From February 6 to June 4, an AI version of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring is being displayed at the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
While the real Vermeer painting is away at the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Julian Van Dieken’s AI version of the painting has taken its place, reports de Volkskrant.
A Girl with Glowing Earrings
The Mauritishuis didn’t want the original display area to get chilly. 🥶
Therefore, they made a call to artists from near and far to create a new piece inspired by the famous Vermeer painting.
Before long, curators had to sift through 3,482 art pieces made from photographs, sculptures, and even work composed of vegetables before they landed upon an AI model of the piece to hang in a row with four others.
READ MORE | Girl with a Pearl Earring vandalised by climate protesters
This decision has been scrutinised under the watchful eyes of many art critics, who aren’t happy that the hard labour of artists is being mocked by a bot.
How was it made?
Julian Van Dieken created AI-generated images of the girl using the artificial intelligence programme Midjourney. He went on to fine-tune her beauty digitally with Photoshop.
READ MORE | Dutch students are using artificial intelligence to complete their homework
Midjourney works with a simple text input. This means Van Dieken might’ve typed in: Create a portrait of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring — with a bit of glow and shine. ✨
Then, the system creates a computer-generated image faster than a Dutchie can say leuk!
Artificial intelligence or artificial ignorance?
Objections from the art world are also moving quickly as artists campaign against AI entering their space.
One artist, Eva Toorenent, advocates against the ‘unethical technology’ used to create these artworks, with the organisation EGAIR.
“While Midjourney makes a lot of money with its software, the artists and creators whose work is involuntarily included in this dataset see nothing in return,” Toorenent tells de Volkskrant.
READ MORE | Patients in this Dutch hospital will now be treated by…Artificial Intelligence?
“Without the work of human artists, this program could not generate works at all. The higher the quality of art in the dataset, the higher the quality of the AI art.”
Whilst artificial intelligence may be useful for some professions, Toorenent believes that within the art profession, AI should be a no-go.
What do you think of the AI Vermeer painting? Tell us in the comments below!