Monograph: Giving in to the Algorithm, 2026
Giving in to the Algorithm is a forthcoming monograph by conceptual artist Travis LeRoy Southworth, tracing his two-decade exploration of digital portraiture, algorithmic aesthetics and contemporary image culture. Southworth’s featured series “New Beginnings, Old Endings, Secrets Secreting” captures the ghostly emergence of machine-generated faces, drawing from Southworth’s background in photo retouching, his artist residency involving CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, and early experiments with GANs and diffusion models. The book offers a personal and critical reflection on artmaking in an age shaped by algorithmic labor and highlights the importance of imperfection and ambiguity.
This preview represents an in-progress layout designed to help bring the monograph to completion—an invitation to future collaborators, funders, and supporters of digital art and its evolving histories.
Current outline of the book: 150-200 pages, 8.5 x 10 inches (21 x 25 cm), coated, soft cover.
Managing Editor: Eleonora Brizi
“Dialogues” is the connective tissue of the book, derived from the Greek dialogos: dia meaning “through” and logos meaning “word” or “reason.” Dialogue originally referred to speech as a medium of exchange rather than assertion. In Western philosophy it was formalized by Plato as a structure for inquiry, a way of distributing thought among multiple voices. With the rise of computing, the term reemerged in technical language as “dialog,” designating interactive windows through which users and machines could exchange commands. This etymological arc, moving from conversation as epistemology to interface as procedure, mirrors the evolution of my own practice. Each artwork in Giving in to the Algorithm can be read as a form of dialogue between artist and image, signal and noise, author and algorithm. The book continues this lineage by staging a series of literal and metaphorical conversations across human and machine intelligences, ultimately unfolding as a network of dialogues.
1. Intro: Dialogue with Curator
An in-depth conversation with a curator sets the tone for the book, offering insight into Southworth’s practice and evolving relationship with digital media. Through thoughtful questions and reflective answers, the dialogue explores identity, authorship, and what is an algorithm. It provides personal context and invites readers into the conceptual landscape behind the artworks.
Detouched, Absent Minded Monotonous Splendor, Where I End and You Begin, Figural Moments
2. Pixels and Particles
This section traces Southworth’s journey from professional photo retoucher to artist-in-residence in Switzerland traveling to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. It examines how his early manipulation of digital images and exposure to particle physics reshaped his understanding of visual representation. The fusion of aesthetic and scientific inquiry becomes a foundation for his later AI-based work.
3. Diaphanous Portraits
Rooted in subtle color and gesture, these works embrace ambiguity and dissolve traditional notions of portraiture. Southworth draws from his airbrushing techniques and retouching background to explore softness, distortion, and impermanence. The section highlights how the blurry, in-between states of these faces evoke a poetic presence and emotional resonance. Explore early days of blockchain and NFTs.
4. Endings and Beginnings
This forward-looking reflection explores AI’s accelerating influence on artmaking and the evolving role of the artist. Southworth discusses the potential of new tools like MATR LABS, which use robotics and algorithms to materialize digital images in oil. What is the artist’s role in an AI-saturated world? How has AI changed the idea of appropriation?
5. In the Face of AI
Southworth’s early experiments with GANs marked a turning point in his practice, blending hand-crafted digital portraits with machine learning. By training algorithms on his own artworks, he explored vulnerability, authorship, and the creative potential of imperfect, unresolved outputs. Showcase all early AI work.
Bodies of work being considered for monograph
