Video 04 (Copyright © syntetic_id_, 2025)
04
Art in the Age of Uncertainty: An In-Depth Conversation with @syntetic_id_
@syntetic_id_ creates generative art shaped by memory, technology, and the realities of life in Ukraine. Their work blends organic forms and digital processes, reflecting both personal history and the pressures of the present moment. In this conversation, we explore the artist’s background, creative process, relationship with AI, and how conflict has changed their approach to making art.Who is @syntetic_id when the screen powers down?
I have several Instagram accounts where I occasionally post different art. @syntetic_id is an account completely focused on AI. I think if you take away these accounts, and this ability to create, there will be little left.
What patterns or memories form your identity?
I think the period of childhood and adolescence is the most important for the formation of basic personality patterns. I think that cyberpunk and y2k culture, which was developing rapidly in the 2000s, shaped my aesthetic first of all. And since I live in the post-Soviet space it also has an influence. I like to look at these abandoned obelisks scattered around the city as references to a past era, a sense of a great failed experiment. Most of my work has a human-hostile vibe. I think it's also an influence of the environment-it's somewhere deep in me, I'm wary of the world.
In what moments do you feel most anaglog, most alive?
It's simple, these are cases where the body is the main actor
Sports - Food - Sex, etc.
Describe your creative process as a sequence-what is the first input, and how does it mutate?
It all starts with a rather vague idea-usually just a few images, or often a sudden flash in my mind. Inspiration can come from watching something-a movie, for example-or finding an amazing photo. That’s the beginning, the push. Then I build a mood board, collecting everything that fits the vibe or somehow relates to the original idea. This part can take a long time.
After that, the most interesting phase begins: alchemy, creativity, improvisation. Mostly, I mix pictures and rarely use prompts for static images. This approach gives a more unique and unpredictable result. Often, it becomes a whole cascade of mixing-I add new photos, blend them with the results, play with the parameters, and so on. Sometimes you get something interesting pretty quickly; sometimes it takes a long time.
How do you balance intention and chance in your generative practice?
I really like working with randomness; it's what makes working with AI different from working with 3D programs. I don't have a clear flow. I try to balance and trust my intuition. I always have an image in my head of what I want to get at the finish line-it's like a compass that helps me not to get lost in the endless sea of new generations
What role does silence or absence play in your work’s construction?
I like silence. The most productive time for me to work is at night.
Your visuals oscillate between organic and synthetic-where do you locate yourself on this spectrum?
Definitely closer to organic. I like nature, its forms-love insects and animals, how they are honed to fulfill their function, it's very inspiring.
Are there any hidden signals or insignias in your work? If so what are you encoding for the viewer to decode?
No, I don't think so. The art conveys mostly mood, emotion, vibe.
How does your work invite the audience to participate, consciously or subconsciously, in its evolution?
I think all of my work is an invitation to dialogue. I believe that art is a mirror of our reality, so my work simply reflects our world-sometimes condensing or exaggerating it, but always offering an opportunity to see something familiar from a new perspective, even through the distorted optics of art. It’s not an escape from reality in any way.
Is AI your collaborator, your tool, or your mirror?
Very good question. At this stage of AI development, I see it as a tool and partly as a mirror, because what you choose from the generated variants reflects you very well. Perhaps in the near future, AI will act as a co-author, but then the following question arises: what prevents AI from becoming a full-fledged author and generating art without human participation? And this is already dangerously similar to the Dead Internet theory.
How do you define authorship in a system where code and intuition co-create?
As long as the authorship of my understanding is unambiguously for the human, it is the human who decides which option to choose, he is a full-fledged actor. The human starts and finishes the work. The AI is in the position of a mute servant, the AI is currently deprived of subjectivity.
What inspires you more: the logic of the machine or the unpredictability of emergence?
More like unpredictability, randomness of the result, fusion of styles. AI is a real toy of postmodernism. You have to accumulate millions and millions of digital images, feed them to the AI to end up with this alchemical tool.
What do you hope remains when technology is obsolete and the servers are silent?
If our entire techno-sphere collapses I think it will be a shock. The more we merge with technology the more tragic it will be for us to break with it. I think there will always be nature, indifferent and generous.
How has living through war changed the way you make art? What feels most important or most futile now?
Globally, the approach has remained the same, but I have changed my style quite a lot; if you take my 3D works, they became more gloomy. And in general, I try to do everything faster. To plan something for a long period of time is a luxury-I do not live a long period of time; planning a week or a month is all I can afford.
The idea to do AI art appeared just during the war, as AI gives the opportunity to create faster. I think also war raised a lot of global philosophical questions: the question of justice, the question of human nature, the question of resources and technology in war, etc. Well, while I’m in the conditional epicenter of the war, it is difficult to answer them. I need to take some time and distance, and after some time I hope I will find answers for myself.
I think basic things are important: food, electricity, conditional security. The most useless are probably our illusions-the reality of war destroys them, and you are surprised how fragile your world turns out to be.
If your work could rewrite one line of collective code-what would it say, and why?
Oh, that's a tough question. If I could change people even a little bit, I'd give them more empathy, and we'd avoid a lot of conflicts if we were more empathetic and sensitive to other actors in the world, not just ourselves.
For more on @syntetic_id and to view his work, visit his Instagram.
This article features computer generated content. AI technology, specifically a large language model, has been utilized to generate both imagery and text. We chose this approach deliberately, not to undermine our message, but to strengthen it by demonstrating the complex relationship between humans and technology. Our use of AI serves as a practical example of leveraging its strengths while maintaining human oversight and critical thought.