Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

The Crafted Aesthetics of Optics and Acoustics: "Re-Present: Kao Chung-Li" @ Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan

Kinetic, mechanical and humanly robotic: these are the key words to decode the works by Taiwanese artist Kao Chung-Li and to define his blend of craftsmanship and technology.

Born in Taipei in 1958, Kao completed his education at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts in 1979. A pioneer of experimental imagery in Taiwan, he is also a founding member of the avant-garde exhibition "Xirang" during the 1980s.

Early on in his career, Kao was active in photography: drawing inspiration from Western image history, he dedicated himself to studying the principles of imaging and even invented his own handmade tools for image production. His main aim then was to introduce Marxist materialism into visual arts and spark discussions about the development of our own image-machine culture and thinking. From then on, Kao focused on themes such as media archaeology and dialectical reasoning, analyzing them with the support of audio-visual technology.

An exhibition currently on at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan, examines his creative trajectory: "Re-Present" spans more than four decades and invites visitors to explore the essence of photography and image machines.

Curated by Lee Wei-I, the exhibition combines crafts with technology since it features a selection of Kao's hand-drawn animation scripts, sculptures, photographs, experimental films, and audiovisual machines and explores themes such as photography, cinematography and animation.

While there are seven large-scale kinetic installations created specifically for this exhibition, the event includes a wide range of his pieces, some of them from his iconic series including "Aspects & Visions", "Photochemical-Mechanical Live Image Projection Device", "Slideshow Cinema" and "Camera Lucida Cinema". Besides, "Re-Present" also allows visitors to rediscover the machines from his very first solo exhibition at the American Cultural Center in Taipei in 1983 ("ASA to the Power of N", "Mosquito Repellent Incense", and "Hands, or a Photo").

This first exhibition marked the beginning of Kao's exploration into the nature of photography. Through his contemplation of image optics, he created several works that challenged the viewer's subjectivity.

One of his early works, called "Grooming," was a video installation and sculpture, and the exhibition starts with a new version of this piece. This updated edition of "Grooming" uses modern technology, such as a webcam, a depth camera, and a monitor, to create a thought-provoking and immersive experience for viewers who will be questioning the concept of subjectivity when confronted by their deferred mirror-images on the monitor. 

Kao's work is focused on the relationships between "objects," "object images," and "image objects" and the exhibition is centred around this interplay.

According to the artist, his objects are the beings that exist under the sun, while the object images are the visible opposite of an object in the real world, something that is created when the light reflected or emitted by an object forms an image on a plane (concepts s directly taken from Plato's allegory of the cave). Kao also creates artifacts that are given meanings according to optical theory, which he calls "image objects."

Quite often Kao's images are related to time, politics, and history and "Re-Present" includes a recording of his father’s life experience ("Home Movie") and "My Mentor, Chen Yingzhen", a fusion of multiple image techniques (diary film, home movie, and hand-drawn animation) based on personal memories and history, a tribute to writer Chen Yingzhen.

One vital aspect of Kao's practice remains the creation of handmade mechanical image machines, as proved by the series "Photochemical-Mechanical Live Image Projection Device" that combines 8mm film projectors, hand-drawn animation, and photography and addresses issues debated in Western pictorial art.

His standout piece, "Anti．mei．ology 002", draws instead inspiration from the surrealist work "La Clairvoyance" (1936) by Belgian artist René Magritte. Kao moves from the notion that "seeing is not always believing" by replacing the original elements with images of a bomber, a cross, and a fighter plane. Representing in this way his resistance against the domination of Western hegemony and visual culture.

Kao is also an educator and, to explore this aspect, the exhibition includes his "Cinemas in Suitcases" that he employs as teaching aids. Through the "Palm-sized Physical Mobile Imaging Device", a sort of Phenakistoscope, and the "3D Moving Image Display", similar to a pair of glasses, the artist illustrates the principles of imaging that make static hand-drawn pictures come to life.

Both devices require the viewer's hands and eyes to work together. When the images are spun rapidly, they create a smooth illusion of continuous movement, making static images appear three-dimensional through the principle of parallax.

Another intriguing piece is the "Coin-operated Binocular Visual Machine", which is a repurposed arcade cabinet. Viewers can pull the cord to change the images and become in this way more aware of their binocular vision, produced by the intersection of the lines of vision of both eyes.

Among the new works, "Data Cowboy / Loin de l'Ukraine" and "Sans Soleil" push the boundaries of artistic expression drawing from contemporary history: the former depicts a Wild West duel between two humanoid robots inspired by Star Trek's "Data" android. Connected to a video game, the two figures assume the roles of villainous cowboys in the Wild West.

"Sans Soleil" features instead prosthetic legs employed by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War used to create an eerie yet captivating shadow animation.

In conclusion, Kao Chung-Li's work is a unique blend of technology, craft, and artistic expression. His handmade audiovisual devices demonstrate his commitment to exploring the relationship between objects and their emotional and aesthetic implications and, through them, he challenges the traditional models of production and connects with his audience in a way that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging. His work is a testament to the power of creativity and the boundless possibilities of the audiovisual industry.

Image credits for this post

All images in this post courtesy of the artist and Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

"Re-Present: Kao Chung-Li", Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.

Kao Chung-Li, Grooming, 1983-2023, 75-inch monitor, webcam, depth camera, dimensions variable.

Kao Chung-Li, Data Cowboy / Loin de l’Ukraine, 2023, expanded polyethylene foam (EPE), mechanical installation, polycarbonate plastic sheet, light, dimensions variable.

Kao Chung-Li, Anti‧mei‧ology 002, 1999, photochemical-mechanical live image projection device, 68x68x115 cm.

Kao Chung-Li, Mary Had A Little Lamb, 2023, industrial temporal objects/phonograph, vinyl, model installation, 50x30 cm.

Kao Chung-Li, Coin-operated Binocular Machine View-Master, 2023,view-master slide, Japanese coin-operated machine, 31.5x26x50 cm.

Kao Chung-Li, Installation view of Cinemas in Suitcases Series, 2006-2015.

Kao Chung-Li, 3D Live Image Display,2008, digital output, freehand drawing, stereoscopic photography, acrylic, 21x12x20 cm. 

Kao Chung-Li, Talking Heads, 2023, episcope, fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP), kinetic installation, 120x93.8x 127.5 cm.

Kao Chung-Li, Hiroshima Mon Amour, 2023, audio slide projector, film, computer program, dimensions variable.

Kao Chung-Li, Sans Soleil, 2023, industrial temporal objects, kinetic installation, dimensions variable.

Kao Chung-Li, Installation view of My Mentor, Chen Yingzhen,2010, Single-channel video, 22mins 27secs.

ChatGPT Returns to Italy After Ban

Italy-based ChatGPT users must be delighted as the AI chatbot resumed its services yesterday. At the beginning of April, ChatGPT maker, Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI took it offline in Italy after the government's Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (GPDP; Data Protection Authority) issued an immediate temporary ban on suspected breach of privacy rules.

According to the Garante, ChatGPT didn't have have a disclosure notice to users about data collected by OpenAI. Furthermore, the platform did not have a legal basis that justified the extensive collection and processing of personal data required to train the algorithms it uses.

Besides, according to the Garante, the lack of an age verification mechanism exposed children to receiving responses inappropriate to their age and awareness, even though the service is allegedly addressed to users aged above 13 according to OpenAI's terms of service (and even though the service doesn't allow the use of foul language). The Italian data protection authority asked OpenAI to rectify these issues by April 30 to lift the ban on the AI software.

OpenAI was able to restore the service after addressing and clarifying the concerns raised by the Garante and fulfilling conditions, implementing changes that satisfied the GPDP.

Italy-based users accessing the chatbot are now welcomed by a message reserved for Italian registered users, announcing the return of the service in the country. The message also includes a button that allows the user to confirm they are aged above 18 prior to gaining access to the service, or else that they are aged above 13 and have obtained consent from their parents or guardians for that purpose.

