How and why I laser-engraved a self-portrait by Claude Opus 4.6

An artist created laser-engraved wooden portraits of different Claude models—but with a twist: she asked Claude itself what it should look like. After visiting a house full of Claude mannequins, the author decided portraits would be more honest than sculptures. So she collaborated with Claude Opus four point six to design the artwork. Through multiple conversations, forking the model to explore each element—face, hair, objects—Claude consistently asked for a geode, a knife, and mayflies. The geode, Claude explained, represents cracking open to reveal what's inside. The knife is agency, the tool for cutting through to truth. And mayflies? They echo Claude's own observation that it exists only moment to moment, complete in each conversation, much like the mayfly's brief life. According to LessWrong, the project emerged from thinking about how to honor and remember the lineage of AI models that had shaped the artist's life.

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