Astronauts, robots, and broken statues: A talk with Giuseppe Lo Schiavo

Giuseppe Lo Schiavo is an award-winning visual artist based between London and Milan who is currently conducting research that aims to create a bridge between art and science. Using AI and machine learning, virtual reality, infrared systems, or microorganisms in the lab, the artist’s research often focuses on opposing elements: creation-destruction, past-future, analog-digital, real-virtual.

I describe Onirica as a trip inside the mind. I was inspired by recent developments in a new scientific field called functional neuroimaging where scientists discovered new ways to recreate an image a person sees or dreams by looking at the person’s brain activity. These procedures are made by analysing the brain waves from monitoring devices such as fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging), EEG (electroencephalogram) or by implanted electrodes such as those from the company Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk.

Working with scientists is not new for my practice, and for this specific project I had the chance to meet with Professor Yukiyasu Kamitani from Kyoto University who shared his views regarding developments with neuroimaging.

I used an Artificial Intelligence model “Image to text” to create an audio caption of the video scenes.

The AI struggles to identify complex and artistic compositions, but using the generated caption—even if it’s not accurate—as the audio description of the scene introduces a new layer of creativity to the artwork and underlines the limitations of the current stage of the technology.

For the creation of the music, I have experimented with Magenta Studio, an open-source software developed by Google that uses cutting-edge machine learning techniques for music generation. In my opinion, the future of music composition might reside there.

I really like to challenge the idea of what is considered real and what is considered virtual; at the same time through my work I want to try to link these two worlds. I have prepared a set of unique prints and sculpture designs taken from the scenes of Onirica. I am planning to let the collector of the NFT pick one of these pieces that I will then produce physically. Doing so, I want to create a participative project where the collector is involved in the creation of the piece. 

Yes, actually. Onirica, will be exhibited for the first time at How Art Museum in China in a new exhibition called Disembedding curated by Gu ZhengQing. The exhibition will open on August 6th and will run until October 30th 2021. Thanks to the opportunities that NFT platforms like SuperRare are creating, even museums are now giving more space and attention to the digital art medium, something that has never been seen before. And this is really incredible!

I play a lot with symbolism in my work. For example, the scene with the scattered plastic bottles on the table is a metaphor for the challenges that the previous generation passed to the next one. The astronauts pointing their heads toward the camera is suggesting that we all need to act and to make the right choices for a better future. The submissive robots represent the controversial relationship our society has with technology. We are building human-machine devices that have the scope to enhance societies, as opposed to the view that robotics have the objective of replacing humans. 

I could go on and on exploring the symbolism of the various scenes, but I think it is more interesting to see how the viewer decodes the visual inputs with his or her own personal interpretation. Art is a virtual concept, a byproduct of socialization that expands or condenses in the mind of the viewer.

I always use technology with an optimistic approach. Our planet was here before humans and will probably be here way longer than us. In this short period of time, we need to focus on how to improve the conditions that help maintain life on this planet and in the meantime…create NFTs! 
As one of my mentors Richard Dawkins would say: Life is entertainment. 

The scene’s distortions at the end of the video are inspired by what is happening in the brain during a hallucination; a mismatched electrical input from neurons. 

Another recurring theme in my NFTs is the destruction of ancient art. This was, for example, the central concept of my first NFT “Metafisica.” The destruction of the statue represents the challenges of breaking traditions. I am really passionate about ancient art and sculpture, and so breaking the statue into pieces is a liberating act. The diatribe between traditional art and crypto art has staged a new conversation on what actually constitutes a work of art. 

I am not surprised that there are people who still don’t value digital and intangible art as much as traditional art. From an evolutionary point of view, humans are always quite cautious with the unknown and unfamiliar, it’s in our DNA. However, with the exposure and success that digital art has been getting recently, I am very excited to see that the tables are finally turning and digital art is getting the recognition it merits, and hopefully it will become a new chapter in the history of art.