Obvious

We at Obvious wish to explore, use and share the different ways machine learning algorithms can catalyze our natural creativity. The notion of creativity is extremely hard to encapsulate, at it seems to be a process implying a number of factors that are not yet properly defined. Through the replication of human behaviours in a creative context, we see algorithms as a fascinating tool to help dig into and better understand the different forces at stake in the process of creating something new, unique and innovative. We have seen examples of algorithms helping humans to improve their creativity within framed scenarios such as in a chess or a GO game.

We wish to demonstrate that algorithms help us better understand how we function as humans, and push us to outsmart our current level of creativity.

Through the creation of comprehensible artworks and by collaborating with the major actors that shape our society, our art collective wishes to shred some light on the emerging tools increasingly available for all types of creatives. We believe that a new generation of creators will rise, one that will know how to best build and manage algorithms that will help in an innovative process. We also want to promote a new level of collaboration between an artist and his tool, where the hands of the artist and the one of the machine are joined in the search of a new type of aesthetic and a deeper conceptual framework.

The first stage of this democratization process is the demystification of the word Artificial Intelligence, still perceived by many as involving features that are yet exclusive to the brain, such as self-consciousness and intention.

By staying up to date with the latest research, we wish to reduce the gap between our beliefs and what is currently being achieved in machine learning.

Science and art have always been complementary.

We can observe examples of this symbiosis everywhere from the works on geometry that helped artists building perspective in their work and the chemical creation of new types of pigments that allowed declining colors while keeping their intensity, to the creation of the camera that multiplied the facility of access to visual creation.

We are willing to encourage this dynamic by exploring different types of art through the angle of a set of algorithms, and help reconcile the old and the new by and reducing the differences in perspectives of apprehension of the issue.

We wish to contribute to the debate regarding the scope and nature of art, and allow once again the definition of art to grow and evolve with the era it now passes through. We believe that this can be done both by proposing new example of creations, and working directly on redefining the creation process as a whole, thus providing new insights on the question of the place the artist takes in it.

Technology has always been at the service of human ambitions and limitations. The technology itself doesn't have any impact on our society, nor on our lives. It is the way humans use it that will shape the future of our society. This is why Obvious focuses on accompanying the emergence of benevolent and harmless ideas, by demystifying artificial intelligence, promoting alternative uses for it, and unveiling its true creative potential.