A Bigger Splash AI Review, May 3, 2023
AI-generated Videos (Stable diffusion, alchemy)
Kenneth Russo and WAAI (WeAreAIArtists) are a collaborative human/machine collective interested in irony and critical perception of technology-based artworks. A Bigger Splash AI Review is an AI artwork that engages with one of machine learning’s most widespread and controversial abilities – the interpretation and recreation of images in the style of another artist. In this instance, the series of video clips animate a scene that could have been designed by the British painter David Hockney (b .1937). Russo and WAAI’s iterative process of creating these scenes reveals how a machine can start “thinking” like a painter. The composition, indication of brushstroke, and bright colors mimic the medium of painting, and yet, the work is generated. Indeed, A Bigger Splash AI Review directly addresses an emerging question in AI art production: can a style be copyrighted?
Artist Bio
Kenneth Russo is the artistic pseudonym of Dr. David Serra Navarro, researcher and visual artist. He is currently coordinator of the management and research area of the ESDAPC and associate professor of the Communication Department of the University of Girona (UdG). His interest in interactive communication, social innovation, virtual worlds and AI has led him to publish different articles in national and international journals, hold collaborative workshops in institutions and a large number of academic communications in conferences. Through his alter ego, Kenneth Russo and the WAAI collective plunge into an artistic production that borders on irony and seeks a critical interaction with the viewer through formats such as painting, video, installations, mobile applications or collaborative actions online. His work has been exhibited at Arts Santa Mònica (Barcelona), CCCB (Barcelona), Bòlit Center d'Art Contemporani (Girona), Museu de l'Empordà, University of Lapland (Rovaniemi), FIB Art (Benicàssim), Off-Arco (Madrid), Loop Festival, Espacio Enter (Canary Islands/Berlin), the Godia Foundation (Barcelona) or in the metaverse of SecondLife.
Kenneth Russo and WAAI on Publicly Sharing Prompts:
Sharing creation prompts could be understood as a unique recipe. A magic formula, some hidden ingredients that give a unique result, a controlled result. The author's wish come true. However, this logic is not entirely true because before the prompts, there is a learning process. What we know is machine learning that consists of a reflection on how to train a model. And this means defining patterns, studying results, identifying basic characteristics associated with an idea, etc. That is to say that throughout the creation process, there is a human intellectual activity to direct the machine and that in the last step, it is simplified into an order, which is the prompt for this reason, no matter how much the final recipe is shared. As we can see in portals like Lexica.art, we can never transfer the human intention of choosing the final result. Even when we are playing with chance in the process, enjoy each unique frame cooked by a unique chef.”