Yesterday the GPDP also listed in a press release published on its website all the improvements made by OpenAI. Apart from the welcome screen and the tool to verify users' ages upon signup in Italy (there is a block on registration for users under 13 years old), amendments include drafting and publishing on its website a notice to users and non-users in Europe and the rest of the world, to explain which personal data and how they are processed for the training of algorithms, and to remind everyone of their right to object to such processing (the system will continue to process certain personal data to ensure the correct functioning of the service on the basis of the contract, and will process the users’ personal data for the purpose of algorithm training unless they exercise their right to object, on the basis of legitimate interest).

The notice on data processing reserved for service users has also been expanded and it is now accessible from the sign-up page prior to registration with the service.

The new revisions also grant all people living in Europe, non-users included, the right to object to their personal data being processed for algorithm training through a dedicated online form easily accessible; besides, the amendments provide the possibility for interested parties to have incorrect information deleted as it is technically impossible, as of now, to rectify inaccuracies; OpenAI also recently implemented a form that allows all European users to exercise their right to object to the processing of their personal data and thus exclude conversations and related history from the training of their algorithms.

The Italian Garante appreciated OpenAI's actions and recognized the progress made by the AI research laboratory in balancing technological progress with individual rights. The Garante expressed hope that OpenAI will continue to make efforts to adhere to European data protection laws.

Yet it is likely that OpenAI may face more obstacles in the coming months. Several regulatory bodies in countries including France, Spain, and Canada are scrutinizing AI systems such as OpenAI and have either launched or are considering investigations into the company's operations. These investigations are centered around issues like the collection of training data for its language model and the type of information provided to users. Additionally, European lawmakers are in the process of developing the AI Act, which may impose new obligations on companies like OpenAI and require them to make additional information disclosures (even though at the moment  the law mainly focuses on applications and systems that create an unacceptable risk, such as government-run social scoring of the type used in China, and second, high-risk applications, such as a CV-scanning tool that ranks job applicants; applications not explicitly banned or listed as high-risk are largely left unregulated). Furthermore, the head of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, issued a warning this week stating that the U.S. government will not hesitate to take action against harmful business practices involving AI.

Anyway, for the time being, Italy-based ChatGPT fans, researchers generating coding with it or creative minds torturing the system to produce hilarious crochet and knitwear patterns can now go back to converse with their favourite chatbot (legally, without the use of a VPN…).

Yet you feel that those who may benefit the most from the chatbot may be Italian politicians who may need some ideas and suggestions for their speeches. Yesterday Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met British PM Rishi Sunak in London. After the meeting, during an interview with an Italian journalist, hallucinating like a malfunctioning AI, Meloni claimed Italian economy is doing very well, measures taken by her government are effective and there is a resurgence of optimism, adding "you can't always play the Tafazzi even when things are going well, because you don't help".

While she gave the statement to an Italian journalist - after all, nobody outside Italy would know that Tafazzi was a comic self-harming character beating himself on the genitals who was popular in the '90s - it is surprising for a Prime Minister to make such a trivial reference. It's almost certain that ChatGPT would have been less superficial and wouldn't have hallucinated as much as Meloni when it came to the state of Italian economy, currently facing significant challenges in various sectors, mainly for lack of investments in infrastructure, education, and innovation. 

So, as Italy-based users welcome back ChatGPT, those Italians who feel ashamed of their country's cultural state might contemplate volunteering for a pioneering mission to Mars. There may not be any ChatGPT there, but there wouldn't be any shallow premier either.

Navigating the Legal Minefield of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Music: Balancing Innovation with Ethical and Copyright Challenges

Artificial Intelligence is the protagonist of numerous news stories on a daily basis: hailed as a hero in the healthcare industry, AI is highly criticized and considered a dark evil power and a villain in the creative arts. We recently analysed the exploits of Artificial Intelligence in the realm of fashion, but there is another area where it has generated significant controversy - the world of music.

There are generators that quickly allow you to create music, such as AIVA (used to generate the tracks featured in this post) that allows you to compose a variety of tracks in a wide range of genres and moods, from Cinematic Orchestra to Cyberpunk, Drum'n'Bass, Trip Hop, Lo-fi and so on. The length depends from the subscription and only the Pro Monthly package ($49 monthly) allows you to own the complete copyright of what you created). At the moment, the sounds produced are not extremely original and quite often you don't get what you wanted, but you can spend some time playing on it and come up with some experimental tracks for fun.

Aural #1 by Irenebrination

Things are moving fast, though in AI-generated music: a few days ago, Grimes announced that she welcomed musicians who wanted to create new tracks with Artificial Intelligence using her voice. On Twitter the Canadian singer, whose real name is Claire Boucher, stated: "I think it's cool to be fused w [sic] a machine and I like the idea of open sourcing all art and killing copyright."

In another tweet Grimes announced, "Ill split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that uses my voice. Same deal as I would with any artist i collab [sic] with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings."

The singer went on to highlight that she will not accept songs with violent or offensive contents, "may do copyright takedowns ONLY for rly rly [sic] toxic lyrics w grimes voice (…) Rly don't like to do a rule but don't wanna be responsible for a Nazi anthem unless it's somehow in jest a la producers [sic] I guess."

Grimes is not new to using AI: in 2020, she collaborated with music company Endel to create an AI-generated lullaby for her son X Æ A-12 (his father is SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk).

Compared to other artists who have expressed their displeasure with the use of Artificial Intelligence in generating music, Grimes appears to have a more nonchalant attitude towards it. However, she may be an exception: we have seen in previous posts how AI is being trained by users to create credible fashion collections, but it is also being utilized to produce artificial voices that perfectly reproduce famous artists, something that has stirred up indignation among many musicians, including Drake. Most artists seem gravely concerned about this issue and consider AI as a threat to the industry.

Recently, Universal Music Group (UMG) asked TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify to take down a song titled "Heart On My Sleeve," by anonymous creator ghostwriter. The song - that went viral before being taken down from platforms including Apple, Soundcloud, and Bandcamp - contained vocals produced by AI that imitated the voices of their musicians Drake and the Weeknd. UMG compared AI-generated music to deep fakes and fraudulent practices and stated this amounted to a violation of copyrights and deprived artists of their rightful compensation.

Drake also didn't seem very flattered when another artificial version of his voice was used in a cover of Ice Spice's song "Munch", released with a fake verse by him. In an Instagram story Drake wrote: "This is the final straw AI". But there have been more AI generated tracks recently, featuring the voices of Rihanna, Kanye West and Travis Scott, just to mention a few ones.

In April, in an effort to protect their copyrighted songs from being used by Artificial Intelligence platforms, UMG sent a request via email to streaming giants like Spotify and Apple Music to block the access of AI systems to the melodies and lyrics of their songs. Yet already a few months ago, in October 2022, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had already issued a warning about numerous AI enterprises were violating copyright laws by using copyrighted music to train their AI algorithms.

Radiant by Irenebrination

However, there are several legal issues to consider, first of all, technically, a voice cannot be copyrighted but famous individuals are safeguarded by their right of publicity, protecting them from privacy invasion and appropriation. There have indeed been cases in which artists proved they have a right to their voices: in a 1998 Ford commercial, a Bette Midler's backup singer was hired to imitate her voice when the actress declined the job. Midler sued for copyright infringement and won (Midler v. Ford Motor Co.).

In much the same way, in 1988 Frito-Lay used an impersonator of Tom Waits in a Doritos commercial, the singer sued for voice misappropriation under California law and false endorsement under the Lanham Act and the jury found in Waits' favor, awarding him compensatory damages and punitive damages for voice misappropriation (Waits v. Frito-Lay, Inc.).

Yet in 2004, in the case of Butler v. Target Corp. the final verdict was different. Ishmael Butler and Maryann Vieira penned the jazz/hip-hop music composition "Rebirth of Slick (Cool like Dat)" recorded by Butler, Vieira and Craig Irving under the name Digable Planets. The song was used in a commercial multimedia campaign for Target Stores that employed altered versions of the song with slogans such as "Jeans Like That," "Denim Like That," "Shoes Like That" and the like. The court determined that while the lyrics of a song are subject to copyright protection, the unique voice used to perform them wasn't. This is because spoken words are not considered fixed in the same way as recorded music, and therefore cannot be protected under copyright law.

