Ludwig

~ Created in 2021 for Vanity Fair~ Composed through the layering of over 30 deep neural networks, the piece reimagines the 1820 portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven by German painter Joseph Karl Stieler. Created to the rhythm of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in C Minor, the artwork captures the turbulence and grandeur of the music itself. Around the composer’s hand and pen, forms begin to distort, suggesting a frenzied act of composition, as if music is being pulled from the void with a kind of beautiful desperation. Behind the head, four distinct streams of neural networks stretch outward, evoking the mental architecture of orchestration, thoughts splintering into strings, brass, percussion, and winds. Psychedelic patterns flow through the hair and forehead, visualizing the intensity of a mind ablaze with creation. The eyes hover between madness and focus, a tension between chaos and elegance, reflective of Beethoven’s music. The lower half of the portrait remains restrained and muted, heightening the drama above. As one looks at him, it feels as though the symphony itself might begin to echo through the silence.