Art
Quo vadis?
AI art competition
Winners Announced
The theme of the competition was “Quo Vadis”, a very appropriate one, given the times we live in, and we don’t just mean the situation regarding Artificial Intelligence. We invited the participants to interpret this slogan creatively and to use AI as a tool and medium of their explorations. Recent surfacing of AI models designed to synthesize images basing on text prompts sent shockwaves through the world of art. It provoked extreme reactions – from enthusiasm, joy and embracing a new powerful creative tool to groans of fear, apocalyptic prophecies about the end of man-made art and loud protests of some artists. Important questions emerged regarding copyright, data protection and threats to creative marketplace. One thing is for sure – the world will never be the same and the changes brought about by the new technology will be as important as those introduced by printing press, photography or computers – and not just for the artworld but the world in general. It is all up to us – how will we react to this change? With curiosity and cleverness or anger and fear? Which path will we take?
This brings us back to this question: Quo vadis? This title can be approached in many different ways and we were counting on participants’ creativity. Image generators offer great possibilities and we are still far from reaching their limits. One could feel content with obtaining esthetic, formally perfect illustration, one can also compile various conventions, or look for totally new methods, experiment, enjoy the act of creation. The winning entries represent those directions. No matter what approach participating creators took – it is the idea, creation and imagination that matter. This is what art has ever been about.
All roads lead to Rome.
Meet the Jury - 2022 AI Art Competition
Igor Myszkiewicz
Igor Myszkiewicz (born in 1974); graduated from Visual Arts and Culture Institute in Zielona Góra, Poland. Curator and visual creator in Lubusz Museum, he is also the captain of the Galley Gallery. He has been a member of Fantasy Club of Zielona Góra for a quarter of a century and of Art Forum Association (for a little less).
Initiator and Illustrator of “Zielona Góra Fantasies” fantasy stories; author (“Signum Temporis. Monuments and outdoor sculptures of Zielona Góra”, “Galley Gallery. Navigating 20 years”, “Blood of Bacchus. Zielona Góra Stories”, “The Illustrated Chronicle of Zielona Góra”) and sometimes co-author of books about Lubusz culture and history of Zielona Góra (“The Monograph of Zielona Góra Associacion of Polish Artists”, “Not all of me will die”, “Zielona Góra Rock’n’Roll Chronicle”).
Illustrator of books and role-playing games, comic book artist, his works include the very comforting “Midlife Crisis” series, Zdeptak (2009–2016), “Dust of History, Traveling in Time in Zielona Góra”, “SEPIA”. This year he released “The Dream Machine” (published by TMZG Winnica), a book with its visual part created using AI.
Andrzej Pągowski
Born in 1953. Graduated from the University of Arts in Poznan, Poland.
He designed almost 2000 posters in Poland and abroad since 1977. Author of numerous book illustrations, covers, drawings for magazines, artwork for CD booklets. Painter.
He received several Polish and international awards, including The Best of Show Award and 6 First Prizes at the Hollywood Reporter International Competition in Los Angeles and in the Chicago International Film Festival Poster Competition (Silver Hugo Award and several others).
His work can be found in MoMA in New York and San Francisco, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Stripped House Museum in Tokyo, and many others.
MoMA has placed Pagowski’s “Wolf Smile” poster among 100 the most important art pieces since 1980 in the Museum’s collection.
Mateusz Jarża
Sometimes a painter, sometimes photographer, designer, art curator...
Having studied Art and Graphic Design, Mateusz spent the first part of his career as organiser of cultural events, gallery manager and later on film and art festivals. Collaborating with international artists, curators and professionals he created Play Poland Film Festival.
Fascinated by the design process he moved to Fringe Festival as the festival designer (2015 edition).
He continues his work with theblob.studio as a creative director.
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Magdalena Komborska (art curator)
Independent curator of exhibitions and art projects, film producer, art critic and historian, painter, realizes projects REBORN DOGS New Interpretations in Art Against Non-Humanity and REBORN NOW Ways of Space Existence. She graduated from the Faculty of Artistic Education, specializing in Criticism and Art Promotion, the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and Art History at the University of Gdańsk in Gdańsk. Since 2009, she has published in numerous specialist magazines in the field of art, such as SZUM, Exit, Kwartalnik Fotografia, Format, Czas Kultury, Fragille. At that time, she curated at the [ON] Gallery of the University of Arts in Poznań until its closure in 2011. From that year, she gave lectures on Art Promotion at UAP in Poznań and monographic lectures Interactive Art in City Space at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
Let’s talk about prizes:
£200
Overall Winner
(1 per category)
£100
Second place
(1 per category)
£50
Third place
(1 per category)
1
2
3
Submit your artworks
Send us your artworks to [email protected]
State your Name, Name of the software used, text-to-image prompt (check Rules)
Submit your artworks here
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Quo vadis?
AI art competition
Created by
Mateusz Jarża
Introduction and artworks by
Igor Myszkiewicz
Join the competition by sending us your AI artwork (up to 3 pieces) to [email protected]
Please write "Quo vadis?" in the email title. State your name and contact number. We will reply to your email with the contest results. By sending us your work you agree with the "Rules of the contest".
The walls came down at the end of this summer. A real shock came when several highly advanced Artificial Intelligence text-prompt based models for synthesizing images were released, all of them almost at the same time. We came to realize that AI can generate (create?) images basing on descriptions (also metaphorical!), it can learn and apply artistic styles, compile knowledge. It is still difficult to grasp all potential results but it might as well be a breakthrough only comparable to inventing photography in 19 th century and the emerging of digital art in the century that followed. Intelligent image synthesis, accessible for everyone, fast and efficient, surely will not leave the domain of art services or the status of the artist unaffected (art creators are already expressing their concerns). Considering spectacular effects achieved by early models and how fast they are learning, these are all legitimate concerns. For past few years we could already have fun generating images online but this just didn’t cut it, the generators like Crayion or Hypnogram were of very limited use and it was only with the dawn of Midjourney, DALLE2 and Stable Diffusion that we entered a new realm. The Internet was instantly flooded with thousands of images. Not even two weeks later an AI-generated art piece won an art competition. This was met with varied reactions – from enthusiastic to sheer awe.
[...]
Will Artificial Intelligence threaten artists who live off their skills? Yes – because some of them, illustrators for example, can lose their jobs. And no – because this new way of creation will generate new market niches and demands and a new generation of artists will be working surrounded by AI and won’t even make sense of a world of yesterday where things were different. We are the ones who sense the problem – we, who are painfully stretched between those two eras.
And what about the beauty? Will we only be able to find it in a traditional artwork and works made by AI – are they only offering a void decorum? This is all up to us, after all the beauty/artistic experience is not so much in the work of art but in the eye and the mind of the observer. If we choose to not see anything special in AI-generated art – we will surely not find anything there. But let’s take a different perspective… The work of art is just a starting point, it is in the mind of the viewer that all the magic happens. Be brave. We are embarking on a journey into blank spots on the map, into the lands where there truly be dragons.
We kindly invite all visual content creators to join us in this journey into unknown – by participating in the competition with prizes organized by Play Poland Festival. Let’s bring to life the worlds that have so far only existed in your mind. Let AI be your tool, your medium, your creative machinery fuelled with your boundless imagination.
Best of luck
The Blob