Despite the many controversies surrounding AI generated art, people like Malik Afegbua seeks to correct the notion that it limits human creativity. He wants to use the AI technology to help re-imagine what is possible today and in the future.
One look at Malik Afegbua’s “The Fashion Show for Seniors”, you will think he snapped senior models from the depths of Africa to showcase the beauty of the continent’s authentic wears, but the thing is, they are not actually real.
They are crafted human beings from Afegbua’s imagination. The models, the fashions—the entire Fashion Show photos are more than figments of the artist’s imagination. They are his creative expression brought to life by artificial intelligence. Some stylishly folded wear gele headdress, and others are adorned in overlapping garments fresh off the stove – as though they were sewn mere moments before the show. Although elderly, the models provided a range of modern flare and vintage majesty.
This unique creativity not only marveled his audience when he posted the photo on social media, but also caught the eye of the Oscar-winning costume designer behind the Black Panther films, Ruth Carter.
According to BBC, the designer commented “This is so dope!!” on Instagram.
As the controversies continue to linger, artists across mediums have differing views on the mixture of tech and art. Some have vocalized concerns about what AI means for the future of artists. Afegbua doesn’t share that concern. Instead, he embraces the emergence of AI as a newly leading force in art.
With his fashion show series, he sees an opportunity to challenge what he sees as the marginalisation of older people in society and wanted to challenge perceptions around ageing.
The artists have shown the world a whole new side of AI art, the kind of power it holds and what the future may look like if we embrace technology as a tool to assist human creativity.
The artist has never seen a runway with elderly people before, so he decided to do just that. To create something no one has seen before. And in the process, he learns and discovers many things.
“Artificial intelligence learns from us and learns from the World Wide Web. I try to learn from it as well. I try to learn how to talk to it, how to communicate better to get exact results from it,” he tells BBC.
In his process of creation for his runway images, he uses three different generators for a variety of results. This is because he wanted to choose the right fit for his models. He sought to mix traditional African Nigerian fashion with futuristic and Afro-futuristic styles.
Another set of pictures, which he calls his Fiction series, is also inspired by an idea of the future – despite dating the world he has created to 250,000 years ago. The collection of images represents the people of Ngochola, an imagined ancient African civilisation.
“They can speak to machines with their minds because they’ve cracked different codes. They’re very technologically advanced in a way that they understand how to mix biology with, you know, technology, and combine it together,” he says of the people that live in Ngochola,” he tells BBC.
In an interview with Africa Global Village, the artist speaks of his encounter after his big break. “I got these very emotional messages from a lot of people all over the world, saying how it touched them. I got messages from elderly people who’d lost spouses and friends, and young ones that missed their grandparents. I’ve had people send me prayers; I’ve had thousands of thank you’s. Thousands,” he says.
“…this project was personal for me,” he continues. “I think people related to that. It connected with a lot of people who are going through a lot of things, just as I was when I created it. So maybe it actually is a universal thing.”
About The Artist
Malik Afegbua is a Nigerian born and based contemporary Artist, Virtual reality curator and Film Director (Cinema / Television). The Bachelor of Arts graduate from the University of Surrey, London is the Lead Visioner and Chief Executive Officer of Slickcity Media, a full-fledged innovative media production company with expertise across the entire media value chain including film/tv production, documentaries, VR, films, commercials, corporate videos, visual marketing, media technology, and publishing.
Malik is a Culture Architect who strongly believes in harnessing the enormous power of storytelling to shift mindsets and evoke emotions regardless of the medium of expression. Influenced by global culture and the endless possibilities that technological advancements offer, Malik brings masterpieces to life by combining different mediums to tell stories utilizing virtual reality, and blurring the lines of what reality as we know it now is.
Some of his notable exhibitions include the Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, South Africa where he showcased his work with Meta and Meta’s showcase of Africa’s new XR Creators. He also produced and directed the Netflix original documentary – Made By Design. In addition, Malik has been recognized in top magazines like Vogue where his iconic and vastly loved elderly digital fashion show made the headlines, as well as in Stirworld and Tuko among others.
