GenFrame – Image Generating Picture Frame

A generative picture frame that paints traditional portraits based on the users’ input. Picture credit: Sebastian Mateos Nicolajsen.

Peter Kun
by Peter Kun

GenFrame is a generative picture frame that mimics traditional paintings while being equipped with generative AI capabilities.

Painters painting portraits of a girl has been a trope in art history for centuries. However, in the era of generative AI models, the permanence of traditional art is challenged. When an AI model is able to mimic any painting style, it can also give agency to the viewer to repaint the painting per individual desires. In this installation, we modify the role of the museum placard to provide a minimal tangible interface to change the style of the image and the mood of the depicted girl. In this way, the generative AI model is interfaced in tangible ways, instead of the regular prompt paradigm.

Field study at the Danish National Gallery with the GenFrame.
The GenFrame mimics traditional art to provoke the viewer reflecting on the value of art when it is generated on the spot.

Publications from this work

  • Kun, P., Freiberger, M.A., Sundnes Løvlie, A., and Risi, S., (2024) GenFrame – Embedding Generative AI Into Interactive Artifacts. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ‘24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 714–727. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3660750
  • Kun, P., Freiberger, M., Sundnes Løvlie, A., and Risi, S. (2024) AI Art Perceptions with GenFrame – an Image Generating Picture Frame, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.997
  • Kun, P., Freiberger, M., Risi, S., and Sundnes Løvlie, A. (2024) GenFrame: An Interactive Picture Frame Painting the Portrait of Any Girl. In Companion Publication of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ‘24 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 353–358. https://doi.org/10.1145/3656156.3665437