Colourful

“The image would feature vibrant and colorful flowers in various shapes and sizes, characteristic of Murakami’s signature style. The flowers would appear to be floating or suspended in a heavenly, dream-like setting, creating a sense of whimsy and awe. The colors would be bright and saturated, with intricate details that give the flowers a lifelike quality.” 

 – DeepAI image description.

For my generated image, I used a free program called OpenArt AI to create the piece I have created for my chapter. It is meant to be an almost exact recreation of Takashi Murakami’s iconic florals — as I wished to pay homage to his signature style, as well as showcase some of his most renowned figureheads. I made the prompt as generic as possible in order to garner the best possible results for my piece. Figure 1 above is what the AI generated for me. The title “Digital Petals: A Techno-Rendition Inspired by Takashi Murakami,” was something generated to me by ChatGPT when asked to create a title given this specific prompt: “make me a title for an ai generated copy of takashi murakami’s piece flowers in heaven.” I took great inspiration from the 2010 piece, but I mostly wanted to play around and use his flower design as the base for my image. The title itself was very inventive, utilising the notion that AI had created this image, while also ensuring to keep in tune with Murakami’s artistic liberties. It gives a nod to the advancement of technology with the creation of AI generation by calling my image a rendition, as opposed to calling it my own piece of art. It would be wrong to call such an image my own, as it derives from an original work that has such an interesting history and culture surrounding it.

The image above depicts just as I requested, an almost identical copy to Murakami’s original work. A wide spread of colourful flowers decorate the image, covering every inch it possibly can with florals in an almost collage-like spread. Though most of them are flat in colour, a sparse few can be seen with multiple hues, such as repetitive and alternating shades of blue. As mentioned earlier, I wanted this image to be as similar as I could to Murakami’s original piece, and therefore did my best to exemplify it. However, AI is not always perfect, and through trial and error, this is the closest I was able to get in terms of achieving my expectations in creating a borderline replica of the artwork I chose. There is some visible distortion in some of the flower centres – from warped smiles, to no faces at all, as they have been mixed with other flowers in an odd looking amalgamation. I went through a  multitude of AI programs in order to come to my final piece, but this one was definitely the one I wanted to use for my chapter. The piece itself is quite similar in nature; colourful flowers with cute and expressive faces decorating the whole area, never leaving any empty spaces behind. Though it does look rather empty as we get to the background, I cannot say I am disappointed with my design. It still carries that same bright and fun air that Murakami encapsulates whilst creating his art. It was almost jarring to see how alike they were in the aspects they shared, from bright, fun foliage, to the expressions of joy they carried on their pistils.

Though his flowers show a more positive side of art and visual culture that depicts the fun sides of Japanese culture (paying homage to anime and manga, as well as traditional Japanese paintings), the history and lore behind their creation possesses a far darker and sad perspective of their creation. Despite their sugary and optimistic appearance, Murakami once stated in an interview with GQ Magazine that the flowers were meant to symbolize “the cycle of life and death.” In other interviews, it has been mentioned that flowers are also meant to represent the trauma and fear that came from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War.

Murakami is a Japanese pop-contemporary artist and entrepreneur whose main focus was the hybridity of traditional Japanese art and popular culture. He was born on February 1st, 1961 in Tokyo, Japan, and received his Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1986, where his main focus during this time was Japanese painting. Soon after, he received his Ph.D in 1993. His first international debut came immediately after he finished his studies, debuting his artworks in 1995 at the 46th Venice Biennale. His interest in the flat composition of traditional Japanese art and its similarities to Japanese pop culture media such as anime and manga led to the creation of his particular art style, which many foreigners and fans alike know by its respective name: “Superflat.” Though it is popular in his home country, his Superflat contemporary movement has garnered a noticeably large following in the west, sparking collaborations with various designer brands and celebrities; such as a feature on Kanye West’s album Graduation, and even a collaboration with the brand Louis Vuitton. Murakami’s work is in its prime in the western world, as many foreigners have connotated Tokyo with this aesthetic, as they are immersed in this new brand of “Cool Japan,” a facade meant to hide the darker realities of the country’s political state at the time.^[1]

The burgeoning relationship between contemporary art and AI delves into how artists are harnessing AI as a tool for creation, expression, and exploration of new artistic frontiers. Furthermore, it investigates the ethical implications and philosophical questions raised by the collaboration between artists and AI, including issues of authorship, originality, and the human-machine dynamic. By combining his distinctive aesthetic with AI-generated imagery, Murakami transcends conventional boundaries of creativity and expands the horizons of contemporary art. I will explore the intersection of Murakami’s artistic vision with AI’s capacity for generative creativity, highlighting the symbiotic relationship between human imagination and machine intelligence. Additionally, I discuss the implications of Murakami’s AI experiments on the art world, including questions of authorship, authenticity, and the evolving role of technology.

There is no real way to define contemporary art – as it is such a broad movement – with various mediums and artists who shape the movement. Historically, contemporary art follows the modern art wave, which spanned between the 19th century into the early 20th century.^[2] Modern art spanned over the late 20th century, and the addition of contemporary art gave it a much broader spectrum, as the new use of digital media arose. There was no specific person who coined the term, but the true meaning of contemporary art was to break away from modernisation and challenge societal norms. Contemporary art has always been a reflection of the times, constantly evolving alongside technological advancements and societal shifts. In recent years, the integration of AI into the art world has sparked a fascinating dialogue between creativity and technology. Many popular artists of this movement include Yayoi Kusuma, Nam June Paik, and more specific to this chapter: Takashi Murakami.

Takashi Murakami is renowned for his vibrant and whimsical artworks blending traditional Japanese art with contemporary pop culture, and has recently ventured into the realm of AI art. He has been adamant since the COVID-19 pandemic – an outbreak that nearly caused his bankruptcy – that both traditional art and AI/digital art con co-exist in peace, whilst other artists may believe otherwise.

With all that being said and done, it makes readers and art viewers alike pose the question of whether or not AI will take part in a new art world, where our mediums will shift entirely with the rise of the digital age. Since its early creation, many researchers have stopped at nothing to dissect the reality of AI, beyond simple online programs and robots created to serve menial purposes aside from art, being recognized as borderline independent entities.^[3] Prior to this later discovery, art created by AI – or formerly titled “computer art” – was rather simple in nature: plotted, and mathematic in nature. Lines unable to be replicated or curated by human art, as the process was rather precise and meticulous. Simple lines on a screen in a geometric pattern formation on a simple background, and there was nothing more to it than such, as stated by author Stephen Wilson.^[4] Furthermore, he writes on about how AI must be further researched in order for it to reach its full potential. It is very interesting to see the development of AI art programs and devices since the creation of this journal in the 1980s, as programs such as OpenArt and DALL-E have gone on to produce heaps of easily distributable art that many users will continue to use time and time again. These programs can make art as simple as my Murakami replication, to complex scenes and backgrounds akin to those seen in more classical paintings of the early 19th century, if one so desires to create such a piece.

Patricia Dionido is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa. She is currently majoring in Art History. She enjoys making art as a hobby – slowly learning how to branch out her own style and improve her work. Her research interests include that of the involvement of Asian diaspora and inclusion in the artistic world throughout time, as well as their involvement in the contemporary art scene.