Once Upon a Garden F6 – GNS 05, 2021-2024

Description: Six digital components across five generations:

F6-GNS05 First Generation, 2021–2022
F6-GNS05 Second Generation, 2022
F6-GNS05 Third Generation, 2022–2023
F6-GNS05 Fourth Generation, 2023–2024

PNGs created by GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks)
Each unique artwork (1:1), from a series of 50
667 × 1000 px
F6-GNS05 Fifth Generation (Synthetic Rot), 2024

Moving image created by GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), paired with a unique still (PNG)
Unique artwork (1:1), from a series of 50
1920 × 1080 px
Duration: 42 seconds

Blockchain: Ethereum

Once Upon A Garden, from series Once Upon A Garden, is a speculative archive of critically endangered and extinct flora that we have little to no records of, and therefore no way to remember. In this project, Dounia uses AI as a time machine to go back in time and piece together data we didn’t bother recording using data that we did record. To be able to fill gaps in the world’s collective memory with synthetic memory is a unique opportunity that AI offers today. Between 2021 and 2024, Once Upon A Garden has speculated on what the flora population in West Africa (where Dounia is from and lives) might have looked like decades ago using increasingly faster and more refined models. The resulting body of work, while increasingly more photo-realistic as AI became more powerful over the years, cannot be mistaken for reality due to the thin and fragmented data available for training. Global efforts to record disappearing biodiversity have not been consistent across time and geographies.