HEDONISM NATION

Experimenting freely, with various AI models to imagine the potential for the fashion, design and advertising industries. But also for cinema and entertainment in general, from video clip productions to TV series. I think we are very close to making serious assessments on the in-depth use of these new methods. With the visual fascination returned by these tools it will be very difficult to compete. Without then considering the economic aspects in particular and one thing is certain, in a few years many professional figures will have to seriously deal with them. Personally, I have been preparing for these changes for 3 years now. And in any case, it allows you to work with creative possibilities that were unimaginable until a few years ago. In essence, I can consider myself a hedonistic and happy user like this cat.

Alessandro BavariComment
Personal exhibition

Personal exhibition at Otto Gallery, Rome.

Info here: https://viaggiofotografico.it/mostre/latina-citta-invisibile-alessandro-bavari/

Alessandro Bavari
WE LOVE BIRDS

Just created my first video WE LOVE BIRD using A.I., with music recorded live this summer in the town of Prilep, in the Balkans in Macedonia, during a local festival where a gypsy orchestra was playing. The video is essentially a tailor-made work stitched onto the audio, which was perfect for achieving this result.

Alessandro Bavari
Personal Exhibition at the Nicolosi Cultural Space

Vernissage 1 September 2023 at the Nicolosi Cultural Space - Until 24 September 2023.

LATINA INVISIBLE CITY

How would the city of Latina reveal itself through Marco Polo's gaze, if it had been unfolded in all its infinite facets by Italo Calvino in his Invisible Cities? Would Kublai Khan have been captivated by it?

The Invisible Cities could be regarded as one of Calvino's most unbounded works, constructed over several years, abandoned and then revisited, reorganized multiple times into sections dedicated to seasons, the five senses, animals, and mythological heroes. But Calvino at times is also driven by creative compulsion, drawing inspiration from both the everyday and his extensive travels, fantasizing between ideal cities and dystopian cities, much like the equally creative writing of an A.I. prompt destined for image generation. And fate would have it that the algorithm used to create this project inspired by Calvino's work is called MidJourney.

Relying on Artificial Intelligence is like whispering phrases and words of Dadaist origin into a vast algorithmic ear, waiting for it to produce something unexpected and astonishingly dreamlike. Therefore, it's a psychedelic journey that oscillates between the mystical and the mathematical dimensions, where the intense symbiotic exchange between individual imagination and the neural network of A.I. takes on forms that are sometimes entirely realistic, but also, conversely, free from any aesthetic superstructure, capable of blending classical academism with the chaotic pop of the web and the consequences of calculation errors. This often yields entirely irrational and unpredictable results without any logical process, ultimately defining a new method and figurative aesthetics.

In conclusion, paraphrasing a statement by Orson Welles, A.I. is much more than a generator of visions; it is a means through which images reach us from another world.

Alessandro Bavari
NFT PARIS

The NFT Paris event at The Grand Palais Éphémère, dedicated to artists and art collectors, has concluded. Hosted by the Mocda Museum, my NFT work The Hermit of the Sea (Description and NFT sale available HERE on SuperRare), was exhibited for the entire duration of the event.

The Grand Palais is the most iconic reception institution in France.
It is the cultural and artistic epicenter of the French capital, born from the Universal Exposition of 1900 that saw the rise of countless innovation.
The Grand Palais Éphémère, designed by Wilmotte & Associés and located on the Champs de Mars, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, will be the theatre of the largest NFT event - gathering pioneering brands and NFT coolkidz. 

Alessandro Bavari
New work for Sodom & Gomorrah series.

RITE OF PASSAGE TO ODDITY
AI-Generated Image, cm 100 X 66,6 - Inch 39,4 X 26,2 - 2022

For my Sodom and Gomorrah series, which began about 20 years ago and is still in progress, I have always used my staged photographs. This is the first image I will include in the series, made using multiple AI-generated images. In this specific case I used 13 distinct images. To maintain the same stylistic line, by inserting some rules, I "showed" the AI some of my works previously created using the classic photographic medium, so that it would comply with those.

Alessandro Bavari
Two new animated AI works tokenized on SuperRare

The new works available on SuperRare, are images and animations created exclusively using Artificial Intelligence tools.

DESCRIPTION
To be born free is the greatest splendor of man, making the humble hermit superior to kings, even to the gods, who are self-sufficient by their power but not by their contempt of it. (Fernando Pessoa)

To highlight the duality between Technology and Classicism, the soundtrack was composed and performed with real instruments, such as the double bass, the cello and the violin.

Duration : 00:58 (loop)
format: HD (1920 x 1080)
Soundtrack: "wave 6”.
Original music composed and performed by Mauro De Martino.
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Work 01 on SuperRare MarketPlace

Alessandro Bavari
Experimenting with AI (artificial intelligence)

In the last few months I have found myself experimenting and generating images using different AI methods. Among these I have tested VQGAN + CLIP.ipynb, ArtBreeder, NightCafè, Dall-e, MidJourney, and at the moment the latter is the one I prefer, thanks also to the new algorithms that have been recently introduced. Many say that in general they make the images all similar to each other, but it is not true, it depends on how you make them interpret what you ask of it. Generally to bind it to a certain type of images and language, trying to keep my style, I prepare photographs to be submitted to it, weighing for example the relationships between the textual part and the photos submitted. To achieve the desired results, countless trials and attempts are required, in some cases even weeks. But once you find the right key and method, the results are truly impressive. By refining the technique, a good level of customization can be achieved.

Here are some results obtained with the very first experiments, which began in May 2022.

The image below, I got it using NightCafè. I called it "Human Storage".

Meanwhile in parallel I experimented using Artbreeder, very useful for creating more or less realistic faces.
Here are some examples.

Using this tool, Artbreeder, I also tested the possibility of creating frame by frame animations, achieving this result:

As for Midjourney, my favorite, because it is versatile and with a beautiful interface, at the moment I have generated thousands of images, partly intended to be used cutting and inserting them elsewhere, animated, or used as they are.

Below are my very first experiments:

Right now, many are tearing up their clothes in the face of this new phenomenon, screaming that machines will replace artists, and it will be the death of art.
Exactly as it happened almost 200 years ago, where, due to photography, the category of painters would be extinguished forever.
And instead it seems that it is still alive and well, letting photography have tried on its own to find its place, as a further form of art.

Moreover, the arrival of photography only did good to painting.
If it hadn't been for it, now we would have found ourselves still painting portraits, landscapes, saints and madonnas.
And instead, thanks to it, other forms of painting have sprung up, thanks to the Impressionists, Expressionists, Surrealists, Dadaists, Cubists, etc.
Otherwise we would never have had a Cezanne, a Matisse, a Picasso, just to name a few.

Art is a spontaneous ecosystem and in all its manifestations and its evolution, cannot be harnessed, like a stream, if you try to stop it, it will divert and go elsewhere. Therefore, the new technologies that help art to evolve are welcome, because if this did not happen, art would already be dead for a long time if not institutionalized in sad practices decided by right-thinking people, or perhaps considered as a simple tradition.

Alessandro Bavari