Obvious, AI artists, working and living in Paris. Photography © Hello Studio
1.Could you introduce yourself and the purpose of your artistic work?
We are Obvious, a collective composed of three friends from childhood who work with artificial intelligence algorithms to create art. We aim at bringing together science and art once again, and to allow the revolution of the use of artificial intelligence, by informing society about the latest discoveries of the research field, while highlighting the creative potential of artificial intelligence, and encouraging its use for creation.
2.How important are social networks in your business?
Social networks are a way to interact with our community, which makes them a crucial tool. It allows us to share our projects and our artistic production, and to help our community keep track of our realizations and adventures.
3.Could you share with us the impact of the crisis on the promotion of your work and the way you are facing this situation?
The current crisis has affected us in the sense that every physical project we had coming had to be postponed. We love to talk about our work and about AI in general and to meet with our audience, and it constitutes a great way to gain feedback on our work. Therefore, we worked on new ways to interact and to share our work, such as the creation of an online gallery, and a night exhibition in front of our house. It is also a great time to work on our art. In a way, we are also lucky as our work is very influenced by the research being done in AI, which is continuing at a fast pace. It is also the occasion to make some research, develop ourselves, and work on long term projects.
4.What’s your favorite museum and why?
It might sound mainstream, but we are big fans of the Louvre museum, simply because it rocked our childhood, and we find the diversity and richness of the collection really impressive.
Interview by Louise Coussieu Baylac, contributor
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Obvious on social networks: Instagram
One of the collective’s first artworks, “Edmond Belamy”, was sold for $432,500 by Christie’s NY and was the first piece of AI to ever come to auction. In 2020, they made the prestigious “30 Under 30” Forbes list, ranking them among the 30 most influential personalities under the age of 30 in the field of art and culture.
Through the creation of comprehensible artworks and by collaborating with the major actors that shape our society, OBVIOUS art collective wishes to shed some light on the emerging tools increasingly available for all types of creatives. They believe that a new generation of creators will rise, one that will know how to best build and manage algorithms that will help in an innovative process.
They also want to promote a new level of collaboration between an artist and his tool, where the hands of the artist and the one of the machine are joined in the search of a new type of aesthetic and a deeper conceptual framework. Ultimately, they wish to contribute to the debate regarding the scope and nature of art and allow once again the definition of art to grow and evolve with the era it now passes through.
