ArtisticIntelligence

This website was created to showcase the project Artistic Intelligence – a project I developed to explore the intersection between classical music, art, and technology. I am a classical pianist based in Switzerland, and since childhood, I have always been fascinated by the cutting edge of technology. I started using MidJourney from version 3.0, and even then, it felt like pure magic. With every version, it became increasingly clear that this technology could have a transformative impact on the world. I wanted to explore its high-end, tasteful applications.

Since my daily life revolves around the art of music, and I have a deep passion for the works of the great master painters, I wanted to find a way to combine these interests into one project. I teamed up with my talented clarinetist colleague and created a project that features evocative and highly imaginative pieces by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, accompanied by live projections of paintings created with MidJourney. These are complemented by lighting, designed by a light artist, that enhances each painting.

Given that I was working with masterpieces of classical music, it was crucial to me that the visual component be more than clichéd AI-generated art. I aimed to create something meaningful and aesthetically profound that would evoke an emotional reaction from the audience, challenging their preconceived notions about standards. I tested all existing image generation tools, but none matched MidJourney’s ability to create oil paintings. I encountered many challenges while creating the paintings, which taught me a great deal about the current limitations of the technology and how to steer it toward the desired result.

I thought it would be interesting to share some steps from my creative process, including intermediate stages, to illustrate the artistic journey, the dilemmas faced, the evaluation of tests, and the various paths one can take when generating meaningful AI art.

Debussy: Prelude

The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

For this piece, I wanted to pair a painting inspired by Manet – his aesthetic aligned with my vision of this innocent piece. I envisioned a girl standing in the middle of a beautiful wheat field and created hundreds of variations. Most turned out to be utter kitsch, as shown in the following samples:

The facial features are too simplistic, giving a cheap appearance. The character in the background is completely distorted.

I used a higher weight for a reference painting, resulting in a low-resolution generation, which, although fixable, still fell far short of the master’s level.

Another painting that exudes "kitsch" without a clear reason.

The girl appears hollow and too modern, blending excessively with the wheat field.

In contrast, the chosen painting bears a stronger resemblance to Manet’s work, with the girl’s penetrating gaze and an innocent expression that complements the surrounding scene.

Debussy: Prelude

The Interrupted Serenade

This passionate, dynamically contrasting piece evoked the image of a guitar player set in 19th-century Spain. I wanted an art style that was edgy and revolutionary. For this, I used the then-new Moodboards feature. I am particularly drawn to Egon Schiele’s portraits and Magritte’s surrealism. I merged Moodboards featuring both artists to create a unique painting style. This experiment yielded the opposite problem: too many excellent generations –

all innovative, full of character, and shrouded in mystery. Here you can see the four candidates and the final selection.

The Interrupted Serenade

Debussy: Prelude

Bruyères

Inspired by the beautiful purple heather flower, this prelude brought to mind Van Gogh’s landscape paintings. Since Van Gogh’s styles are so varied, creating a single Moodboard wouldn’t capture the essence. Instead, I used the same prompt with contrasting reference images:

“An oil painting depicting a Scottish Highland scene by Van Gogh – full of brush stroke textures with numerous strokes: rolling hills blanketed in vibrant purple heather stretching to the horizon. In the distance, a rustic wooden croft house, its chimney releasing wisps of peat smoke. Large clouds dominate the sky. The signature swirling brushstrokes convey the windswept movement of the heather.”

The results differed significantly, and while many were appealing, I chose the one I felt the most connected to.

Forlane Iteration 1 - atmosphere captured, bottles lack focus

Ravel

Le tombeau de Couperin, M. 68: III. Forlane

For this piece, I pursued a more abstract concept that reflects its harmonic texture. The music feels simultaneously calm and cheerful, yet subtly unsettling. Inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, I envisioned a vending machine with cold drinks in the middle of a desert. Initially, MidJourney produced a beautiful composition, but the bottles lacked clarity and composition.