Neural style transfer has been widely used to transfer artist painting style to photographs creating new pieces of art. The opposite direction has motivated this project, and the latter investigates the ability to create photorealistic images. Can simple sketches be brought to life? Using only a minimalistic sketch, a photograph of a person and a neural style transfer algorithm, the machine can bring simple illustrations into life transferring the human characteristics, for example, the eyes, ears, mouth. The neural style transfer algorithm used in this work is trained on the pre-trained VGG-19 convolutional neural network and based on Leon A. Gatys' paper, "A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Style". "Ode to identity." is the outcome of this algorithm given a digital drawing and a person's photo.
Ode to Identity celebrates the need for unique personal identities, finding who you are and your real voice. Identifying oneself in a group is a human longing and need. Everyone belongs or wants to belong to a bigger group. In the pursuit of identity, however, people often get trapped and labelled solely by the identity of the group they want to belong to, ending in losing their personal identity and being nothing more than robotic voices.
“Ode to Identity.” Deep learning art, 2017.
Content basis for “Ode to Identity.”