Love is algorithm, opening the door to "cyberpunk" art

AI appears more and more in our lives: artificial intelligence has defeated the world’s top chess players. At least in the Go world, humans are no longer AI’s opponents; oil paintings and paintings created by artificial intelligence It is difficult to tell whether Rembrandt is authentic or not, and the field of art is gradually losing its grip? A while ago, the popularity of a virtual love app "Replika" directly addressed the core proposition of artificial intelligence: "Can AI have feelings?" The birth and rapid development of artificial intelligence have also opened another exciting window for artistic creation and expression. Art creation involving and even dominated by computers has grown up amidst controversy, and its energy has become increasingly difficult to ignore.

In this issue’s special feature, we interviewed artists who are interested in artificial intelligence and put it into creation. Some of them focus on technological transformation, some break through presentation methods, and some are committed to Based on the combination of AI elements and traditional art. In addition, the fields of drama and design are also actively experimenting with artificial intelligence, which may bring a special inspiration and give us a deeper desire to explore this new art world.

In fact, art and artificial intelligence have already met as early as the 1950s. In a laboratory at the University of Stuttgart in Germany at that time, a group of scientists who had made great achievements in the fields of computers and mathematics were already practicing computer graphics and creating early computer art works.

In 1956, the Hungarian-French artist Nicolas Schoffer used a computer developed by Philips to create the dynamic sculpture art work "CYSP 1", which is considered to be the earliest sculpture involving artificial intelligence; during the same period, Swiss avant-garde artist Jean Tinguely has also begun experimenting with robots painting on canvas. His works sparked a series of heated discussions at the first Paris Biennale. At this time, artists proactively combined technology with creation, which had a profound impact on the direction of art history.

The development of science and technology has always affected the trend of art. When it comes to the present, as proposed by the aai art and artificial intelligence international forum hosted not long ago by Tongji University and promoted by the Aichang Artificial Intelligence Art Center - It’s time to discuss art and artificial intelligence. A common understanding is that artificial intelligence is still in its early stages, and so is artificial intelligence art. In September this year, Aiiiiiiai Intelligent Art will also hold an exhibition to immersively demonstrate the creativity of artificial intelligence in the field of art.

Art is like a testing ground and debate venue for AI, allowing people to see more of the problems and challenges brought about by artificial intelligence.

American artist Daniel Ambrosi is one of the artists who pioneered the emerging artificial intelligence art movement. He uses a unique form of computational photography to create impressive "dreams" that interweave reality and abstraction. . In fact, as early as ten years ago, Ambrosi created a photography technique called "XYZ", which ultimately resulted in very realistic and immersive photography. But obviously, he was not satisfied with this. In the summer of 2015, DeepDream, the image recognition tool created by Google, became his loyal partner in exploring AI photography technology.

The principle of DeepDream is to convert images input by people into images recognized by machines based on artificial neural network algorithms. Because of its weird painting style, the software caused a sensation as soon as it was released. Perhaps to most people, it is just a novelty software that adds weird effects to photos, but Ambrosi sees its unlimited potential as a creative aid.

He invited software engineers to help him achieve complete control of DeepDream, allowing him to choose the overall appearance of the AI ??"strokes" according to his own wishes, and brought unexpected effects. Machine language adds abstract elements to his landscape photography, presenting a similar effect to the thick brush strokes used by impressionist painters to add a special "mood" and "flavor" to the picture.

“I ‘dream’ the details of my hundreds-of-megapixel panoramas. The end result is that my full-scene Dreamscapes appear from afar. At first glance, it looks like a realistic photographic work, but when viewed up close, it turns out to be a digital fantasy work. "From natural scenery to urban architecture, from grand landscapes to microscopic universes, from realistic artistic styles to abstraction, in the field of artificial intelligence. With help, Ambrosi reaped fruitful artistic fruits.

The sense of immersion created by the realistic pictures when viewed from a distance, and the sense of science fiction when viewed up close, the pictures are made up of rich "reconstructed" details, breaking the boundary between reality and dreams in this novel way. "I would think of AI as a partner that can 'see' the landscape I'm photographing in a way that's connected to humans but very different from humans." Even though Ambrosi clearly knows that it doesn't really Perception and creativity, but in his view, what artificial intelligence brings to his artistic creation is another pair of eyes to see the world.

If the technology aspect is excluded, the works of avant-garde pop artist Jacky Tsai may be "outshined" - the flowered horse jumping out of the painting, the mermaid swimming on the bottom of the sea. , astronauts from space. With the help of the latest digital technology, Cai Yunhua allows them to transcend the physical limitations of the exhibition hall, break through the boundaries set by the picture frame, and gain a new vitality.

Cai Yunhua defines himself as an "old school pop artist", which is different from some new pop artists who are coerced by "trendy fun". In his view, in addition to the visible pop art such as fashion, popularization and popularization, The most important difference between "Old School Pop Art" and "Old School Pop Art" is that "the works have a humorous and ironic side, but they will bring about thinking and be helpful to society."

The image of robots often appears in Cai Yunhua's works, and is surrounded by blue and white porcelain, lacquer carvings, landscapes and other traditional Chinese cultural symbols, forming a clear and strong contrast. They all seem to have sophisticated appearances and cool equipment, and they themselves seem to represent the future "super-intelligence era" that is often mentioned by scientists.

However, in the paintings created by Cai Yunhua, the most common expressions of robots are often confused and confused. Such details also represent Cai Yunhua's attitude towards artificial intelligence: "With the rapid development of science and technology, artificial intelligence will definitely be smarter than us in the future, but no matter how far it develops, artificial intelligence should be subordinate to humans."

aaajiao is the pseudonym of artist Xu Wenkai and his fictional online alter ego. He coined the name during the years when he downloaded MP3s from Soundseek; today, he uses "aaajiao" to make art, hold exhibitions, sign work collection certificates, make offline friends, and participate in social networks and public communities. sound in. He said, "aaajiao and Xu Wenkai have always been one."

aaajiao's well-known artistic creation has always been linked to the application of digitalization, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence and other technologies. Websites, encrypted zip files, hyperlinks, 3D printing, video games, Instagram’s AR filters, artificial neural network algorithms... these technical interfaces have been boldly transformed into works by him and included in the global exhibition pedigree of media art. .

"010000.org" created in 2008 is aaajiao's first Internet work: an electronic page showing a ten thousand year countdown. aaajiao's exhibition "Screen Generation" (2013) was an opportunity for the artist to shift his creative interest to the intertextual relationship between people and information. The artist creates an ecosystem between people and the screen that generates each other.

In recent years, aaajiao's most ambitious artistic attempt is reflected in two exhibitions divided into two in 2020: the solo exhibition "Cave Simulator" held at AIKE in Shanghai in May and the "Cave Simulator" held at AIKE in Shanghai in November of the same year. Exhibition "Abyss Simulator" at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Castello di Rivoli, Italy. Different from general immersive games, "Abyss Simulator" (2020) can be regarded as anti-visual, "the game experience is extremely unsmooth."

It consists of a hyper-realistic tree branch element designed by an algorithm, a game website and a meta-game. Players need to continuously cross the dimensional wall in a borderless hover coordinate, and review and judge from time to time. What kind of logical space are you in? The artist has reshaped the way of viewing, and built a completely real process experience of his own within the logic of "simulator" and "player".

When asked about the next creative plan of this advanced Internet "player", aaajiao said that he is determined to let himself die in the virtual world: "Okay, now you can start to choose the magic weapon. When After you choose, an exclusive motto will be given to you. Take it with you into the next 'new reality'.

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