AI Currents

AI CURRENTS

Explore the intersection of art and artificial intelligence (AI) in "AI Currents," a handcrafted collage series by Davar Ardalan. This 2025 showcase reveals how art can make the abstract nature of AI both tangible and accessible, urging us to become active participants in the digital transformation.This series, crafted through mixed media on stretched canvas and fabric, employs techniques such as machine sewing, hand-stitched yarn embroidery, textile paints, and three-dimensional elements like floral appliqués, ties, ribbons, and layered stenciling and stamping. The collection features artworks that range in size from 5x7 inches to 20x24 inches.Also featured is a special collection titled "Code 1776," where Ardalan draws from the visual language of stencils and cultural patterns to reflect how AI learns, through repetition, rhythm, and memory. Inspired by life near the Chesapeake Bay, these paintings blend local symbols like crabs and sailboats with motifs from Ardalan’s heritage, exploring how history, identity, and code intertwine.Available as both originals and prints, her artworks demonstrate the creative possibilities of AI and its potential to empower communities.
Ardalan is especially grateful to her friend Parinaz Bahadori for inspiring her to explore collage as a way of layering memories.

Sailing Forward
A sailboat made of layered stencils glides over a current shaped by digital form. The sails blend American and Persian designs, suggesting memory across cultures. This piece moves with intention, a reminder that progress is patterned, not random.

White canvas, black ribbon flowing through ornate shapes and circuit board stamping.

Featured Artwork

Guided by Patterns
A lighthouse stands amid soft stenciled waves and fading binary. Nearby, a sailboat shares the same visual code. This work explores how we navigate using repeated forms, just as AI learns through patterns. It is a quiet study in direction and rhythm.

Circuit Crab
A blue crab stretches across layers of circuitry and stenciled pattern. Its form holds both nature and design, echoing the logic of local life and learned systems. The number 1776 appears in red, anchoring the image in time. This piece is a symbol of strength, adaptation, and memory passed through code.

The layered composition merges organic form with circuit-like precision, symbolizing the intersection of nature and technology in the digital age. The crab, a creature of both defense and adaptation, becomes a metaphor for resilience within evolving tech ecosystems. Intricate floral patterns layered over circuitry hint at the cultural and human elements embedded in artificial intelligence development. The presence of "1776" evokes foundational ideals, suggesting a dialogue between innovation and democratic values—much like Ardalan’s work at the intersection of technological transformation, civic infrastructure, and transparency.

For Ardalan, AI is a source of creative energy as much as it fuels her professional work. It drives her to explore how communities interact with technology and inspires her to make art that dissects what AI really means in our daily lives. Stenciling, with its precise, repeating forms, mirrors AI algorithms – structured and dependable, yet full of surprises when you look closer.Mandalas, with their intricate, repeating patterns, represent order, balance, and harmonious concepts that also define AI. They serve as a visual reminder that structure and beauty can coexist, much like the relationship between logic and creativity in both art and technology.But here’s the catch: just like AI can only work with the data it has, stenciling can only create what exists in its patterns. The absence of certain forms, like screwpile lighthouses in her work, simply because no stencils exist for them, mirrors how gaps in data quietly shape what we create. Whether in art or technology, what’s missing is just as telling as what’s present.Like the gaps in her designs, AI is still in its early days, shaped by what has come before yet open to what comes next. In this way, communities have the power to inform and nurture its growth, ensuring it remains relevant, meaningful, and connected to the world it seeks to reflect. In the depths of the shadows in Ardalan's work, you see echoes of the past meeting the future, revealing a space where history and technology are in quiet conversation.

An all seeing-eye together with ornate shapes and circuits.

