Obvious

Obvious wish to explore, use and share the different ways machine learning algorithms can catalyse our natural creativity.

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.

The notion of creativity is extremely hard to encapsulate, at it seems to be a process implying a number of factors that are not yet properly defined. Through the replication of human behaviours in a creative context, they see algorithms as a fascinating tool to help dig into and better understand the different forces at stake in the process of creating something new, unique and innovative. They have seen examples of algorithms helping humans to improve their creativity within framed scenarios such as in a game of chess or a GO game. Obvious wish to demonstrate that algorithms help us better understand how we function as humans, and push us to outsmart our current level of creativity.

Through the creation of comprehensible artworks and by collaborating with the major actors that shape our society, OBVIOUS art collective wishes to shred 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.