That said, is an AI-generated rendition of an artist's voice to be considered a violation of copyright law or an imitation of that voice. After all, would you be able to sue a performer who perfectly imitates Drake? No, you can potentially sue an impersonator for violating the celebrity's "right of publicity", but not for mimicking a celebrity's voice without their consent.

Besides, the legal standing on whether a piece of art created by a human that incorporates AI components can be protected by copyright remains ambiguous. In ghostwriter's case we don't know which parts of the track they created using AI.

We do know, though, that, for what regards AI-generated materials, in February the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) stated that, to be registered, an artwork must be the product of human authorship.

At the same time, in new guidelines released on 16th March 2023, the US Copyright Office highlighted that there may be AI-generated material that may contain sufficient human authorship to support a copyright claim. For example, a human may select or arrange AI-generated material in a sufficiently creative way that "the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship." Or an artist may modify material originally generated by AI technology to such a degree that the modifications meet the standard for copyright protection. In these cases, copyright will only protect the human-authored aspects of the work, which are "independent of" and do "not affect" the copyright status of the AI-generated material itself. 

Therefore, copyright determinations will need to be made on a case-by-case basis, which may mean that ghostwriter may still have a right to claim the copyright of their track if it contained "sufficient human authorship".

Another issue arises when it comes to stopping the use of artists' music to train AI applications. Similar to AI text-to-image applications that learn from vast amounts of data, AI music production relies on being trained with music and audio tracks, sometimes even entire libraries of music.

UMG claim that the use of their artists' music for training generative AI was a clear infringement of copyright law. Nevertheless, there is no proper law about this, so Universal's position remains untested in a court of law. At the same time, UMG has admitted to use AI in their music production (we do not know in which ways - do they have their own system and do they feed it with hours of music recorded by anonymous artists? Do they feed the AI music from their own libraries?), yet they appear to be opposed to individuals using AI to recreate their own artist's music (obviously for money reasons...).

Scire Nefas by Irenebrination

One of the challenges with the use of AI in creating art is that there are currently no regulations in place to restrict what AI can and cannot be trained on. UMG is free to send cease-and-desist letters, but it is unlikely that AI services will stop accessing copyrighted materials unless legal boundaries are established.

There are a few ways that music sites can protect their artists from being copied by Artificial Intelligence. One method may be using a form of digital watermarking technology to embed unique identifiers into the music file or apply some kind of limitation just like a robots.txt file that controls which URLs search engine crawlers can access. Yet there is no guarantee that these methods would be effective at all.

This rapid production of music and voice through Artificial Intelligence and the ever-evolving technology behind AI present a challenge to major record labels.

There are several issues, questions, doubts and dilemmas regarding AI: will it damage artists and how can certain industries and talents survive? Such questions may go unanswered for if Artificial Intelligence doesn't get regulated in some way: the main problem remains the fact that the technology is already available to be used in the mainstream and people are employing it, but not rules exist.

While the possibilities of AI remain fascinating, the technology needs to be regulated in some ways. One solution in these cases would be banning AI companies using copyrighted works to train their models without permission. But there are other ways to regulate it and they may come from artists: Grimes' offer isn't the best, actually, for one main reason, she isn't licensing her voice to users to make a track, but she's waiting for users to make the music, to then claim half the royalties, which sounds a bit bizarre for somebody claiming she wants to "kill copyright".

Other artists have suggested better options including an alternative AI identity: Holly Herndon has been exploring the possibilities of AI in music for several years with her collaborator Mathew Dryhurst using technologies such as AI, Web 3.0, and blockchain.

Together they created the virtual persona Holly+ using deepfake technology. People can experiment with Holly+ for free, but Herndon also offers commercial licenses while ensuring she receives a share of the profits through a decentralized protocol. Last November Holly+ covered Dolly Parton's "Jolene," using a modified score of the original song composed of new tonal harmonies that was fed into Holly+ and then generated in Herndon's voice.

In 2022, Dryhurst and Herndon together with Jordan Meyer and Patrick Hoepner founded Spawning, a project that enables artists to have control over the use of their work in machine learning-generated media. With Spawning, artists can choose to opt in or out of the datasets used by AI art generators to create their compositions (the team also created haveibeentrained.com, a website where artists can search the LAION-5b dataset of nearly 5.8 billion images used to train AI models Stable Diffusion and Midjourney - if an artist discovers their work in the dataset, they can choose whether to continue or terminate the use of their imagery for AI training through Spawning). Spawning's approach has been praised for its potential to inform the European Union's text and data mining policy.

As with any transformative technological advancement, the music industry is currently in a state of flux, grappling with the necessary adjustments and growing pains that come with the integration of AI technology and you can bet that regulating AI in music will be an even more complex and time-consuming task than regulating sampling.

Legally-wise there will indeed be further issues to consider, from artists who will have to start checking also the contents of their contracts in case they include AI clauses and may end up signing away the rights to their virtual selves, to regulating those AI-music generators that allow you to create tracks by uploading a reference file. This practice may indeed be considered as a contributory infringement, the same accusation faced by file-sharing service Napster in the early 2000s.

A claim of contributory and direct infringement against companies stocking up copyrighted materials may actually be the solution for artists and companies who want to take their revenge: Napster was sued by the entire music industry, and eventually collapsed in 2002; LAION functions in a different way for images, but may find itself in the same position (and a few ones have already sued them...). 

So, navigating the legal minefield of AI-generated contents and of music in particular is far from straightforward, or, to put it more simply, as ghostwriter announced commenting on YouTube their Drake video, "This is just the beginning." It truly is.

This post was written in collaboration with Nicola Battista, from Italian label Kutmusic, one of the independent artists who sued Napster in the year 2000.

Perils of Artificial Intelligence: Plagiarisms? No, Just "Mode Collapse"

Trends play a pivotal role in shaping consumer behavior and influencing market demand in various industries: for example, in the realm of fashion, a particular hue or style may become the talk of the town, while in the world of art, music, or cinema, a particular genre becomes the new wave.

The allure of keeping up with the latest trends is undeniable: it signals that you are in the know and ahead of the curve, with a finger firmly on the pulse of the zeitgeist. However, while following trends can be advantageous, it can also have its drawbacks. By conforming to the prevailing trends, one risks losing their individuality and creativity, becoming just another follower in a sea of sameness.

This tendency towards conformity is a trap that many fall into, unwittingly surrendering their uniqueness and originality. Let us consider a simplistic yet illuminating instance: a ubiquitous phenomenon in the contemporary cafe culture is the widespread usage of blackboards to display menus.

This trend transcends geographical boundaries and appears to have established itself as the norm in various cities across the globe - be it the bustling streets of New York, the romantic alleys of Paris, the vibrant urbanity of London, the fashionable avenues of Milan, or the sunny beaches of Sydney. The prevalence of this trend is not limited to corporate franchises but also encompasses independent cafes and bars. The reason behind this phenomenon is rather simple: we stumble upon an endless stream of images on social media depicting the same trend, we internalize the visual narrative and we conform to what eventually becomes an established norm.

But this pervasive inclination to adhere to a distinct standard or aesthetic seems to have permeated the realm of Artificial Intelligence as well.

It is indeed not rare to spot something cool generated on one of the #general servers on Discord by the Midjourney Bot or an image created using another AI text-to-image generator that, posted on Reddit, quickly catches up, leading to the spawning of similar visuals, thereby creating a trend.

Let's make some examples: it is not so rare to spot on Instagram AI generated images of popular film or cartoon characters turned into white and blue Ming Dynasty porcelain pieces.

Darth Vader, Bart Simpson and Hello Kitty prevail on @anchorball's Instagram page, a very popular pose in which they are portrayed is with their legs crossed, like Buddha. A version of a Ming Dynasty Mandalorian in the same pose can also be spotted on @str4ngething's Instagram page. 

The idea is not completely new: months ago, Paul Parsons created porcelain versions of pop characters' masks, from superheroes to villains of the Star Wars saga such as Darth Vader and Imperial stormtroopers.