Algorithmic Gaze
"Algorithmic Gaze" showcases an eye, embroidered and encircled by intricate circuit designs and subtle floral elements on fabric, representing the penetrating and ever-present gaze of artificial intelligence. This piece employs a mix of painting, sewing, and stenciling techniques to deepen the visual impact, showing the concept of AI as both observer and interpreter. It highlights AI's role in analyzing and influencing human patterns and behaviors through the lens of technology, blending traditional crafts with modern themes.Expanding on this idea of AI as an interpreter of complex data, let’s consider an AI system that includes historical and current environmental data from the Chesapeake Bay. This AI could help us understand the health of the bay by analyzing patterns over time, offering insights into water quality and biodiversity, much like stitching together pieces of data to form a full view. Such applications demonstrate how AI can extend its 'gaze' beyond mere observation to active, meaningful participation in environmental conservation.

Image of a black tie covered with circuit boards and surrounded by stamped circuits.

Neural Tie
This collage above plays on the theme of corporate and technological integration with everyday life. It suggests that AI is not just a tool for the elite but a common thread woven into the fabric of daily existence, both in personal and professional realms.

Book Davar Ardalan for Talks, Art Purchases, or Partnerships
Interested in deepening your understanding of AI or exploring its creative applications? Book Davar Ardalan for insightful talks and engagements. Ardalan's art pieces are also available for purchase. Engage with us to learn more about how AI can transform your community and workspaces. Contact: [email protected]AI was instrumental in creating the content for this website. Everything was edited and fact-checked by Davar to ensure accuracy.

About Iran Davar Ardalan

Professionally known as Davar Ardalan, she is an AI Strategist with a storied career spanning National Geographic, NPR News, and the White House Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program. Innovative projects she’s championed like storytelling for NASA's SpaceApps Challenge and the Top Health Open Data and AI initiative, demonstrate her commitment to harnessing advanced technology for community engagement and development.This concept is expanded in Ardalan’s upcoming book, "AI for Community," set for release in summer 2025 by Taylor & Francis. The book explores AI’s role in community life, offering practical strategies for technology that fosters growth and connection in our digital age.Davar has an AI assistant herself that helps her with her communications, and archival retrieval of her writings on AI going back to 2018. She's also helped create an AI for her husband, a veteran civil engineer. This AI's knowledge is based on summaries of his work on landfills from Hong Kong to Brazil and the US. Ardalan is a member of the Annapolis Arts Alliance.

The Medium: Threads of Humanity

This series, crafted through mixed media on stretched canvas and fabric, employs techniques such as machine sewing, hand-stitched yarn embroidery, textile paints, and three-dimensional elements like floral appliqués, ties, ribbons, and layered stenciling and stamping. The collection features artworks that range in size from 5x7 inches to 16 x 20 inches.This blend of elements encourages a dynamic engagement with exhibits, nurturing a dialogue between modernity and heritage in the modern world.Machine-stitched lines create precise, structured pathways, while hand-stitched yarn adds a raw, organic contrast, an invitation for viewers to engage with AI and actively shape its future. The inclusion of ties and ribbons, artifacts of personal identity, grounds the circuitry in human experience, allowing us to see ourselves within the networks we create.The layered compositions evoke the depth of data streams, while the unfinished edges reflect the evolving and collaborative nature of AI’s integration into communal consciousness.

Explore the potential of AI for Annapolis businesses and historical organizations. Use AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or CoPilot to discover how AI can enhance your operations.Historical Societies in Annapolis: AI can process historical archives and environmental data to help preserve Annapolis’s history. Tools allow you to “speak” the archives, asking questions and receiving information interactively.
Sailing Clubs in Annapolis: AI can use weather, member availability, and equipment data to optimize sailing schedules and maintain equipment, ensuring smooth operations.
Annapolis Media Institutions: AI can give readers new and dynamic ways to access and interact with archives, enhancing the discovery of past articles and fostering a deeper connection with the community.
Annapolis Souvenir Stores: With stories and facts about each item, AI can produce synthetic voice narratives. Adding a "story button" near souvenirs can make shopping interactive and enrich the customer experience.