Bored Panda contacted Alkan Avcıoğlu to learn more about his creative process and himself. When discussing his journey into creating digital art with the help of AI, the artist mentioned that his artistic path has been influenced by various fields like film, music, literature, and painting. However, his main focus has always been on narratology and understanding the evolution of visual ideas. "I am drawn to the visual storytelling possibilities AI offers, allowing me to work at a massive scale, embracing repetition and iteration as a means of discovery. Like much of my work, Overpopulated Symphonies emerged from a desire to depict the overwhelming density of contemporary life. From the start, I had the idea of the crowd becoming a visual allegory for information overload."
#2 Symphony No. 9 In D Minor, Op. 166, Part II. Screenwave: Moderato: "9 To 5"
AI is transforming the art world, offering new tools and possibilities for creative expression. As AI continues to evolve, it has the potential to reshape how artists create, collaborate, and interact with their audiences. For Alkan, AI is more than just a tool—it’s fundamentally transforming how we create, experience, and organize art.
"The art world has historically revolved around individual mastery and control, with perfectionism and virtuosity as central values. Building on the postmodern and poststructuralist movements of the last century, AI disrupts this, shifting the emphasis from singular creator to the collaborative, the iterative, and the emergent.
Traditionally, the artist was the gatekeeper of meaning, but now, meaning arises from accumulation, from the networks and interconnections between images. Conceptual frameworks and intertextuality are much more important than skill mastery and craftsmanship now.
I believe traditional mediums are falling behind in representing the strange post-truth world we live in, and the emerging AI tools bring new possibilities for storytelling. The synthetic post-photographic images of AI are inherently a mirror to the times we are living in. In which reality is not fixed, facts do not matter anymore, and truth is composed of multiple perspectives."
Alkan explained that he views images not as standalone pieces, but as interconnected points within a continuous conversation with art history. "My process is rooted in iteration, accumulation, and intertextuality. I generate in vast numbers, allowing patterns and themes to emerge naturally. I use many text-to-image tools and creative upscalers to increase the level of detail.
Within this vast number of outputs, my curation process is informed by art history, cinema, and critical theory. I select my final pieces based on their ability to introduce something new while still building on past visual conventions."
"Overpopulated Symphonies presents a panorama of humanity, where individuals are reduced to tiny points, transforming into an overwhelming sea of indistinguishable dots. And these dots are no different than the relentless surge of data that spreads everywhere around us."
In works like Overpopulated Symphonies, as well as throughout Alkan’s entire portfolio—ranging from Strata to All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace to Manufactured Transcendence—the theme of information overload is a recurring metaphor.
"Ultimately, I aim to create a state of cognitive dissonance, through grand scale compositions filled with dense details and repetition. In a post-truth world, where reality is fragmented, disorienting, and layered, my art mirrors this experience back to the viewer.
The dissonance and the bombardment of information are intentional. I want the viewer to question and reassess what they are seeing, to feel lost in the visual noise, to oscillate between recognition and estrangement. The images resist easy interpretation, demanding prolonged engagement.
Ultimately my art dances on a thin line where the viewer asks 'is this real?', a question we should be asking about everything."
Alkan’s AI post-photography collections have been showcased at art fairs and exhibitions in cities around the world, including Paris, Milan, New York, Miami, Beijing, Mexico City, Brussels, Seattle, and Toronto. His notable collections—Overpopulated Symphonies (July 2023), Strata (March 2024), Manufactured Transcendence (July 2024), and All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (October 2024)—have been celebrated on the global stage, reflecting his innovative approach to digital art.
#13 Symphony No. 9 In D Minor, Op. 164, Part I. Burnout: Moderato: “Teamwork”
