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Like the invention of the camera helped artists explore new perspectives, artificial intelligence, used in this manner, can ultimately introduce a new way of seeing the world. Roman Lipski, the art collective YQP, and Birds on Mars are furthering the discourse around artificially creative systems at a point in time where the interactivity between man and machine is becoming commonplace.

The question is not, whether machines will replace artists but rather how such systems will be able to help artists in their creative work. The constant dialogue between Lipski and his digital muse, in the end, establishes a new creative language in art that produces an innovative aesthetic – from a mere dynamic interaction – provides endless inspiration.

Over the course of several months an AI-system was trained with Lipski’s work. The system extracted different facets from his paintings - such as colors, contrasts, forms, composition - and interpreted them in new ways. The result was a neural network that independently produces an infinite amount of new paintings based on Lipski’s style. The artificial muse slowly guides the painter to try out new creative expressions and develop his style.

Every new artwork gets ingested back into the system which results in a dialog between man and machine.

A few of the exhibitions from the past two years.
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CAN YOU RESCUE A LANGUAGE FROM EXTINCTION?

The only fluent speakers of the indigenous language Ayapaneco stopped talking to each other decades ago. A fight split them apart and Ayapaneco turned completely silent. 

We brought Manuel and Isidro back together and built them their own school to teach their knowledge to the next generation. Online people were asked to adopt a word and compile the first social dictionary.

WHAT’S THE VALUE OF DATA?

We opened a supermarket where customers could only pay with their personal Facebook data. No cash. No credit cards. No checks. The only accepted currency were likes, comments, photos and messages. All of our products had a different price tag: 5 likes for toast, 10 photos for a can of fruits, 5 messages for dumplings, etc. 

The paying process was done at the checkout. On our iPad customers needed to log-in with their Facebook name and password. Afterwards our custom-built app looked for the demanded data in their Facebook history and printed it on the receipt. In the end the customers found out which personal data was used for the purchase. 

The Datenmarkt was picked up by the media. Including TV channels, newspapers, radio channels and online blogs worldwide. We were also given the honor of holding a TED Talk about Datenmarkt. 

HOW TO TELL
A STORY
YOU CAN’T REMEMBER?

For the launch of the new Mercedes-Benz GLA we invented a new way of narrating an online story – mosaic story telling. Animated Gifs, interactive elements, cinema graphs, video-elements, photos and audio files were gathered into a one of a kind user experience. Piece by piece users could go on a journey through the lost memories of our hero Ryan and find out what happened on his road trip. 

Furthermore we were responsible for the entire campaign of the new GLA, including TV Spots, Print Ads, banners, Facebook posts and many more.

WHAT TO DRINK DURING A REVOLUTION?

This art piece reflected the violent situation in Turkey during the riots at the Taksim Square in 2013. It is civil disobedience in a bottle. 

Riot Raki was picked up by news worldwide and was even part of the Guerrilla Zoo 2014 art exhibition in London.

WHAT'S THE VALUE OF LABOR?

Why does a nurse earn less than an investment banker? Are her actions less valuable? Is her work less respected? To portray the uneven distribution of salaries in today’s world we came up with an art experiment dedicated to the value of labor. Therefore we've compared salaries from more than 50 different job titles.  

How? By letting everyone do a unifying task. We gave our 50 participants one hour to paint a completely black art piece. All paintings looked similar but had one great difference: the price tag. We sold every painting for the hourly wage of the person - ranging from 4$ (cleaning lady) to 500$ (investment banker). We also filmed the one-hour-process of painting to see how every single one of them approached the task. 

Time lapses of two participants: one hour condensed into a couple of seconds. 

HOW TO HELP A BROKE CELEBRITY?

In July 2015 one of the world's richest rappers - 50 Cent - officially declared his bankruptcy. The Internet was shocked, so we decided to help 50 out and make him hustler rich again. 

Every play on our page equals
0.0011 cent in 50Cent’s pocket.

To do that we created a microsite on which fans could listen to his famous song 'Piggy Bank' and literally fill up his piggybank: because for every click Spotify pays the artist 0.0011 Cent. 

So far we have earned over 68$ and thousands of media impressions from all over the world. Don't spend it all in once, 50!

HOW TO TURN DANCE INTO MUSIC?

The experimental record label Bureau-B releases the first record made by boots and legs. On a Bureau-B label night we taped blank/silent vinyl to the floor. The concert crowd danced on them. 

After the concert the records were scratched and dirty.Two label artists recomposed the noise of the scratches into unique tracks, which were pressed on a limited collectors EP. 

Not only the music but also the entire design concept was done by the audience. Including cover design, posters and flyers.

CAN YOUR PARENTS DESCRIBE YOUR JOB?

When we were students we asked our parents to help us out with our portfolio. Instead of us explaining our work, our parents did. In funny videos they tried to analyze our work and give their opinion on it. 

Our site went viral and was picked up by blogs all over the world. It was even selected as the second best self-promotion in advertising.