Celebrities love a triple threat; be it an actor who segways into a rapping career, a former band member who lands a cameo in a Hollywood blockbuster (see upcoming Ocean's Eight cast) or a comedian who becomes a popular late-night television host.
And, the latest artist to add another string to their ever-growing bow is actress Kristen Stewart, who recently co-authored a new research paper on the subject of artificial intelligence (A.I).
No, seriously.
Dipping her toe into academia, the 26 year-old star has helped write a paper for online research at Cornell University ArXiv about something that is known in the science and technology world as 'neural style transfer'– a technique seen in her latest film, Come Swim.
According to The Cut, Kristen – who debuted her short film yesterday at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival – penned the paper with Adobe engineer Bhautik J. Joshi and Starlight Studios producer David Shapiro on the A.I technique, which transforms images from the film into impressionist-styled shots.
She was inspired to create her directorial debut – the music for which was written by Stewart's rumoured girlfriend, musician St. Vincent – after creating paintings and poetry on the topic of waking up from sleep, reports the Mail Online.
According to IMDb, the film – which Stewart also wrote – is described as 'a diptych of one man's day; half impressionist and half realist portraits'.
Nope, we're not quite sure what that means either but we think it's about a guy who dips in and out of reality.
According to the paper, the film is a 'poetic, impressionistic portrait of a heartbroken man under water' and uses the 'neural style transfer' technique to make the film appear as if it was a painting.
Okay, now that makes more sense.
'The painting itself evokes the thoughts an individual has in the first moments of waking (fading in-between dreams and reality), and this theme is explored in the introductory and final scenes where this technique is applied,' it reads.
Nope, now we're back to being confused? Kristen, a little help, please?
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
