Colección SOLO proudly announces the winner of the second edition of the SOLO AI Award. This prestigious award, which focuses on the moving image, aims to honour excellence, innovation, and storytelling in artworks created using artificial intelligence (AI). A total of 450 pieces by 372 artists were submitted for consideration.
This year’s recipient of the SOLO AI Award is “Sincerely, Victor Pike” by the talented Slovak-British artist Gregor Petrikovič. Gregor will be awarded a prize of €10,000, and the piece will be exhibited at Espacio SOLO in Madrid, the +RAIN Film Festival at Pompeu Fabra University, and Sónar+D 2024 (Barcelona), among other institutions. This significant award is made possible through the esteemed collaboration of Goldsmiths University, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Artnet, and Google Arts & Culture.
The winner has been chosen by a distinguished jury consisting of Rachel Falconer, Head of Digital Arts Computing BSc and Lecturer in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths University; Sophie Neuendorf, Vice President at Artnet; Lady Cactoid, an artist, curator, and co-founder of Cactoid Labs; Ana Brzezinska, an immersive and digital media expert responsible for Immersive Programming at the Tribeca Festival; and representatives from Colección SOLO, the institution promoting the prize and an international artistic support project based at its museum in Madrid.
The award will be presented in a ceremony on the afternoon of 5 June 2024 at the University of London. The ceremony will begin with a talk on art, narrative, and AI given by experts invited by the university. Attendees will also have the opportunity to view the exhibition of works by the nine finalists.
2024 WINNER: SINCERELY, VICTOR PIKE
Gregor Petrikovič’s award-winning work, Sincerely, Victor Pike, stands out for its innovative use of artificial intelligence to create a moving image that seamlessly combines voice recordings with AI-generated visuals. Produced in 2023, this piece has a duration of 12 minutes and 17 seconds and is a testament to Petrikovič s unique approach to exploring the intersection of technology and human memory.
The film is built upon an archive of audio recordings collected since 2016, featuring conversations with friends, partners, and acquaintances. These recordings form a tapestry of voices that intersect with physical forms, movements, and gestures, ultimately weaving together narratives of individuals who never met in time or space but coexist in the memory of the semi-fictional character, Victor Pike.
“At its core, the film raises questions about the capacity of technology to preserve the ephemeral nature of human interactions and the potential of storytelling in maintaining our shared humanity,” explains Petrikovič.
During an artist residency at ISCP in New York,, Petrikovič transcribed these recordings into text using AI, resulting in an extensive script printed on hundreds of pages. This script served as the foundation for transforming written memories into images, with AI acting not merely as a tool but as a creative ally. The artwork delves into the fragility of human memory and its reconstruction through technology, showcasing how AI can collaborate with art to reconstruct and preserve human experiences.
“I’ve been creating an audio archive of recordings for several years, always hoping I would be able to one day sit down and listen back to the hundreds of hours of conversations that I’ve gathered. Last year, I started to use AI as a tool to transcribe these documents, and they would become a sort of ‘scripts of life’. When looking at the AI transcripts, I felt a strange sense of holding source material that was somewhere between documentary and processed fiction,” says Petrikovič. “I think AI is often seen as this cold tool that stands separate from human creativity and emotion.
Though I understand that point of view, I find myself intrigued by its unpredictability and possibility to generate new ways of seeing. As humans, we aren’t used to seeing AI images. When we see visuals that are generated, it makes us pay attention to it more because it’s novel, and I believe even the audio element is then experienced in a new light because of its context and relation to such images. In contrast to AI being typically seen as cold and calculative, I hope this film can show that there is a possibility to use it constructively to highlight moments of human spontaneity and unity instead.”
Petrikovič’s innovative use of AI challenges the common perception of the technology as cold and detached, instead highlighting its potential to generate new ways of seeing and experiencing both visuals and audio. The work encourages viewers to recontextualise their own memories and their relationship with archives, illustrating that AI can be a powerful tool for artistic expression and human connection.
“Receiving this award is a profound acknowledgement, offering me the opportunity to share a deeply personal story with a broader audience. It underscores the potential of AI as a constructive tool, encouraging others to reframe their own memories and their relationship with archives,” reflects Petrikovič.
‘Sincerely, Victor Pike’ reflects the artist’s personal journey and philosophical exploration, underscoring the potential of AI to bring images to memories and emphasising moments of human spontaneity and unity. “This film is a significant contribution to the discourse on technology and art, demonstrating the possibilities of AI in contemporary art practice from a more human perspective, focusing on memory and community,” explains Oscar Hormigos, Chief Creative Officer of Colección SOLO.
©2024 Colección SOLO
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