Of pawan interpretation of the “Kiss” by Gustav Klimt (1907-1908) at a purrperfect remix of Egon Scheiele’s “Self-Portrait with a Chinese Lantern” (1912), the Vienna Tourist Board is use artificial intelligence to generate feline fallout of classic Austrian works of art. The delightful images are part of a new marketing campaign to encourage tourists to visit Vienna and “see the art behind the art of AI”.
The AI-generated chat versions of famous works come at a time when programs like DALL-E and MidJourney are being criticized by artists for potential plagiarism and stolen intellectual property. But rather than eschewing AI, the board decided instead to take a look at the controversial technology and explore the ways it can be a fun and educational tool – see, for example, a version of the “Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel (c. 1563) which features a seven-tiered building covered in cats.
Along with the AI artwork, the tourist board also released a cheeky video with art historian Markus Hübl. In the video, Hübl takes viewers through some of Vienna’s fine arts museums to reflect on some of the masterpieces (and their AI-cat counterparts) that visitors can see in real life in the Austrian capital.
At the Belvedere Museum, Hübl explains the significance of the intricate details of Klimt’s “Kiss.”
“A man and a woman at the top of a small piece of rock. These very strict hard shapes symbolizing the male system and the very soft circles symbolizing the female system,” he says, explaining the juxtaposition of square and circular patterns in the iconic painting.
Then he turns his attention to the tablet-based AI version. Like the original work, the rendition of the cat features two characters, each exuding opposing energies while entangled in a passionate embrace. Except that instead of a human couple, this painting consists of two kittens.
“Cats are an ambiguous symbol. On the one hand for savagery. On the other hand, most of them are castrated and live in our apartments. We are looking for both phenomena: the soft and the soft, and the untamed wildness. Aren’t these two elements driving creativity and art? What a metaphor,” he jokes.
At the Leopold Museum, Hübl tells the story of Schiele’s “Self-Portrait with a Chinese Lantern”, highlighting the power of Schiele’s direct eye contact and the cultural sub-context behind the self-portrait. He then turns to the AI’s rendition, which shows an angsty cat wearing a black blazer.
“A mangy, disheveled cat comes into direct contact with us – face to face. He is also a bit morbid, one ear seems cut off and the coat is muddy. The cat doesn’t look really happy, but can we really understand what’s going on in his soul? he asks.
“Maybe this cat, like all the other cats on the Internet, wants to say to us: Look at me.”
