16February 2021
In 2019, Ai-Da became the world’s first AI humanoid to pick up a pencil and create art without any human input. Armed with a microchip in her eye, a robotic hand, and a groundbreaking algorithm, the robot can draw and paint from sight, and has since staged her first solo exhibition (raking in a fair amount of cash in the process).
Now, Ai-Da has been taught to “look” in a mirror and create self-portraits in her distinctive style. The hyperreal robot artist is set to exhibit a series of these self-portraits – or “selfies” – in a new show at London’s Design Museum.
Could you share with us the impetus and inspiration for
Again, again I rise?
Marcus Riggs: This was my first shoot after taking a long unexpected break from photography after I moved from Paris to Berlin. When I did light the fire under my ass to shoot again, it was in the midst of the craziness of 2020, especially with the BLM movement making a dominant appearance in Europe. Watching the police savagery on social media tends to bring up past trauma in those who have experienced it firsthand. From the global pandemic, being confined to my home, and feeling the distance of my family in the US, to racism being an open hot topic in every direction of my life, I decided to make a decision in how I wanted to process it all for myself. I chose to put my feelings of anger; the memories of blatant mistreatment due to the colour of my skin; my frustration, disgust, and irritation into my photography to create something beautiful in a world where so many ugly things are being thrown at you
When it comes to fashion presentations, no one is doing it like Collina Strada. Debuting a brilliantly berserk acid trip of a collection video for SS21, the label was later selected to show as part of GucciFest, where designer Hillary Taymour dropped a fully playable 3D video game. In a similarly trippy turn of events,
Collina Land saw willing adventurers immersed in her cartoony, kaleidoscopic world, as they battled climate change by stomping out forest fires, scooping plastic trash out of the ocean, and inexplicably avoiding being hit by flying bread – all while armoured up in digitally rendered clothing fit for a global warming crisis.