A total of 40 artworks adorn the walls of the ground floor foyer of Shree Damodar College, Margao with hints of watercolour on paper, acrylic on canvas and mix media on canvas but look closely and one will realize that these images are generated using Artificial Intelligence.
‘Pixel Splash: An AI Generated Art Exhibition’ is Goa’s the first-of-its-kind exhibition that features stunning AI-generated artwork that is created by Software technology students of Shree Damodar College, Margao.
Artistic creativity is expanding its boundaries by going digital and the power of art is not only limited to those who are apt with the paint brush but even the keypad of their laptop. ‘Pixel Splash’ is an exhibition that challenges the traditional method of painting and shows what more can be explored. Curated by graphic designer, visual designer and illustrator, Sandesh Gaundalker, a total of nine students are participating in the exhibition, Chandrashekhar Bhat, Savvas Cardoso, Vaishnavi Sawal, Sailee Manjrekar, Showil Rebello, Shaina Kamat, Yogesh Yadav, Glyde Rebelo and Khushal Naik.
Associated with the College since 2020, Sandesh is a visiting faculty member as an industrial professional for the Software technology course that offers coding, web deigning and programming. As part of the course, he recently conducted a workshop on Artificial Intelligence and encouraged the students to put their education to practical use and explore the software to create AI generated artworks. From 30 students who submitted their artworks, nine students made it to the final list.
“This is a significant milestone in the evolution of contemporary art, showcasing the remarkable results of merging artistry with artificial intelligence. The students had to use a software app and AI with image generating tools to create the artworks. The students had to practice and perfect their prompts to get exactly what they had in mind.
Their skills of sequence of the prompt and prompt writing is very important to get the desired output. The computer science students have created an array of artworks which shows their good imagination skills, artistic mind and good sense of colour,” explains Sandesh.
An alumni of Goa College of Art, Altinho, Mapusa-based Sandesh doesn’t see AI as a threat to the artistic expression of traditional artists. Having worked as a digital designer for films like ‘Om Shanti Om’, he feels that it can be an advantage to artists too. “The concept behind ‘Pixel Splash’ is to challenge conventional notions of creativity and explore new frontiers in art. What would take 3-4 hours, I can draw a landscape painting in 45 minutes with the use of my ideas and the right prompts with AI giving me an image. The same can be replicated with different medium on a canvas. AI can be an advantage to artists if artistic skills are combined with the machine learning skills,” informs Sandesh. The exhibition will be on display till February 24 at Shree Damodar College, Margao.