Mal Som is an artist made in Cambodia, planted in Los Angeles, and currently based in Berlin. Growing up in the United States as a first-gen Cambodian with Buddhist upbringings, his philosophies have married ancient Eastern views with modern Western pop-culture beliefs. He’s able to reflect on both sides. In an age where everyone is more connected than ever, how do we understand information from another culture in a sensitive way and make use of it? Ignoring other cultures can lead to miscommunication. By exploring cultural conflicts, we can foster deeper understanding and bring new possibilities.
This has touched all aspects of his work. Now based in Berlin, he has begun to explore the realm of AI-generated art. While other AI artists explore the expansive and infinite possibilities this medium represents, Mal has concentrated his focus on what he described as “the collapse of diversity in a system.”
Mal is a self-taught designer/coder. His background is in philosophy, which he studied at California State University in Long Beach, CA. His key focus in AI is on identity bias, ethical practices, datasets diversity, and its impacts on humans. In general, he gravitates towards experiments that break or stress the limitation of a system. His work explores a constant occurrence in machine learning models, known as mode collapses.
