As we collectively accelerate into the era of artificial intelligence, the powerful learning mechanism has given rise to a number of novelty factors. art, photography, scenarisationand even Trailers. The latest such “development” is called the “Impossible Statue” – a supposedly one-of-a-kind 3D sculpture designed by a generative AI based on the synthesis of the styles of five legendary human sculptors in art history. The five-foot, half-ton stainless steel work of art is now on display at Tekniska Museet, the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm.
The design of the sculpture began with 2D generative AI tools including Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, and Midjourney, which were trained to incorporate the five artists’ areas of expertise: Michelangelo’s unbalanced dynamic poses; the musculature and reflection of Auguste Rodin; the expressionist sentiment of Käthe Kollwitz; the emphasis on momentum and mass embodied in the work of Takamura Kotaro; and Augusta Savage’s Figure Challenge. Using existing 3D AI interpreters, as well as new proprietary tools developed by Sandvik Machining Solutions in conjunction with a consulting firm known as the AI Framework, brought all this learning from the minds of AI in our dimensional reality.
The result is… you know, very good. He is a muscular, unbiased stainless steel figure draped in a flowing, pleated garment, and clutching a golden orb like a basketball. Would anyone be impressed by this sculpture if it hadn’t been made by AI? No. Is this a better stainless steel statue than I could make? Instead. Would it make a stunning high-end hood ornament for Elon Musk’s next adventure in space? It probably will. Is it good art? No, but no lots of carvings done by real humans. And like all these human works of art, the “Impossible Statue” attracted a flotilla of haters.
Good news for the haters of “Impossible Statue”: like many large-scale AI art projects, it’s less about creating tasteful or thought-provoking art and more about a user-friendly way to press to release a proof of concept for a company’s prowess as a global AI manufacturer. According to Sandvik, the whole process also halved the amount of steel needed for the artwork, which is nice to hear in a world struggling with the consequences of over-manufacturing, although ‘Obviously, the big companies and not the artists are responsible for such a crisis. .
What does this mean for art? Maybe we should ask ChatGPT – after all, maybe an AI reviewer should fairly evaluate an AI sculpt in context. From this human perspective, it’s a bit sinister that the figure holding our Earth seems less respectful and more about to let it down. We have entered our post-human era, artists of the Earth. Go get a real job. You have been warned.
