Alexander Kluge: The Dragonflys Eye

The 92-year-old author and filmmaker Alexander Kluge explores the collaborative potential of the image-processing AI Stable Diffusion in "The Subjunctive of Images." As a filmmaker, he has extensive experience with the camera and its modes of seeing, which differ from human vision. This is why his curiosity about the different kinds of images generated by the AI is particularly strong. In an essay, he reflects on the uniqueness of these novel images, where chance and error lead to forms of possibility, creating open images that are difficult to place. Kluge establishes rules for the use of the "virtual camera," contributing to a debate on the handling of AI. He tests in a series of image-text stories, ranging from cases of false pregnancies in the GDR to Philemon and Baucis, and the mercenary Prigozhin, how the "virtual camera" opens up a space for new ways of storytelling and imagination. Alexander Kluge, born in 1932 in Halberstadt, is a screenwriter, film and television producer, writer, philosopher, and one of the most influential representatives of the New German Cinema.