You can design a horse with AI

but it might use too much water to be ok with fans

I have to admit I’m a bit surprised at the massive pushback luxury brand Collina Strada is getting for their most recent collaboration with Baggu. The bag, which is shaped like a horse, is patterned in a plaid that is the result of an AI-assisted remix of previous Collina Strada designs.

The sentiment seems to be: a) this is theft b) why don’t you collaborate with a real artist, and c) Baggu as a brand is focused on environmental sustainability and using AI is counter to that because AI uses a lot of power and water. I’m thinking people aren’t understanding that the dataset used for this print is comprised of past Collina Strada designs and that it was created by a designer who is a real person. I’d also venture to wonder whether on a meta level this kind of remix is a form of cultural recycling? Plus I think the thing with Baggu is the recycled material, which I’m sure is still true for this horse. I’m keeping out of the technical, environmental side of AI in order to spare you some derivative, unresearched response.

The other reason I’m a bit surprised is that I see a deep tie aesthetically between AI and everything Collina Strada does. Their ads, methods, design approach, and response to the contemporary moment, all seem super AI friendly and AI engaged. I don’t think you would like Collina Strada if you weren’t into the surreal, futuristic, kaliedo-cryptic, semi-psychedelic, hi-dissonance synthesis of Weird that we are living in right now, with AI aesthetics being a huge part of that. So what’s the difference between embracing this aesthetically and embracing it on the creation-production level? Would it even make sense to desire or obtain these aesthetic outputs without using or addressing the technologies that are shaping them?

People also aren’t very happy apparently with the reaction they got from Collina Strada art director (and in my opinion most brilliant artist ever ie) An Actual God Among Men) Charlie Engman, who does some of the most amazing artwork with AI I’ve ever seen, replied “Endlessly fascinated by the punitive urge to foment public judgement over an artistic process in the name of protecting artists.”

Sorry but I’m with Charlie here (no surprise fangirl): Is it wrong to wonder what an artist’s responsibility is when using technology that exists in the world regardless of their using it? How much energy would not have been expended by this brand not using AI? Isn’t it kind of like Trump trying to prove that he didn’t call fallen soldiers suckers and losers because 19 people heard him not say it?

Here are a couple of Engman’s images from his IG.

And from Collina Strada website