The inaugural BIFB Prompted Peculiar — International AI Prize brings us squarely into the world of images generated by prompting Artificial Intelligence to create art. This is a global competition which offers a $2000 prize to the overall winner and $1000 to the People’s Choice award.

As new technology impacts visual culture, this prize is an invitation to debate where this new art of ‘promptography’ belongs. The Jury shortlist of AI images will be exhibited during the festival and visitors are invited to cast their vote for the People’s Choice award. The term ‘promptography’ was popularised this year when photographer Boris Eldagsen turned down first prize in the creative open category of the Sony World Photography Awards, because his image ‘The Electrician’ was generated by AI, and in his words was ‘not photography’. The BIFB Prompted Peculiar — International AI Prize exhibition will be shown throughout the festival.

JUDGES
Boris Eldagsen, AI Artist
Una Rey, Editor, Artlink Magazine

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PROMPTED PECULIAR – INTERNATIONAL AI PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT

BIFB received over 100 submissions to the Prompted Peculiar – International AI Prize 2023, with entrants from around Australia and countries including Sweden, Czechia, Israel and Germany.

Annika Nordenskiöld from Sweden was selected as the judges’ prize winner for her work Twin Sisters in Love, 2023.

Almost 1,000 votes have been cast in the People’s Choice Prize. Voting closed midday Saturday 7 October. Over 100 votes were cast for the winning work Robot Intermarriage by Melbourne artist Hanna Silver.

JUDGES STATEMENTS

Overall, the entries displayed a playful enthusiasm for AI-generated image-making, with a heavy emphasis on the photographic. The works shortlisted for exhibition display a range of creative approaches. The strongest works show – or hide! – evidence of pushing the idea and the technology beyond the gimmick,  that is, beyond the first prompt or ‘first draft’. The artists’ statements also revealed there is a long way to go in articulating the creative process when using AI tools, both technically and conceptually.

WINNER, Annika Nordenskiöld, Twin Sisters in Love, 2023

Of all the images submitted, the artist most convincingly managed to create an image that looks real and at the same time plays with our idea of reality. With its captivating subject, it touches on art historical and cultural references and subtly subverts the documentary photography genre.

ARTIST STATEMENT

None of the places, people or creatures in my prompts exist in the physical realm. They were conjured from the sum of human experience in our deep collective well, as seen from my dreamboat with its flickering light. It is the dream of a dreamer to bring home some proof of the journey; to become an oneironaut – a lucid dreamer, collecting notes and images, even objects, from the world within.

Annika Nordenskiöld b.1965, lives and works in Sweden. She has graduated from Berghs School of Communication and Konstfack – University College of Arts, Crafts and Design. Annika’s work is mainly paintings, but also sculpture and works of art in a variety of materials.

HIGHLY COMMENDED, Breeanna Hill, Digital Reverie: Nature’s Paradox 02, 2023

A clear, stringent concept, with references to Magritte and C.D. Friedrich. It also captures the irony of immersive environments and humanity’s disconnect from nature increasingly meditated via technology.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Digital Reverie: Nature’s Paradox” captures a thought-provoking scene, encouraging viewers to contemplate the intricate relationship between humanity and technology. Both compositions centre on a figure absorbed in a digital screen displaying the surrounding landscape—an intriguing paradox. This juxtaposition prompts reflection on the consequences of our relentless technological advancement. It raises a fundamental question: Can our evolving connection with technology genuinely sever our profound bond with the natural world? “Digital Reverie: Nature’s Paradox” invites contemplation, urging us to assess whether our ceaseless pursuit of the future might eclipse the inherent beauty and significance of the world that perpetually envelops us.

Breeanna is a designer working at Hassell, an international architecture practice. She is a graduate of Interior Design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Design who enjoys all facets of design but is particularly interested in digital technologies and how they can affect our relationships with space.

HIGHLY COMMENDED, Carolyn McKay, Ghost Motel 01, 2023

Well realised, the artist shows her expertise in Japanese film history and ghost stories; the image is a playful expansion of her existing practice in photography, painting and criminology.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Since 2022, I’ve been using Ai as a composition tool in my painting practice. My current body of work examines crimes in retro motels through a framework of ghost criminology: the ghost being a metaphor for the traces of accumulated human experience and transgression that haunt any shared social space. Having lived and worked in Tokyo for 3 years, I’ve developed a love of mid-century Japanese cinema so I decided to merge that with my interest in mid-century crime scene motels. Ghostly images emerged from my text prompts with Ai adding eerie elements of weirdness to my concepts.

Carolyn McKay is a visual artist as well as a criminal law/criminology academic at the University of Sydney. Her visual arts training was at Sydney College of the Arts, Julian Ashton Art School and Tom Bass Sculpture School. Carolyn’s creative practice encompasses digital video and audio, photomedia, drawing and painting.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER Hanna Silver, Robot Intermarriage, Melbourne 1895 15 June 2023 Midjourney AI.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My prompt to Midjourney v5.1 was: “Old photograph from 1895. Melbourne Australia. Flinders street. A robot from the future is getting married to a tram. Wedding ceremony in the middle of the street. Robot and tram love each other. Happy celebration”. So, Midjourney didn’t quite fulfil my idea, but that’s the fun of AI, you never know what you’re going to get. I love that Midjourney can make representations of Melbourne, my home town. Plus it’s old Melbourne, old timey robot wearing a skirt…there’s a lot I find charming about this image. And love is love.

Main image: Boris Eldagsen, PSEUDOMNESIA lll | Balance, 2023