The whole world is currently talking about Artificial Intelligence, with models like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, and many more, freely available to the public now. For many of us, this form of AI is something new and exciting. However, many other people – and artists – have dealt with the innovations technology has to offer way before. One of those artists is the polish-born artist Roman Lipski. Lipski has just closed his exhibition “This Permanent Other Landscape”, curated by Laura López Paniagua, at Berlin’s Julia Stoschek Foundation. There, he allowed the viewers a rare insight into his creative process, as well presenting them with otherworldly artworks.
KALTBLUT caught up with Lipski to get a better understanding of Quantum Blur, as well as his use of AI and VR and if he believes our society is ready for Artificial Intelligence.
KALTBLUT: Roman, you’re the first artist who has done a Quantum Blur exhibition with quantum scientists Dr. James Wootton and Marcel Pfaffhauser. Can you explain what Quantum Blur is and why the concept interests you as an artist?
Roman: Quantum Blur is a piece of open-source software, originally made to be used at quantum hackathons. The idea was that people could learn about quantum computing by making simple games, and quantum blur could help them do that. It encodes images into as few qubits as possible and then allows them to be manipulated through the unique dynamics of quantum mechanics. I became aware of Quantum Blur through my interaction with Zurich-based quantum research scientists Dr. James Wootton and Marcel Pfaffhauser.
With Quantum Blur, I define the input sources, these are encoded into quantum states, allowing manipulation by interference patterns using quantum operations. My work on the computer in the 3D worlds of my quantum blur exploration is inspiring and allows me not only to create the digital pieces, but also has had a direct influence on my recent painting.
My practice with Quantum Blur is quite distinct from my work with the AI ‘Muse’. Quantum Blur allows me to be present in every creative decision of the process, whereas in the case of the AI ‘Muse’, the neural networks are trained solely on my existing body of work and the outputs are generated.
KALTBLUT: Your latest exhibition, “This Permanent Other Landscape” explores the use of technologies, like VR, AI and Quantum Blur and will focus on the process rather than the finished artwork. What exactly does that mean?
Roman: Here I defer to the words of the curator of “This Permanent Other Landscape”, Laura López Paniagua, who explains: “The use of technologies like VR, AI, and especially, Quantum Blur (QB) in art is only at an early stage, and thus, in a phase of experimentation and discovery of their potentials, possible outcomes, and consequences. The artworks currently produced by Roman Lipski are instances of an ongoing exploration of these emerging landscapes – in a literal sense, as a landscape painter, and also metaphorically, treading on the new territories that these technologies bring about.
For this reason, this exclusive showcase focuses on the complex and collective process that the creation of these works entails rather than on finished works. The rooms at the Julia Stoschek Foundation become a living atelier where the artist and his collaborators will be working on site, as well as a tentative display of artworks that will be worked on during the exhibition. The show is thus an “exhibition about an exhibition to be” – in a yet indeterminate future.”
The artworks currently produced by Roman Lipski are instances of an ongoing exploration of these emerging landscapes – in a literal sense, as a landscape painter, and also metaphorically, treading on the new territories that these technologies bring about.
KALTBLUT: The exhibition was divided into three thematic rooms. Can you elaborate on what visitors experienced in those rooms?
Roman: The three rooms display the arc of my evolution as a landscape painter through my work with technology.
The first room is a transplant of my atelier where I worked on my current QB and VR project with quantum software engineer Marcel Pfaffauser and composer Kimin Han.
The second room looks back at my work with AI. From 2016 until circa 2021 I collaborated with the art collective YQP and the AI company Birds on Mars. I used the technology to challenge my then-acclaimed painting style and inspire fresh examination of my practice, opening up questions surrounding artists’ work with AI for myself. In this room, you can see the seed image, the concept of the ‘black box’ represented in the form of a ghostly sculpture, and a loop of the AI-generated output from 2016.
In the third room, you can see the most recent artworks I and my team are producing using Quantum Blur (QB) and the sound program Max/MSP. In the process a 2D digitalised landscape painting is extruded through QB, becoming a topography instead of a flat image, a sort of new 3D artefact. At the entrance to this room, you can see a selection from a series of prints I made in 2021/22 showing aerial shots of the QB landscapes I was developing at the time. Following these there are projected works showing my first explorations into the third dimension – that’s what I’m working on right now. The films allow the visitor to fly through these new worlds. These flights through the QB landscapes are all the more immersive since they are accompanied by the soundscapes by composer Kimin Han. Using his patches he is able to modulate experimental sounds according to the visual parameters of each pixel (hue, saturation, brightness, and height in the QB topography).
KALTBLUT: In the second room you’re raising questions about the possible AI-human symbiosis in art production. Since AI programmes or bots are fed with all the information and data we have, how can you make sure that the AI you’d be working with doesn’t unconsciously copy another artist’s work?
Roman: The AI ‘Muse’ that I work with is ‘fed’ on a closed diet of my own painted works. From the beginning of 2016, I produced nine paintings, variations on my photographic scene ‘Winding Road in LA’ (2016), which were used as seed image material. The output from the AI based on the digitised images of these paintings inspired a move away from the narrative original towards abstract interpretations in my subsequent explorations.
These new works were added to the data set, and once again the AI used the data to generate its output. This loop continued with the data set getting ever larger but the loop remained closed. Therefore, I am not concerned about any influences not my own entering the equation.
KALTBLUT: You also explore the use of AI for your work. What’s your opinion on the current discourse regarding AI-image bots, such as DALL-E, for example? Do you think art might at some point risk losing its value due to instantly being available for free to everyone due to those bots?
Roman: For me, the value of AI in my work is in the collaborative ping-pong between a human and an AI and how it inspires me as an artist to view my practice from a new perspective, encouraging evolution and experimentation. That’s why I titled the AI I worked with AI Muse. I think you get out what you put into AI – and this is probably the same with the AI-image Bots.
Right now it’s fascinating to see how artists will use these tools, the results always rely upon a prompt or input from a human. I don’t think this will put the value of art in jeopardy since the intention and input of the artist is a part of the development and appreciation of the work.
KALTBLUT: Do you think our society is ready for technology such as AI, VR, etc. to play that big of a visible role in the art world?
Roman: Yes I do, although using these technologies in art, and indeed in society at large, is still, in the context of history, early and rapidly evolving.
I feel I am a bridge between the two disciplines and therefore able to explain and discuss my work in a way that people from outside the scientific community, and equally, from outside the art scene, can understand.
KALTBLUT: How do you explain your work to people who have no idea about technology and science?
Roman: Since I also don’t come from a scientific background I have learned a lot from collaborating with the scientists and their community; like the professors Prof. Dr. Oliver Benson and Prof. Dr. Tim Schröder from the physics department at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
I feel I am a bridge between the two disciplines and therefore able to explain and discuss my work in a way that people from outside the scientific community, and equally, from outside the art scene, can understand. This spirit of collaboration and exploration has been a powerful and inspiring thing for me personally and for my work.
Follow @romanlipskistudio to find out more about his upcoming projects, QB, and other interesting projects.
