HUMAN-AI-HUMAN VISIONARY ART
Wisdoms of transformative event communities visualized through the fusion of science, AI, and artistic expression.
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- PLANNED TO BURNING MAN 2025
Transformative stories present an unparalleled opportunity for understanding the nuanced tapestry of collective experiences and meaning. This project, an extension of the Burning Stories science collective ́s initiative on collecting unique narratives transformative festivals, stands at the intersection of visual arts, data science, and community engagement.
The visionary art emerging from the stories collected from 13 transformative festivals, analyzed and rendered by AI, and reimagined by human artists, represents a pioneering step in the evolution of contemporary visual art. It aims to challenge traditional methods of doing visual art, particularly AI art, through the philosophical lens of machine realism and exemplifies how the integration of AI and human creativity can lead to new forms of expression, deepening our understanding of collective experiences.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF HUMAN-AI-HUMAN ART
Capturing Human Transformation: Field Research and Narrative Data Collection at Transformative Festivals
Field research has been conducted by collecting participant narratives from transformative festivals (2018-2024) such as Burning Man Black Rock City and regional events, BOOM, Ozora and Mo:dem. This has been a scientifically unique and experimental data collection, where a person can share a transformative in situ story to the Story Sharing Cube.
Why collect stories? The collection of these narratives offer deep insights into personal and collective transformation, often catalyzed by immersive, communal experiences. These stories provide a valuable source of data for exploring the dynamics of community-building, creativity, and personal growth within alternative cultural environments. The data collecting process has been managed by Dr. Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä and it serves as secondary material for the Open Strategy research project at Aalto University and University of Oxford.
Crafting AI: Using Data to Generate Intelligence and Unique Art
The community wisdoms narrative data of 490 narratives has been transcribed to text and the data set has been supplemented with an indexed research database of 290 research articles and 60 podcasts of core Burning Man community. The dataset has been rendered and AI-arted by AI specialist Kiana Kiser. Data was structured for analysis, employing Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques for summarization. Dimensionality reduction via Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) and clustering through Hierarchical Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (HDBSCAN) facilitated the organization of data into coherent, thematic clusters. This process was augmented by Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) analysis to highlight key terms, and Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate descriptive labels for each cluster, encapsulating the predominant themes. Each story and research summary was then sent to OpenAI's generative AI engine «DALL-E», resulting in generating an AI-Art piece for each data point within the set.
From AI to Human Artistry: Completing the Creative Process
Visionary artist Luca Delcado has painted over the AI art created from the data with traditional oil painting methods. As a result, the piece transcends the physical world, originating from the realms of the metaphysical, spiritual, and imaginative collective human-AI wisdoms. The symbolic elements and surreal approach aims especially to evoke profound emotional and intellectual responses on how science-based AI rendered data can be used in traditional art.
EVENTS, EXHIBITIONS AND LECTURES
Our work engages diverse audiences, spanning academic conferences, startup community events, and festival environments. We have contributed to several community-driven transformative festivals, where we've collected data, live-painted artworks, and explored human creativity. Much of our focus has been on Burning Man events, including Black Rock City (USA) and Borderland (Sweden). Recently, our efforts have expanded to BOOM (Portugal), Ozora (Hungary), Mo:dem (Croatia), and Kosmos (Finland). Future exhibitions and perfomances will continue to push the boundaries of human-AI-human collaboration, offering immersive experiences that invite to engage with this evolving relationship. Regarding lectures in events about transformation and arts, we have been focusing on the topics such as impact of transformative festivals, the transformative power of stories and art in the age of AI. These interactive sessions delve into wisdoms of communities, and new paradigms of human and machine collaboration in art. Our work has been published in academic outlets and this coverage is aimed to spark dialogue within both public and scholarly communities about machine realism and the future of AI and human creativity.
FINE ART PRINTS STORE
Lumen et Veritas (Light and Truth) represent the quest for knowledge and understanding through clarity and authenticity. Our art is available in two distinct series: the Lumen Series, crafted through collaborative human processes, and the Veritas Series, reflecting works created with human-guided technological assistance. The Gratia Series (Grace and Giving) embodies the spirit of philanthropy and you can also commission unique, custom-made artworks designed to reflect your story and values.
Lumen series artwork is available as premium human-AI-human canvas prints, measuring 100 x 100 cm. Each piece is part of a limited edition of 10 and numbered. Includes our signatures and is accompanied by the source story or research piece attached to the back.
Veritas series premium 100 x 100cm canvas prints of human-AI art derived from a unique dataset. Each print is part of a limited edition of 20 and is numbered. Features our signatures and includes the source story or research attached to the back.
The Gratia Series embodies the spirit of philanthropy, connecting generosity with the creative process. Designed to support the creation of visionary art, this series helps fund essential materials, workshops, and the development of future projects and support the growth of the collective vision. Each contribution is acknowledged with a personalized thank-you note printed to A4 size artwork.