Olmo Amato

DEEP BLUE – Cyanotypes of Artificial Intelligence

In 1997, Deep Bluebecame the first computer to defeat the reigning world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. Today, new intelligent technologies learn while processing vast amounts of data, mastering writing, and creating images. In the future, could they ascend to genuine life forms, forging new relationships with the ecosystem and breaking free from human principles of profit and resource exploitation?In this game, every intelligent living being must adapt, develop alternative survival strategies, and collaborate to preserve everything vital for existence tomorrow.

At the heart of the project lies an evolutionary path where machines learn to interact and coexist with nature. These hybrid life forms, born from a perfect symbiosis of biology and technology, mark the dawn of anew era for our planet.Deep Blueembodies the synthesis of my path, intertwining biological studies with artistic experimentation. It’s a project of a post-photographic nature where analog and digital, much like the organic and artificial, intimately connect: a fantastical herbarium inspired by scientific micrographs and the renowned work of botanist and photographer Anna Atkins.

The project comprises a collection of 256 cyanotypes generated using artificial intelligence tools and printed using a nineteenth-century photographic technique. Synthetic images, offspring of abstract computational mechanisms, rediscover their photographic roots through interaction with light and matter. Photographic illustrations bridging science and fantasy narrate silicon’s evolution, exploring new biological functions and connections with the physical world. The image thus emerges from the depths of the digital realm, gaining new life.

Bio

OlmoAmato earned a M.Sc. in Neurobiology from Sapienza University of Rome. In addition to his studies, he dedicated himself to photography and experimentation with digital manipulation techniques. As a photographer and filmmaker, he has worked with fine art printing and post-production. He teaches photography at ISU Rome, the Pantheon Institute and the Adams Center for Experimental Photography. Since 2019, he has held seminars and workshops on the relationship between photography, visual perception, neuroscience and new technologies.He utilizes analog and digital photography techniques in his works, combining through photomontage archival photos, original shots and artificially generated images. His works were presented at international and Italian festivals,galleries and contemporary art fairs.Together with Samuele Sestieri, he wrote and directed the film “I Racconti dell’Orso” which was selected for the 33rd Turin Film Festival at the 2016 Rotterdam International Film Festival and numerous other international film festivals.