But the origins of the blue porcelain Star Wars character craze should be traced back to a few years ago when the trend became so popular at pop culture events and fairs in Asia that, in 2016, Hot Toys decided to release a Star Wars Stormtrooper figure with a blue porcelain pattern. So, in a way, this is a real life trend that has been applied to the digital world and that Artificial Intelligence has learnt to replicate pretty quickly.    

But let's go back to exploring similarities in AI generated images and consider further examples.

Atelier Blancmange's recent "Emboss/Deboss" collection, designed for the first Artificial Intelligence Fashion Week, is a mix of Classical, Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque and Neoclassical sculptures, filtered through costume design, cinema and music inspirations.

The collection looks unusual, but @str4ngething (who like @blancmange_atelier must be using Midjourney) seems to have obtained almost the same effects not just for what regards AI generated garments, but also accessories.

Obviously, there are differences in the shapes of the bags and sunglasses, in the effects obtained on the garments and in the palettes they chose for their works - a colourful one for Atelier Blancmange and a neutral one for @Str4ngething. Yet the main inspiration - three-dimensional sculptures - remains the same.

Apart from that, another user, @rickdick__ produced men's corsets that have got something sculptural about them, even though in this case the Ming Dynasty reference eventually led the system to the creation of something different.

Elsewhere one candy / jelly inspired gown posted a while back on Atelier Blancmange's Instagram page seems echoed in a collection by Pierce Gibbon, another participant in Artificial Intelligence Fashion Week.

Actually, if you go on Midjourney and include in your prompt words such as "candy", "jelly", "edible", "plastic" and "melted" or "melting", associated with "dress", you will generate gowns with different colours and configurations, that are in essence reminiscent of this collection.

The same thing often happens with rainbow coloured gowns: Midjourney seems indeed to tend to generate gowns with ample cape-like cloaks or panels that open up into rainbows splashing on the runway (this post features a collection between a design by @anchorball and one from Maritza Rubio, another AIFW contender).

So, why is this happening? How come there are such connections and in some cases almost the same image is generated? Sure, it is possible that these users were influenced by similar cultural or social trends or by each other, besides there are creators who spend time on the Midjourney #general servers on Discord or on Reddit, bouncing ideas off each other.

In the case of Atelier Blancmange, though, the collection was unveiled on 20th April for AIFW 23, the images were sent to the organisers at the beginning of April and weren't posted online before that, still there is an evident connection with the images generated by @str4ngething in mid-April. So, what caused the similarities?

Well, there is actually a tech explanation: the AI text-to-image system the two creators used learnt to generate specific images based on certain prompts or keywords. This is known as "mode collapse," where the model tends to generate similar or identical images for different prompts due to overfitting to a certain set of images or concepts.

Mode collapse is a common problem in Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), which are a type of deep learning architecture used for image and video generation.

Several text-to-image systems use GANs as their core component: Midjourney employs StyleGAN2, which is an advanced version of the original StyleGAN model, while Stable Diffusion uses BigGAN, a large-scale GAN architecture that produces high-quality images.

Other popular text-to-image systems that use GANs include DALL-E from OpenAI and AttnGAN from Microsoft Research Asia.

In a GAN, there are two parts: a generator network and a discriminator network. The generator network tries to create new images, while the discriminator network tries to determine whether an image is real (from a training dataset) or fake (generated by the generator).  

Mode collapse occurs when the generator network starts producing a limited range of images, even though the input data should allow for a much wider range of outputs. This happens when the generator network becomes too good at fooling the discriminator into thinking its generated images are real, but it does so by only generating a limited subset of images that are similar to each other. In other words, the generator network "collapses" many possible outputs into a few "modes" or clusters of similar images.

One reason for mode collapse is that the generator network has not learnt enough variation in the input data, and so it produces outputs that are similar to each other. Another reason is that the discriminator network has become too strong, making it difficult for the generator network to create new and diverse images.

Researchers have developed various techniques to mitigate mode collapse, such as modifying the GAN architecture, changing the loss functions, adding noise to the input data, and using regularization techniques. Despite these efforts, mode collapse remains a common problem in GANs and a topic of ongoing research in the field of deep learning.

So, the similarities between images you may see on Instagram feeds, may not be a question of plagiarism or of stealing ideas from each other, but of the system learning to react to a prompt in certain ways and in accordance with the input data it was trained on.

The final danger? Exactly what we were talking about at the beginning of this post - generating not just a trend, but a sea of sameness.

Does this mean that we should stop creating on these systems? After all, it must be frustrating for a creator to think they have come up with something unique only to discover that somebody else did more or less the same thing.

Maybe one way to avoid all this, rather than just creating something and posting it immediately on Instagram to prove you were there before everybody else, would be to generate images on AI text-to-image systems based on your own exclusive images fed to the system. That said, the system would then start learning from them and it would still be able to reproduce something similar.

In future things may change, but GAN architecture at the moment constitutes a problem for those fashion designers and houses interested in using Artificial Intelligence in their collections on a merely visual level: they may indeed generate an image of the most beautiful gown today thinking of producing the design IRL in six weeks' time at a fashion show. However, tomorrow, an anonymous user may use the same words in a prompt and generate a design that is more or less the same.

This suggests that we have to sit down and think about how to use Artificial Intelligence in fashion in more original ways.

Sure, AI can be employed for personalized styling, supply chain optimization, waste reduction and virtual try-ons, but, when it comes to product design, rather than using Artificial Intelligence to create entire fashion collections, we could maybe employ it to generate ideas that could then be developed into innovative solutions and cutting-edge applications and integrated into fashion collections, from fastening systems to textiles elaborations for surface treatments and texturing.

In a nutshell, the ideal remains to merge human creativity with AI optimization and reinterpret the outputs generated by AI through the insights gained from human knowledge and experimentation.

Timeless Elegance in Masterful Designs: Interior Pieces and Objects from Casa Fornaroli Hit the Auction Block

While most of us do not possess the financial resources to acquire the coveted items on sale at renowned auction houses, it is always worthwhile checking their sites as, quite often nowadays, you can spot captivating and alluring pieces, ideal to stimulate our creative instincts and broaden our aesthetic horizons. These pieces can potentially serve as a springboard for our imaginative projects and encourage us to venture beyond our usual comfort zones.

There is, for example, at the moment a very interesting auction of items from Casa Fornaroli on the Phillips platform (the auction is on tomorrow, 27th April, in London).

Antonio Fornaroli, an engineer, was Gio Ponti's trusted friend and collaborator: beginning in 1933 and spanning nearly four decades, the collaboration yielded a prolific body of work. In the city of Milan alone, this partnership is credited with the creation of no fewer than 23 buildings, ranging from a corporate high-rise to apartments, churches, a factory, a hospital, and a school.

Among these, the two Montecatini buildings (1936 and 1951), the iconic Pirelli Tower (1956), and the stunning Montedoria building (1970), stand out.

Several years after beginning their partnership, Fornaroli started collecting Gio Ponti's interior designs: his residence became therefore increasingly populated with notable pieces from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s.

Fornaroli favoured modernist rigor and Ponti's rectilinear designs, but he also had a penchant for works that integrated art pieces: a stunning four-door wardrobe included in this auction incorporates a series of twelve paintings by Adriano Spilimbergo (this work served as a precursor to a list of partnerships between Ponti and other artists and designers, including Piero Fornasetti, Edina Altara, Piero Zuffi, and Paolo De Poli), while a large bookcase on a bank of concealed cabinetry integrates a Piero Zuffi lithographic print.

The auction also includes an entire wall unit (Fornaroli was a fan of Ponti's integrated cabinetry) functioning as a wardrobe system and incorporating a door that opened into another room and a mural replicating the "diamond as crystal as architecture" theme that Ponti used in both the Caracas villas - Planchart and Arreaza.

Fornaroli's selection of interior design objects for his house was rooted in the principles of modernism and pushed the boundaries of what was considered possible in terms of form, function, and aesthetics.

