my masterpieces in the Member Exhibition at Guild Hall, the cultural center in East Hampton. There were 400 works exhibit and 19 sold. My creation was one of the 19! Now I can call myself an artist. Reply Jack Glassman, Class of 1980 18 Aug, 2024 An inspiring portrait of Mr. Ambrosi’s fascinating and beautiful work! The ravine- and gorge views call to mind the iconic, long-lost Cornell Hydraulics Laboratory — in particular, the historic, recent and sad post-demolition views from the Thurston Ave. bridge. As an architecture and historic preservation student, I had the opportunity to research, visit and document the Lab. Erected to evoke a medieval fortress clinging to the cliff walls, with dressed stone openings from which spouts of water would gush, the building could have hatched from a dream… Reply Daniel Ambrosi, Class of 1980 19 Aug, 2024 I’m with you on that, Jack! That view would certainly have been a target of mine for this project if the structure was still there. It’s a heartbreaking loss. Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Alumni Holy Cows! Brothers (and their Farm) Star on New TV Show Quizzes & Puzzles Which Cornell Dairy Ice Cream Flavor Are You? Alumni MD Keeps Adventure Travelers Healthy on the High Seas