In this piece, I considered how machine learning systems, especially predictive ones, blur the line between seeing and guessing. The title plays with that confusion: is it perception if a system is just modeling outcomes based on patterns? Like a tarot reading, these predictions feel mystical at times, but they’re built on hidden logic, shaped by unseen biases. I wanted to explore that tension through visual language.
The painting employs a visual code: bursts of radiating lines, gridded shapes, and layered stars create a field of signs that echoes both astrological diagrams and computational systems. There’s a deliberate theatricality to it, like a stage set for a divination ritual performed by an algorithm. The dotted squares almost resemble machine vision targets, while the background, with its swirling marks, nods to the cosmic abstraction of artists like Emma Kunz or Agnes Pelton, painters who used geometry and pattern as tools for spiritual inquiry.
I appreciate the idea that this work navigates a balance between sincerity and skepticism. It’s a tarot reading, yes, but also a portrait of AI’s attempts to pass off probability as clarity. At the core of the painting is a question: what do we believe when the future arrives in the form of data?
18 x 24 inches | Acrylic on wood panel
Ángel Rafael Vázquez-Concepción 