Over the past few years, we have worked a couple of times with artists using Artificial Intelligence in their work. Think of Track Tracy, Oliver Kartak’s exhibition at 3sec.gallery and during the past Student Challenge. From the Municipality of Breda, we were asked to contribute to the congress ‘AI in de Stad’, which takes place in the second week of September. In collaboration with Jamy Vodegel, this exhibition was created.
Raw look
AI artist Jamy Vodegel (NO TOMATO) explores new perspectives through inventive use of artificial intelligence. With ChatGPT and Midjourney, he created a series of images inspired by Breda’s ‘City in the Park’ ambition. What does that ambition mean? What implications does it have for the city’s cultural offerings, living arrangements and transport? Unlike the polished and optimistic visions often shown by property developers, Jamy offers a raw, sometimes confrontational look at this possible future.
Unpredictable
The first images generated by Jamy were still full of cliches. AI likes to base itself on existing images that the model is trained on. But this exhibit consists of elements you don’t encounter in normal images. ‘A rabbit-eating wolf in the schoolyard you would usually create with Photoshop. But through a lot of experimentation and tweaking, we managed to create this image with a single prompt,’ says Jamy. (A prompt is a short text you use to make an AI tool respond). A total of 4,789 images were generated for conceptualisation and elaboration.
The unpredictable nature and output can cause surprises, Jamy explains: ‘’Sometimes it turns out totally wrong. On the contrary, it can also provide new insights or directions, which then take you further. That’s the beauty of it.’ He is pleased with the series. ‘It is controversial and raises questions. In a very short time, I (together with Dennis) used AI tools to create a series that was not feasible with conventional tools in this time frame.’
Awareness
In this day and age, it is important to be able to look critically. Is an image ‘true’? Who is the sender and what is the sender trying to tell me? The images in this exhibition may look more like photography, but the way they are shaped is more like graphic design. It is an example that shows how the graphic design profession is changing in form, but not in content, due to technological development.
From Graphic Matters, Dennis is involved in this project and together with Jamy he came up with the eight themes that recur in the exhibition. ‘It has become a true Graphic Matters project, born from a creator combining his own passion for AI with the power of visual communication. With the aim of sparking a discussion,’ Dennis points out. The images invite reflection and debate on what it really means to live in a city in the park. The exhibition challenges us to think about the balance between urban development and the untamed power of nature, and the role artificial intelligence and creativity can play in shaping our future.
ECOPOLIS can be seen at Nieuwe Veste in Breda from 11 to 15 September 2024.