In some cases, the materials, lines and shapes of Ponti's interior design pieces extended to smaller objects: the shape and pattern of his living room cabinetry is indeed evoked in a paper-covered ash toy furniture bedroom suite.

The latter features a wardrobe and a furnished bed all covered in Ponti's "I Fantini" pattern featuring rows of colourful jockey's jackets, which he used for Ginori ceramics in the '30s.

Besides, the auction features a variety of smaller pieces by Ponti, including glassware, silverware, and enameled works; among the others there are also the silver-plated and brass-plated bundled clusters of different-sized tubes, evoking his 1971 project for Plateau Beaubourg, Paris.

Fornaroli also collected pieces by other artists and designers, such as Paolo Buffa, Carlo De Carli, Piero Zuffi, Pietro Chiesa, Paolo De Poli, Fausto Melotti, Lucio Fontana, Max Ingrand, both Carlo and Tobia Scarpa, Fulvio Bianconi, Thomas Stearns, and Tapio Wirkkala (some of them, such as Buffa and De Carli, had direct connections with Ponti and worked earlier on in his studio).

Fashion designers on the lookout for colour palettes, may get inspired by the colours of some of these pieces, like the joyous enamelled copper coasters by Paolo De Poli and Gio Ponti's Venini canne glasses.

Costume designers may want to check out Ponti's scenography watercolour and ink sketches and his illustrations for the costumes of the Festa Romantica ballet from the mid-'40s.

Jewellery designers will instead fall in love with the timeless simplicity of Fausto Melotti's exquisite glazed ceramic earrings and necklaces from the mid-'50s.

Made with polychrome glazed ceramic beads, Melotti's jewelry pieces reflect his search for the magical and poetic, while representing a moment of liberation for the artist: Melotti created monumental and abstract sculptures and these pieces, while being part of his personal creative research like the colourful beads featured in his poetic ceramic and metal sculptures which he created over the many years of his creative career (View this photo), represented for him almost a divertissement.

In this auction, the best piece for fashion fans remains the "Balletto della Scala" jacket (circa 1950). The cropped design made with fabrics by JSA, Busto-Arsizio, by seamstress Lia Biffi, is characterized by an architectural shape and by colourful Ponti prints with a series of figures wearing orange, yellow, mint green and pink gowns on a white/grey background. The two metal buttons of the jackets are particularly cute: with their slightly raised fabric-covered edge, they look like an outie belly button.  

The Casa Fornaroli auction selection serves as a testament to specific currents that permeated European culture during the advent of avant-garde modernism.

These objects remain relevant and captivating even in the present day and offer a fascinating glimpse into the cultural milieu of mid-20th century Milan, a city that was at the forefront of the international design scene at the time and a place that Ponti often praised for the finesse of its designs and the skills of its designers who effortlessly achieved refined elegance and sophistication through their commitment to modernism. 

Migration as a Generative Force for Artistic Creation: "The Skin of the Earth is Seamless" by Maia Ruth Lee @ Tina Kim Gallery, New York

Tightly secured bales of clothes can assume different meanings in art installations: for Busan-born, Colorado-based artist Maia Ruth Lee, for example, they represent themes linked with migration.

In 2018 Lee started a series entitled "Bondage Baggage", featuring fabric sculptures inspired by the luggage secured with tape and rope (a method used by many migrant workers returning to Nepal to prevent theft at the airport) seen on conveyor belts at the international airport in Kathmandu, where the artist grew up.

The artist perceived the colourful parcels covered with bedsheets and tarps and secured with ropes as thoughtfully packaged vessels containing personal narratives and as symbols of migratory experiences, displacement, and privacy protection. Lee then tried to recreate them binding together linen, clothing, and used materials, and covering them with plastic, tarps, burlap, or canvas. Fastened with tape or cords, the bundles bulge and strain, the ropes securing them hinting at containment and constrictions, but also at resilience, perseverance and self-preservation.

Lee has a connection with textiles that goes beyond these parcels: in the past she did an exhibition that featured sewing patterns, used in that case as instrumental tools to create a garment to protect the body.

Lee's latest exhibition at Tina Kim Gallery in New York (until 6th May) represents an extension of the "Bondage Baggage" theme. The title is inspired by Gloria Anzaldúa’s 1987 text "Borderlands/La Frontera" in which the writer compares the diasporic identity to an open wound, writing "the skin of the earth is seamless, the sea cannot be fenced, el mar does not stop at borders."

The expanded "Bondage Baggage" pieces reflect the artist's longstanding concerns about the emotional and physical realities of migration, diaspora, and borders. The exhibited works explore the themes of constant mobility, but also of healing and transformation, and the interplay between the competing forces of flux and stability.

Lee's neatly packaged bundles of humble possessions become in this exhibition the starting point for her paintings. The latter aren't indeed conventional paintings, but parts of her "Bondage Baggage" sculptures, that the artist developed after she relocated to Colorado from New York.

To create the artworks, the artist coats the sculpture's outer canvas layer with ink that permeates through and around the ropes. When the ropes are cut, the "skin" of the sculpture unfurls, revealing Lee's "Bondage Baggage" paintings. The paintings, with their leather-like or aged skin appearance, look visually intriguing and they emit a radiant energy from their internal center outward. From three-dimensional, the parcels become flat, producing a printed grid, almost a symbol of fences, gates and boundaries, evoking the lines of longitudes and latitudes on maps and atlases and therefore expanding the migration narrative.

While the parcel pieces represent the physical and tactile dimension, the paintings are abstractions. It is as if Lee translated one into another, to pay homage to her parents who are translators and to investigate identities in relation to languages.

The exhibition also features another sculptural series: empty mesh pods crafted from discarded ropes removed from the original "Bondage Baggage" sculptures, that now resemble empty shells. They can be interpreted as the exoskeletal remnants of the works' metamorphosis. Fragile in nature, the pods only preserve faint traces of the objects they once safeguarded.

Lee included in "The Skin of the Earth is Seamless" a video as well in which she sampled and edited together old family footage shot by her father in her rural hometown of Nepal, superimposing text excerpts from the letters she wrote to her friends while moving to Colorado during the pandemic. The video tackles a variety of themes - home, family, spiritual inheritance, language, and again translation.

Lee's exploration of migration as a generative force for artistic creation is a profound and powerful pursuit, reflecting her incisive examination of complex themes. Her innovative approach is empowering and provides a unique perspective on the human experience.

Moreover, you can bet that the fashion world will take notice of Lee's vivid "Bondage Baggage" paintings, and perhaps even consider her for a collaboration for runway installations or collections (maybe with Jonathan Anderson at Loewe as the designer already created a quilted wool maxi coat with hand applied netted white stitching that echoes Maia Ruth Lee's works? View this photo).

Image credits for this post

Installation views of "Maia Ruth Lee: The skin of the earth is seamless" at Tina Kim Gallery, New York (April 6 - May 6, 2023). Courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery. Photo by Charles Roussel.

Fast Fashion Awareness in the Journey of Mitumba: "Return to Sender" by Nest @ SNFCC's Esplanade, Kallithea, Greece

Public areas in society are crucial as they provide chances for leisure, relaxation, introspection, and transformation - that's why an installation in such places can be intellectually stimulating and promote knowledge and intellectual growth. This week, for example, two Greek institutions, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣΤ) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), present a major outdoor installation by the Nairobi-based collective NEST.

Entitled "Return to Sender" and on display at SNFCC's Esplanade, in Kallithea, south of central Athens (26th April - 30th September 2023), the installation was originally commissioned for Documenta 15 in Kassel (2022).

Established in 2012, the NEST Collective has produced film, music, fashion, visual arts and literature works. Although their practice explores African urban, contemporary, and post-colonial experiences as an investigation into their histories and musings regarding potential futures, it frequently acknowledges and responds to significant contemporary concerns, such as the global climate crisis.

The installation consists in a custom-built pavilion constructed from bales of discarded clothing, commonly known as "mitumba" in Swahili. These bales of used clothing, which predominantly end up in landfills across Africa, constitute a significant environmental issue.

