At the global launch of Pomellato’s latest Nudo campaign, Albert Maria Colombo was feeling blue. Not that he was in any way upset. Rather, it was the opposite; he was having a great day. The campaign he produced for the Milanese jeweller was finally unveiled to the world, and Vogue Singapore was invited to join in the celebrations.
Speaking during the morning press conference, Colombo was asked to describe his state of mind at that very moment in terms of colour. And he chose blue because to him this is the colour of peace, serenity and a clear vision. Just as purple stands for ambition, yellow for euphoria, white for focus, grey for independence, and so on. As we took in the entire range of colourful Nudo jewellery scattered throughout the campaign, we couldn’t help but agree.
As a classically trained photographer and digital imaging artist, Colombo stands at the crossroads of two opposing worlds. But he doesn’t see it that way, and constantly finds ways where reality and artificial intelligence could come together and make something that’s greater than the sum of their individual parts.
To him, AI is really a new interpretation of what constitutes art. Like how Impressionism was a new form of art, taking over from realism which dominated the art world for centuries. Through Impressionism, artists could evoke deeper expressions and emotions through their works, just as how through AI today’s artists may strive for more impactful visual renderings previously regarded impossible.
Sharing a morning coffee at the exhibition space in downtown Milan, Vogue Singapore Watches & Jewellery editor Celine Yap discovers more about Colombo’s unique approach to modern art, and his thought processes behind creating such a riveting campaign for Pomellato’s iconic Nudo collection.
How did you come to be attracted to artificial intelligence as expression of your art? Earlier on you mentioned it as an extension of your vision.
I started as a photographer, and I still am a photographer and a director. That is my background. A few years ago, I felt the need to do something more to transform my aesthetic as a photographer, because I realised that traditional photography was becoming, in my opinion, repetitive.
How so?
Meaning that even though I could take a beautiful picture, or any photographer who took a beautiful picture, it wasn’t new, or something that was aesthetically better representing my generation in my time.
How did you process this fascinating train of thought?
Art history will always be represented by the same few things: representation of human beings, still life, so objects and animals, and landscapes, be they natural or artificial. Technology allows us to represent these things in different ways. So from cave paintings, to mosaics, to oil paintings, and photography. If you think about it, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo and Marilyn Monroe by Warhol, they’re the same thing. In this case, a woman or a human being. What changes is the technology that the artists have available to represent the human being. So technology is what allows our history to transform and change.
And that’s how you went towards artificial intelligence?
I realised that there was a brand new technology that was aiming to transform visual arts in the way we create images. That was how I started mixing my photography and my video with AI. So starting from traditional image making, then giving it an extra layer, an extra transformation. Now I feel confident that the images that I create, they could be pretty, they could be beautiful, but they are contemporary, they do represent the society and the humans that we are right now.
How would you describe you creative process?
Until now, in art, every artwork was always the result of one person working by himself, or collaborations between different artists. So it was always a collaboration between human and human. Now, it’s a collaboration between human and machine, because I decide when the machine learns. But then the machine is free, it is intelligent and free to respond. And this response that I get from the machine, it is something that I cannot get as a response from another human being. That is the special collaboration.
Between beauty generated by AI and beauty generated by traditional artists of the past and even present, do you think there is a necessary a way to perceive them with different standards?
The challenge is not only to replicate with AI something that already existed, but to create a new form of aesthetic that is original. By itself. And people will learn to perceive it as something beautiful. If you think about Picasso, he might think about Van Gogh’s art at the very beginning as very different and maybe even ugly. But with time, we learned to find beauty in it. So my hope with artificial intelligence is that it will take the same path.
In a way, it’s like photography versus Impressionism.
Absolutely. It is a new breakthrough in that a new technology allows new aesthetics. And through the new aesthetic, there is new inspiration. The technology allows artists to be inspired in a way that couldn’t be before, so they can think in a new way and therefore produce new work.
Is that why you’ve incorporated elements of Impressionist art in your video for Pomellato?
As Sabina [Belli] mentioned earlier, Pomellato is recognised among the high jewellery brands, the one that’s always trying to find a new technology, and new ways to experience jewellery. So they often break through tradition, creating jewellery that didn’t exist before because the technology was not available. Everything that I’ve described about AI for myself, I recognise in Pomellato and the way they think about craftsmanship. There is a constant need to not repeat themselves, it’s a constant challenge of exploration and evolution.
How have you captured the essence of Pomellato’s Crafted Emotions campaign for the Nudo collection?
Nudo is about beautiful gems and colours. Crafted Emotions, expresses the fine craftsmanship that’s behind each Nudo jewel and the ability of each gemstone to conjure up a rich interior world, which I’ve represented by mixing photography, painting, and artificial intelligence. I’ve created a series of feminine portraits of different personalities that bloom in an imaginary world. The surrounding space becomes a reflection of the feelings that each stone evoked in me. In the work that I’ve conceived, the real world and the ethereal one fuse completely, creating something magical.
