Snare Drums Reimagined

In his series “Snare Drums Reimagined,” percussionist Jonathan Ulman uses AI image generation to create photorealistic snare drums made from improbable materials like bricks and television sets. This work contrasts with his earlier, lo-tech series “Snare Scapes,” where he photographed a paper snare drum stencil on various backgrounds around Boston. Ulman, a Berklee College of Music faculty member, explores both digital and analog methods to creatively reimagine the snare drum as an instrument.

Jonathan Ulman, 2024 In the series “Snare Drums Reimagined,” percussionist Jonathan Ulman uses AI image generation to create snare drums from surprising and improbable materials – bricks, a television set, a quilt, for example. The images exemplify the photorealism of which generative AI is capable, presenting fantastical iterations on the snare drum as a musical instrument. Ulman created an earlier series, “Snare Scapes,” by making a paper snare stencil and walking around the city of Boston, photographing the stencil on different backgrounds. It is a lo tech approach with a similarly wondrous result, yielding improbable yet realistic-looking snare drums. If “Snare Drums Reimagined” exemplifies the capacity of generative AI to turn ideas into photo-reality, “Snare Scapes” encourages us to see our capacity to creatively transform the world all around us, to repurpose, to find beauty in the mundane. The images here are just a few from the expansive reimagined instrument world – which includes constructed artefacts in addition to their simulacra – by this internationally-recognized drummer and Berklee College of Music faculty member. Images: Jonathan Ulman, Snare Drums Reimagined, Snare Scapes