In the installation, the compressed and neatly arranged bales create a dystopian wasteland and put the viewers in an uncomfortable position, making them face the physical consequences of our collective uncontrolled consumption.

"This work was proposed to raise awareness of the negative consequences of high-street or fast fashion clothes - bought, worn for a short while, and discarded quickly - and to raise awareness of the issue specifically in Greece," EMΣΤ Artistic Director Katerina Gregos states.

The bales also point at the regulations that mandate the relocation of these materials to the Global South, so that dealing with the discarded textiles becomes the responsibility of less industrialized nations. Studies highlight that up to 40 percent of each bale of second-hand clothing imported in Africa is entirely unusable and subsequently deposited in landfills, thereby compelling those who trade in these garments to incur substantial overhead costs due to the risk of acquiring a useless bale.

"The environmental footprint of the fashion industry is an issue that needs to be talked about more and consumers need to be made aware that cheap clothes constitute not only an environmental problem, but also a political one as the wealthy West continues to dump its waste in the Global South and poorer countries," Gregos highlights.

This specific version of "Return to Sender", created after an invitation of SNFCC to EMΣΤ to submit a proposal for their annual outdoor installation, is composed of textiles and garments gathered from Greece and intended for either recycling or reuse in industry, where they will ultimately end up following the exhibition. Besides, the artwork is also accompanied by a video installation, entitled "Return to Sender - Delivery Detail", which explores the complicated situation of mostly second-hand textile waste in Kenya and Africa, through the viewpoints of different contributors.

The mountain of recycled waste and the video installation offer the public a chance to temporarily experience these challenges, which in Kenya and many other African countries are a permanent reality.

Image credits for this post

"Return to Sender" installation by Nest, photo by and copyright Nikos Karanikolas, courtesy National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣΤ) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC).

The Symbolism of a Red Dress in Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela's "Waiting for Gebane"

Clothes define us in different ways: some of us create through garments distinctive uniforms for themselves that represent their social status or role in society; but there are specific clothing and colours that communicate a message to others, for example, wearing black during times of mourning expresses grief and sorrow. In Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela's practice a red dress holds symbolic significance.

Born in 1977 in Thokoza, South Africa, the interdisciplinary artist is proficient in various forms of expression, such as performance, photography, video and printmaking. She also employs embroidery and textiles in her installations, often characterised by a compelling narrative power tackling social justice issues, displacement, and identity in relation to her own personal experiences in post-apartheid South Africa.

The protagonist of the project "Waiting for Gebane", for instance, is Marasela's fictional alter ego, Theodora Mthetyane. her husband, Gebane Hlongwane, gives her an Iseshweshwe dress as a parting gift before leaving their rural home to seek work in Johannesburg.

The Iseshweshwe dress is typically worn by married women in Xhosa culture and is prevalent in rural areas. Despite waiting for years, Gebane never returns, but Theodora keeps on wearing the dress every day as a symbol of her fidelity. Through Theodora, Marasela alludes to her mother's story and the experiences of many South African women during apartheid, so that the project assumes a collective meaning.

The red colour of the Iseshweshwe dress and the linen pieces hints at disruption and conflict in South Africa in the early 1900s, but also at a period of severe drought and at the red mine hills of industrialised cities like Johannesburg where men from the rural areas of South Africa were sent to work.

In a six-year-long performance (2013-2019), Marasela embodied Theodora's story and wore the dress daily, exploring themes of waiting, loneliness, and hope, discrimination and identification, and retelling through the red dress the story of the social disregard and abandonment lived by women in South Africa. The project, "Waiting for Gebane," culminated in Marasela's inaugural solo exhibition at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, in 2020.

"For the past twenty years Marasela has developed an intriguing as much as an urgent body of work that essentially addresses the social disregard and abandonment of women in Apartheid South Africa," Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, states about the artist.

"Using forms and materials in ingenious ways that allow viewers to get a sense of the trauma inflicted on Black people through the lives of South African women and working primarily with durational performance, her work centralises the micro-histories of women in her family and the experience of many others. These include the biographies of icons such Sarah Baartman and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as well as fictional and mythological women such as Charles Dicken's Miss Havisham and Homer's Penelope."

The red dress is among the works recently acquired for the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen after Marasela won the new K21 Global Art Award, presented by the Freunde der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Friends of K20K21).

The K20K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen - North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf is an internationally renowned museum for modern, postwar and contemporary art divided in two venues, K20 and K21.

The panel for the award comprised Doryun Chong (M+, Hong Kong); Koyo Kouoh (Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Capetown); Omar Kholeif (Sharjah Art Foundation, Government of Sharjah, UAE); Oluremi C. Onabanjo, (The Museum of Modern Art, New York) and Jochen Volz (Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo). Each member of the jury nominated two artists who work in various forms of media. The list of the ten nominated artists was then presented to the Friends of K20K21 Selection Committee, that chose the winning artist. The winner's artworks are then acquired by the Friends of K20K21, and go on permanent loan to the collection of K20K21, so, hopefully, Marasela's newly acquired pieces will be on display at the institution soon.

"I am delighted to welcome the voice and the experience of Senzeni Marasela into our collection," Prof. Susanne Gaensheimer, Director of K20K21 stated in a press release. "Marasela is an artist and a feminist who has achieved so much to give a voice and a visibility to the life and struggles of women living in post-apartheid South Africa. Her work is not only about women and not only about specitic context of South Africa – it captures the emotions and the experiences of something far greater and far more universal."  

Image credits for this post

Senzeni Marasela, Ijeremani Lam. © Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen 2023. Acquired by Friends of K20K21.

Senzeni Marasela, Falling Series/Waiting for Gebane. © Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen 2023. Acquired by Friends of K20K21.

Senzeni Marasela, Waiting for Gebane. © Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen 2023. Acquired by Friends of K20K21.

Senzeni Marasela, Falling Series III. © Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen 2023. Acquired by Friends of K20K21.

Senzeni Marasela © Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen 2023.

Sculpting the Future: "Emboss/Deboss" by Atelier Blancmange @ Artificial Intelligence Fashion Week 23 (AIFW23)

 

Emboss and Deboss, in a dreamlike trance

Found themselves in a strange circumstance

In a world where the rules had no chance

And reality was just a fleeting dance

Emboss, the master of raised relief

Asked Deboss, "do you know the thief

Who stole my power and caused my grief

Leaving me flat, without any belief?"

Deboss, the master of sunken art

Replied, "I know not of this part

But let us not dwell on a broken heart

And instead, let us make a brand new start."

They wandered through a world surreal

Where up was down and the ground would peel

And nothing was quite as it did feel

And the stars would dance, their fate to seal

Emboss said, "I am lost without my skill

Without my power, my soul is ill"

Deboss replied, "But look around, we fill

This world with wonder, and that is our thrill"

And so, they journeyed on and on

In a world where right and wrong were gone

And where the surreal was the new norm

And they found their power in the art of form.

Atelier Blancmange + ChatGPT

Among the 133 designers included in the first Artificial Intelligence Fashion Week 23 (AIFW23), there is an international collective called Atelier Blancmange.

Their collection is entitled "Emboss/Deboss" and features a selection of gender-neutral sporty and casual garments and accessories (sneakers, rubber boots, bags, sunglasses, hats, headbands and jewelry) characterized by visually catching three-dimensional effects calling to mind sculptures and bas reliefs.

Their press release mentions as inspiration "a mix of Classical, Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque and Neoclassical sculptures, but also the 50th anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop and the architectures of a pristine and futuristic temple located in an alternative multiverse".

The gender-neutral collection revolves around two palettes, a brighter one with shades such as canary yellow, royal blue, crimson red and emerald green, and a softer pastel palette, with wisteria, mint green and flamingo, bubblegum and hot pink.

The collective used Midjourney (v5) to design the garments and accessories and pushed the system to create three-dimensional surfaces, conjuring up the illusion of depth on fabrics and developing something that Artificial Intelligence doesn't have, a tactile dimension through engraved and raised surfaces and textiles.

