Artificial Intelligence might be concerning to some but might it also be a useful creative tool?
A new company based in the UK makes use of AI to allow users to enter prompts to generate images that are then transferred to ceramic tiles in the Staffordshire Potteries and fired. The resulting tiles are unique to each user and so bespoke pieces can be made that recreate the look of these craft items for today. The system uses prompts, such as “lion” and “elephant” that created this one, to create new works.
The combination of tradition in the tile-making process and the new technology is fascinating. While AI might be seen as a threat it also opens new doors to ways of working and doing business. The Artificial Intelligence in this particular system has been trained by exposure to Delft tiles. Through that process it learns what makes these distinctive pieces and what makes them so recognisable. By combining those elements and styles with the prompts that each user enters the AI is able to create new images and combinations; a new take on an old tradition.
The use of the traditional pottery production in Staffordshire shows that old and new can meet and mix happily.
Try it for yourself here. https://www.notquitepast.com/workshop/
Not Quite Past, the company behind this project, “trains AI to make beautiful things”. The business aims to embrace this new technology to enhance life and to show that it needn’t be as scary as it is sometimes portrayed.
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