AI Winter / The road

Video, neural network generative text, 2022–2024

"AI Winter / The Road" is a work where conceptual and sentimental elements converge. A static camera captures the view from a train window traveling along the snow-covered Trans-Siberian Railway — the longest railway in Russia and the world. The melancholic beauty and desolation of the winter landscape resonate with the metaphor of the "AI winter" — a period of technological stagnation of neural network research.

The core of the project is the text generated by a neural network model trained to emulate the style of classic Russian literature. The algorithm, as if “watching” through the train window, crafts a multilayered narrative where a single space is described through the richness and versatility of the Russian language. This approach aligns seamlessly with the tradition of Russian conceptual art, where text often serves as a primary tool for exploring space and time.

The project delves into the logocentric nature of Russian culture, emphasizing its unique blend of rationality and irrationality, analysis and emotion. Visual minimalism amplifies the power of language, transforming it into a mediator between the viewer and the place. Translation here is not merely a technical operation but a tool for uncovering new meanings and immersing oneself in the cultural context through words.

"AI Winter / The Road" is a dialogue about the boundaries of reality and fiction, identity, language, and history. Artificial intelligence becomes a mediator, bridging the past and the present, tradition and technology, and creating a space for new understanding and reinterpretation of cultural codes.

 

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Daniil Zinchenko for filming the train window video with the support of Victoria Chupakhina.