We started thinking about how much artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated different areas of life. To be honest, at this point, it is really hard for us to say, but the conversation on the subject has been relentless.
We have done periodic articles on art and technology this past year, but we are nowhere closer to deciding, what may be judged as art, when technology, specifically AI is involved. Regardless, we continue to devour news on the subject, in the hope that we will be able to figure out our own stance on this.
Last week, one of the masters of new media art, Refik Andol, did what he does best – some spectacular, breathtaking dynamic artwork that combines science, technology - specifically machine learning, and art. He did this for the annual WEF conference at Davos, Switzerland. The idea itself was ingenious! Titled, ‘Living Archive: Nature (2024)’, it used a custom built large-data model of images of coral from National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institute, CornellLab, the Natural History Museum in London, the Conservation Research Foundation Museum, as well as data collated by his team from around the world.
We must stop and take a breath here, since just writing about this mammoth project, which took over a year, is mind boggling stuff. So, one thing is clear to us, the sheer volume of images processed would be very hard without AI data packages.
The installation combined these real and fantastical images to re-imagine old worlds and to create some new ones. For example, he blends Amazon rainforest with a temperate forest to conjure what this new world might look like, and where conservation efforts might head. It doesn’t end there, his team also collaborated with Eric Saracchi, a former executive at the perfume maker Firmenich in Geneva, as well as the Alberto Morillas master perfumery, to create 12 different scents to accompany the work. The smells adapt to what is shown on the screen and reach the nose of the viewer through a device worn around the neck. For example, one might experience the smells of the forest before and after rains begins.
This is just a very quick summary! The potential for such projects, their scale and usage are immense.
From such dizzying heights, we now turn to the flip side. Swedish artist, Supercomposite, who created a haunting female portrait from AI (it went viral by the name of Loab), recently admitted that she felt technology to be ultimately limiting, and frustrating. The sentiment is echoed by Ai Wei Wei, who in a recent article in the Guardian, philosophised that technology is no match for human will. He further posited that the human need to create must be harnessed with mastering techniques, which requires artist’s lifelong exploration and dedication. Art, after all, is an expression of life’s growth, experiences, beliefs and emotions.
These are simple, yet complex arguments. We can surely do things better with AI, move faster, smoother, learn more things, more quickly. Don’t we all want that? Why are we then drawn to Ai Wei Wei’s argument – the joy of creation, through the pain of experience and learning. Let’s face it, it’s not much fun practicing the same thing again, indeed frustrating when we don’t seem to make any progress! But no matter what activity we have been involved with – art, sports, writing…the satisfaction and understanding from this process, when we do manage to get somewhere, is exulting.
We are not trying to trivialise the discussion, with these simplified conclusions. And we do love technology and the wonders it opens for us (we couldn’t stop looking at Andol’s images!). What we need to understand is that new media be it AI, data mining, or any form is visual language that is distinct from the traditional forms of art, can co-exist and need not impinge on the other.
New media art is a reflection of the times we live in, and after all contemporary art expresses our current worlds and context, an evolution from the past. Just as photography is accepted as a medium that has the potential to create meaningful iconic images that go beyond the medium, the same can be true of the new media, especially when we look at the works of Refik Anadol.
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