During a residency at Gluon, David Claerbout engaged with experts from the worlds of AI and neuroscience to understand the impact of generative AI on his artistic practice. During his residency, he explored the relationship between AI and how our brain works.
Central to Claerbout’s two new films (in progress), The Wood Carver and The Forest and The Forest and The Wood, is the question: ‘Does AI only embody the left brain with its language skills, without intuition or sensory experience? Or can AI also reach further and really create something new?’.
In The Wood Carver and The Forest, filmed material is ‘coloured in’ using AI and CGI (computer generated imagery). Here, the artist uses AI as a consultant on mood creation. For The Forest and The Wood, Claerbout starts from AI-inspired set proposals, landscapes inspired by 500 years of landscape painting.His conclusions are diverse: although a somewhat blind adviser, AI quickly understands what the artist is looking for. At the same time, the AI-generated images are full of errors that you have to correct as a cinematographer.
David Claerbout presented his findings in the AI, Humanity & The Arts symposium organised by GLUON on 19 November 2024 at Wiels in Brussels (watch the recording here below). The final film will premiere in 2025 at Kasteel Van Gaasbeek in Belgium.
