Nothing in this photo is real, not even the photo itself

Nothing in this photo is real, not even the photo itself. On line Solo exhibition for Il Crepaccio Instagram Show commissioned and curated by Caroline Corbetta.

Scrolling Instagram we realize how difficult it is now to distinguish a real photo from a synthetic one. A synthetic photo can be generated using one of the many platforms that generate images from a text (text-to-image) thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence. The AI is instructed through a command, called Prompt, with which we describe what we want to achieve as the final visual result.

De Pinto pushes this practice to extremes with this exhibition. He instructed ChatGPT, an online chat that is also able to learn instructions to be used frequently, to automatically create “prompts” for him, commands for the Midjourney platform, a generator of synthetic images.

He asked ChatGPT for a prompt to generate images that would dealing with the world of design, art and architecture by asking Artificial Intelligence to interpret these creative fields with an emphasis on the functionality / aesthetics issue of the object.

With this command he created a series of photos via Midjourney.
He then uploaded these photos back to Midjourney to use the “describe” command where the platform describes the uploaded image as if it were a photo taken from reality.
At this point, with the new description created by the platform itself, he generated some final photos, selecting the forty that we see in this exhibition.
How much does the artist influence this process? How much does Artificial Intelligence?
Are the objects visible in the synthetic photos a source of ideas for the creation of real and functional objects or just aesthetic ones? Are designers stereotypically represented?
Who is entitled to the recognition, the intellectual property, the eventual profit of all this?
The selected images were chosen by De Pinto thinking of the week that sees many of us involved in Milan of two important events: Miart, the international fair that promotes art and design and the Salone and Fuori Salone del Mobile.
We will be inundated with massive amounts of images and hashtags of the above events and De Pinto will contribute to that magnificent chaos.

Pier Giorgio De Pinto on the occasion of Nothing in this photo is real, not even the photo itself. “Il Crepaccio Instagram Show”, on line solo show curated by Caroline Corbetta. April, 17-21,  2023