When you begin relying on and outsourcing to models, it becomes difficult to claim that the artwork is truly yours” you. It was only when I moved to London, where I lived for almost 20 years (before returning to Rome), that I began to look back on those traditions with a different pair of eyes. The detachment that resulted from this is a key part of what I explore in my work; it involves looking at things, that might appear incredibly familiar with a very different view. Certain pictorial traditions and thematics provide the inspiration, but almost as a point of departure to create something else. This can mean returning to universal themes – as I mentioned – but with different apparatus, so you can look at them from fresh angles. This relationship with the past is really important to me, and I feel that looking back and comparing different times and languages can be a way to discuss and reflect on our times. One of the most important issues facing creatives in the present is AI. Based on earlier interviews I’ve read, would it be fair to say that you think the value of AI in art resides primarily in analysis and data extraction? That was more a comment on how I personally use some of these machine learning (ML) systems to look at patterns and extrapolate information. I’m not that fascinated by image synthesis used in AI models, and in fact I don’t use it much in my own work. As someone who is used to creating images, I feel that extensive use of AI models for image generation is closer to simply searching for an image. While that’s fine for some people, I personally don’t find it as engaging. So while I use some ML processes in parts of my work, I believe that the more personal the process by which you generate something, the more unique – and the more you – that work will be. From my perspective, it’s crucial that anything I create is very much an expression of who I am. When you begin relying on and outsourcing that to models that have been made on the other side of the planet – especially if you have no idea how they work – it becomes more difficult to claim that the artwork is truly yours. I should say that I have also been fascinated by new technology and still
Digital iterations of Arborescent (right), a collaboration with Casa Batlló
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