Fabian Offert
Biographic Data
| ID | 5702440 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fabian Offert |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fabian |
| FAMILY NAME | Offert |
| SIGNATURE | OFFERT F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4757-8147 |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 4 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 4 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Synthesizing proteins on the graphics card
This paper investigates the application of the transformer architecture in protein folding, as exemplified by DeepMind’s AlphaFold project, and its implications for the understanding of so-called large language models. The prevailing discourse often assumes a ready-made analogy between proteins—encoded as sequences of amino acids—and natural language, which we term the language paradigm of computational (structural) biology. Instead of assuming t…
A sign that spells
In this paper, we examine how generative artificial intelligence produces a new politics of visual culture. We focus on DALL·E and related machine learning models as an emergent approach to image-making that operates through the cultural technique of semantic compression. Semantic compression, we argue, is an inhuman and invisual technique, yet it is still caught in a paradox that is ironically all too human: the consistent reproduction of whiten…
There Is a Digital Art History
In this paper, we revisit Johanna Drucker’s question, “Is there a digital art history?” – posed a decade ago in this journal – in the light of the emergence of large-scale, transformer-based vision models. While more traditional forms of neural network have long been part of digital art history, and digital humanities projects have recently begun to use transformer models, their epistemic implications and methodological affordances have not yet b…
Perceptual bias and technical metapictures
In many critical investigations of machine vision, the focus lies almost exclusively on dataset bias and on fixing datasets by introducing more and more diverse sets of images. We propose that machine vision systems are inherently biased not only because they rely on biased datasets but also because their perceptual topology , their specific way of representing the visual world, gives rise to a new class of bias that we call perceptual bias . Con…
A sign that spells
In this paper, we examine how generative artificial intelligence produces a new politics of visual culture. We focus on DALL·E and related machine learning models as an emergent approach to image-making that operates through the cultural technique of semantic compression. Semantic compression, we argue, is an inhuman and invisual technique, yet it is still caught in a paradox that is ironically all too human: the consistent reproduction of whiten…
Perceptual bias and technical metapictures
In many critical investigations of machine vision, the focus lies almost exclusively on dataset bias and on fixing datasets by introducing more and more diverse sets of images. We propose that machine vision systems are inherently biased not only because they rely on biased datasets but also because their perceptual topology , their specific way of representing the visual world, gives rise to a new class of bias that we call perceptual bias . Con…
There Is a Digital Art History
In this paper, we revisit Johanna Drucker’s question, “Is there a digital art history?” – posed a decade ago in this journal – in the light of the emergence of large-scale, transformer-based vision models. While more traditional forms of neural network have long been part of digital art history, and digital humanities projects have recently begun to use transformer models, their epistemic implications and methodological affordances have not yet b…
A sign that spells
In this paper, we examine how generative artificial intelligence produces a new politics of visual culture. We focus on DALL·E and related machine learning models as an emergent approach to image-making that operates through the cultural technique of semantic compression. Semantic compression, we argue, is an inhuman and invisual technique, yet it is still caught in a paradox that is ironically all too human: the consistent reproduction of whiten…
Synthesizing proteins on the graphics card
This paper investigates the application of the transformer architecture in protein folding, as exemplified by DeepMind’s AlphaFold project, and its implications for the understanding of so-called large language models. The prevailing discourse often assumes a ready-made analogy between proteins—encoded as sequences of amino acids—and natural language, which we term the language paradigm of computational (structural) biology. Instead of assuming t…
Artificial Intelligence (2 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI (2 works) · Psychology (2 works) · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis (1 work) · Analogy (1 work) · Architecture (1 work) · Architecture (1 work) · Art (1 work) · Art History and Market Analysis (1 work)