Atelier Blancmange also used Artificial Intelligence to generate a poetic yet playful text - a multi-sensory symbolic dialogue between two characters, Emboss and Deboss - to accompany the collection, created in collaboration with ChatGPT.

Drifting in a topsy-turvy world that has gone surreal and where no rights or wrongs exist anymore, the unlikely duo engage in an entertaining game of opposites, toying with dualities in spatial concepts (above and under / inside and outside), states of perception (material and immaterial / tangible and intangible / digital and physical) and cognitive architectures (human and artificial). In their imaginative journey there is a positively optimistic message: stars do not always align in our lives, but beauty can still be created. Or found.

Where does the name of the collective name come from?
Atelier Blancmange: The name of our international collective is inspired by the alien Blancmange from Planet Skyron in the infamous Monty Python sketch.

What prompted (pun unintended) you to take part in the AIFW event?
AB: Many of us are interested in exploring new and innovative ways of designing and producing clothing. When we heard about the fashion competition, we knew that it was an opportunity for us to share our vision with a wider audience and maybe network with other designers and industry professionals.

Where does the inspiration for your collection come from?
AB: We had a series of images in mind: as stated in our press release, we used a mix of Classical, Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque and Neoclassical sculptures. Rather than fashion designs we also had in mind architectural costumes such as the ones for Gioachino Rossini's Semiramide, directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi in 1980, that derive from the engravings in Masquerade à la Grecque by French architect Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot. While creating the collection we were listening to a lot of Hip Hop, in particular Tierra Whack, and keeping firmly in mind the 50th anniversary of the birth of the genre, and that was an inspiration for the sporty yet cool looks. Colour-wise we wanted to recreate the exuberance of album covers such as De La Soul's groundbreaking 1989 album "3 Feet High and Rising" and the joy of playing with Lego sets in vibrant shades. For the runway show ambiance and moods we had in mind the pink sets (remember Pinky's villa, with tone on tone statues and his pink coffin?) in What a Way To Go directed by J. Lee Thompson and the architectures of a pristine and futuristic temple located in an alternative multiverse (think Everything Everywhere All at Once).

What kind of prompts did you use to create it? For example, did you feed the Midjourney Bot with any pre-existing images?
AB: No, we didn't, because our aim was seeing if we could recreate our moods and feelings using only a verbal prompt. We live in a very visual world, but our collective is in love with words. We eventually managed to recreate what we had in mind by changing the position of specific words, playing around with terms from the semantic field of art and referencing sculptures and the embossed/debossed techniques.

What inspired the ChatGPT dialogue?
AB: As we said we love words and we wanted to add an AI element also to our text, and a bit of drama as well. We wanted to craft a compelling narrative that could capture people's attention and the key themes and influences behind the collection. Fashion storytelling is fascinating since it creates a story that resonates with people. Personifying the two techniques behind the collection allowed us to come up with an imaginative dialogue that plays with dualities and dichotomies, but also offers people a positively optimistic message.

How long did it take you to create the collection?
AB: It was a bit of a long learning process. We started experimenting with AI text-to-image systems in December and began investigating the potential of AI in fashion between January and February. We were accepted to take part in the first AIFW in March, after submitting 5 images of another collection. We kept on developing that one for 4 weeks, but felt the system was limited especially when it came to generating Black models and curvy / plus size models, so our runway seemed to lack diversity. While working on this first collection, we decided to experiment also with a new three-dimensional and sculptural inspiration. Eventually Midjourney v5 was released: as the new version generated a wider range of models on and off the runway and seemed to interpret in better ways our sculptural inspiration, we decided to scrap everything and start from scratch again, so in the end it took us 6-7 weeks to come up with the final collection.

How many designs did you include in the collection?
AB: We did thirty images showing the designs on models, then another thirty images with close-ups of the accessories. As extras we designed close-ups of textiles, street styles, guests sitting in the front row, models in the backstage and moodboards. So we recreated a complete "fashion show" package.

Which were the most difficult aspects of creating such a collection?
AB: Probably editing down the hundreds of images we generated and coming up with a coherent and cohesive collection. We also wanted the light to interact with different surfaces, creating intriguing visual effects and that was challenging as well. Aside from that, the front row images were a bit tricky as Midjourney wasn't responding well to our prompts to include statues sitting in the front row, but kept on generating hybrid creatures, half human and half statue. It was bizarre and a bit disturbing, but we got there eventually!

Are you happy about how it turned out and which is your favorite look?
AB: It was a long process, with a lot of trials and errors, but eventually we got what we wanted and we're definitely happy about it. We like each look for different reasons, some of us prefer the palette in brighter and more vivid colours and others the gothic pastel palette, but we really like all the designs.

What do you think about the other collections included in the AIFW23?
AB: It's simply amazing how each and every participant came up with their own vision and dream! The bar is high, so we wish all of them the best in the competition and with their future as well.

In which ways do you think that AI can benefit the fashion industry?
AB: AIFW23 offers a platform to demonstrate just some of the potential of AI in the fashion industry. The applications of Artificial Intelligence are endless: guess AI will become an essential tool for many designers and the most powerful fashion houses will also have their own AI departments soon (well, many of them already have them...). It can be used to create prints, generate quick ideas for a moodboard or allow a designer to conceptualise a collection before working on it, but it could also be employed to create new and innovative blends of items from a fashion archive. AI can also help designers to optimize their production processes and predict market trends. For example, AI can be used to analyze data from past production runs to identify areas where improvements can be made. This can help designers to reduce waste, streamline their manufacturing processes, and increase the overall quality of their products. Another way that AI can benefit fashion designers is by helping them to predict market trends. By analyzing large amounts of data from social media, search engines, and other sources, AI can help designers to identify which styles and colors are likely to be popular in the future.

And in which ways you'd like to use AI in connection with fashion?
AB: We aren't that interested in using AI to create a collection that looks real or that looks totally unreal and fantastic. We believe indeed that AI applications should be used to experiment futuristic options and innovative tailoring and textile interventions that may then be translated into reality.

Do you think AI will revolutionise the fashion industry?
AB: Artificial Intelligence is poised to revolutionize numerous industries, ranging from design and fashion to art and architecture. However, it will have the most significant impact on the fields of science and medicine.

Are you worried about copyright issues and Artificial Intelligence generated images in fashion?
AB: As Artificial Intelligence gains momentum, the issue of copyright is emerging as a crucial consideration. We firmly believe that despite the system's unpredictability, the generated image is a product of the prompt, and there is originality in the output created through AI. At present we are not concerned about copyrights in connection with AIFW23 as our primary objective was to participate in the event for enjoyment and learning, which we successfully achieved.

Would you be interested in converting your AI collection into an actual collection?
AB: Sure, and we have investigated the possibilities to do so. One of the methods to materialize the collection in real life would be fleece with silicone embossing or screen printing with puff additives to create a faux embossed effect. Other innovative techniques may also be explored to create such effects, like three dimensional thermowelding. Accessories could instead be produced with silicone, rubber, leather and 3D printing.

What plans do you have for the future?
AB: We feel that with "Emboss/Deboss" we have embarked on an experimental journey and wish to continue exploring AI systems. We view this as merely the beginning of our adventure, and we aim to push the boundaries further, not only in fashion design but also in the realm of architectural spaces.

You can check out Atelier Blancmange's collection for AI Fashion Week 23 on the platform's dedicated app and vote for your favourite designer from a mobile device after registering your mobile phone number.

Artificial Intelligence Takes the Runway: A Look at the First AI Fashion Week

The first AI Fashion Week kicked off yesterday, digitally on a dedicated app and physically at New York's Spring Studios: showcasing collections designed by AI fans from all over the world using AI text-to-image applications, the event offers a glimpse of the future of fashion.

The collections can be viewed by registering on the dedicated app that also allows you to vote for your favourite designer (note: you must leave your mobile phone number and vote from a mobile device).

Organisers hope to showcase through the designs on the platform the potential of AI technology, explore the endless possibilities of AI and give three winners (finalists will be announced in May) the chance to enter the Maison Meta x Revolve AI Fashion Incubator and get their collections produced. 

So what's the verdict on this first AI Fashion Week? Well, there were a few bumps in this maiden voyage. Participants were asked to create collections featuring 15 to 30 looks on models walking a runway, but were given carte blanche. When the site and project launched, the fashion models created by AI applications still looked rather bizarre: some sprouted extra fingers or had elongated bodies with small heads and extremely angular cheekbones, features that made them look like extraterrestrial creatures from a stylish yet imaginary planet located in a galaxy far away.

Just a few weeks after the first participants passed step 1 of the process, Midjourney released a new version (v5), that provoked much excitements among AI text-to-image fans, but also caused a major setback to the event as organisers decided to extend deadlines and allow people to redesign their collections or come up with new ones.

The last few days were crucial with the AIFW team working hard to upload the 133 selected collections, even though only half of them eventually made it to Spring in New York.

One interesting thing to note is that the event proved that fashion genuinely pervades our lives: in total organisers received over 350 submissions, and this was just the first time the event took place.

Besides, the people who submitted their collections didn't necessarily have a fashion background: among them there are fashion students and designers, but there are also people with completely different careers and backgrounds who just love fashion or people who don't know anything about fashion but work in technology.

In the weeks that led to the event, AIFW23 Discord channels were abuzz with participants sharing their thoughts and collections and obsessively wondering if they would have made the final selection.

In a way, those ones with a fashion background were maybe more relaxed about the process than designers with a tech background who suddenly showed a great interest in taking part in this experimental fashion week.

Another interesting point is that the participants' ages varied greatly: quite a few appear to be in their twenties, but the thirties to forties brackets are also widely represented, something that makes you wonder if some of the more mature participants may be reconsidering careers, or may be dreaming of a more creative profession merging fashion and technology.

Digesting all the collections takes time: some collections look more polished and coherent and were created by people who work in the industry; others look less cohesive, but there are many imaginary locations and sets, from mushroom fantasylands to deserts, while futuristic backgrounds conjure up spaceships and natural worlds can be interpreted as blissful tributes to the Pachamama.

Some collections are extravagant, the result of an active human imagination combined with a powerful system; others lack the extravagance, but would be easily translatable into real clothes; and then there are designs that show potential, but will need a lot of experiments before being turned into real pieces.

Some designs and models were maybe created with previous version of Midjourney; in other cases designers must have added a tiny dose of "--c", the "chaos" factor that, with the proper variable, can bring in some distortions and unpredictable elements.

In many cases accessories seemed more desirable than clothes: the offer includes sleek synthetic materials forming parametric structures around the models' feet or extravagant sunglasses creating biomimicry-inspired visors that may become trendy on Mars in 50 years' time.

One thing must be noted: many participants opted for co-ed collections, there are just a few ones featuring only male models; womenswear seems to prevail, even though in many cases the designs are genderless.

Most collections feature extra images showing not just the accessories, but also the backstage, street styles and front rows. The "f-rows" can be particularly difficult for Artificial Intelligence: the system finds indeed still difficult to come up with credible images of crowds with multiple people. Yet, in most of these cases, the designers did a great job, with some front rows immersed in a pleasant cinematic atmosphere or even featuring clones of Anna Wintour.

There are some aspects, though, that must be taken into consideration: white and thin models prevail, which may mean that some designers didn't take diversity into consideration or that they just wrote the word "model" in their prompt and the AI systems they used provided them with a white model.

That said some designers rebalanced their runways offering a diverse cast of models, representative of a wide range of body types and skin tones. One designer also included two models on wheelchairs and a runway celebrated elderly models, with a distorted clone of Iris Apfel.

As highlighted in a previous post, diversity is a key issue on both real and digital runways and even AI text generator ChatGPT acknowledges the issue.

Required to provide an opinion about the risks of AI designed fashion collections, ChatGPT wrote: "One of the potential risks of using AI to design fashion collections is the risk of bias and lack of diversity. AI is only as good as the data it is trained on, and if the data is biased or lacks diversity, then the AI-designed fashion collection will also be biased and lack diversity."

"If the data used to train AI only represents a narrow range of body types, skin tones, or cultural backgrounds, the resulting fashion collection may not be inclusive or representative of a diverse population," ChatGPT continued.

"This can have negative consequences on society as fashion plays a significant role in shaping cultural perceptions and norms. Moreover, AI can also perpetuate existing biases in fashion, such as gendered fashion or stereotyped fashion designs. For instance, AI may be trained on data that associates certain colors, patterns, or styles with specific genders or cultural backgrounds, resulting in fashion collections that reinforce these biases."

The other problem is the derivation of some of the collections, it is indeed undeniable that some designs are reminiscent of real collections from other designers/fashion houses.

There's a whiff of Prada or Bottega Veneta here, a hint at Fendi there, and then assorted traces of Alexander McQueen, Marni, Etro, Dolce & Gabbana, Guo Pei, Elie Saab and Valentino.

Besides, a model in one of the collections wears a sort of headpiece creating a frozen splashed effect around her head, reminiscent of Stephen Jones' 1993 "Wash 'n' Go" hat, and of Iris van Herpen's S/S 2011 collection (View this photo). Van Herpen actually remains a strong reference in those collections with a strong futuristic yet ethereal edge.

It may be the case that some designers put into the system a pre-existing image and asked the AI system to work on that, while others may have used an original prompt containing words that pushed the system to harvest specific ideas from existing collections. 

Required to provide an opinion about AI harvesting ideas and images from previous collections, ChatGPT states: "Copying in a fashion collection designed by AI is a potential risk, just as it is in traditional fashion design. AI uses data and algorithms to generate designs, which means that there is a possibility that the AI may unintentionally or intentionally copy existing designs or ideas. Moreover, AI can also learn from existing fashion designs and trends, which means that there is a risk of producing fashion collections that are too similar to existing designs."

Yet, AI systems do not necessarily copy and plagiarise an existing fashion design when creating a collection. As ChatGPT explains, "AI can be trained to generate designs that are original and unique. The level of copying in an AI-designed fashion collection depends on the data and algorithms used to train the AI. If the data used to train the AI includes a wide range of fashion designs and trends, the AI-generated designs are more likely to be original and unique."

That said, apart from connections and links, there are some extravagant moments of originality during this first AIFW, with footwear often looking more desirable than what you see on the market at the moment.

So, could AI text-to-image harm the fashion system? Well, we must try and be very honest with ourselves here: for the last 30 years, many houses and brands have been constantly reinventing and remixing previous designs. It is not a secret that up until 20-25 years ago, designers often visited obscure vintage shops in search of that special golden egg, a forgotten garment that, slightly altered, reinvented and replicated, had the potential to make a lot of money (this was the main modus operandi at Prada, then it expanded to other houses as well).

AI does exactly the same, only it remixes and recreates or recombines things with a higher level of efficiency and without the need of physically going to an obscure vintage shop.

In a nutshell, we may just argue that AI systems are optimising what humans have been doing in fashion in the last few decades.

Maybe, to detect better possible derivations from previous collections, the AIFW organisers will have to pick among the jury members judging the collections, also a fashion historian or a journalist with decades of experience, since such figures would be able to immediately spot possible references. Hopefully, next time they will do so. 

Another aspect that demands attention is the issue of copyright as the organizers intend to transform the winning collections into physical collections. However, it is unclear who will possess the copyright for such collections, considering that the generated content through Artificial Intelligence is assumed to be in the public domain.

For the time being what's for sure is that this first AIFW was a learning process: if the participants (and even the organizers) were able to gain something from this, then it can already be considered a success. Who knows, maybe some of the participants working in fashion will decide to start focusing more on technology and vice versa, or maybe some of these AI designers will decide to start collaborating together and produce something even more extraordinary for the next event.

As for fashion designers and houses, underestimating or condemning Artificial Intelligence is definitely not the solution: AI is a tool that may lead to new possibilities, after all some designers and houses are already using it in their collections, advertising campaigns and during dedicated events. But maybe we should follow ChatGPT's advice: "The best approach may be a combination of human creativity and AI optimization, which can produce fashion collections that are both efficient and emotionally appealing."