The history of AI art has taken quite a turn of late. On the one hand, AI art is now everywhere due to mass access to AI image generators. But AI art is also being taken more seriously in the art world itself.

Last week, a fully autonomous AI art sold at Sotheby’s. And tonight London’s esteemed V&A will host a projection of AI art sponsored the UK National Lottery. What on Earth is going on?

A projection of AI art might seem like a strange way for the National Lottery to mark its 30 years of commitment to funding human art, but tonight’s projection at the V&A South Kensington isn’t the kind of text-generated dog on a skateboard that someone might get out of Midjourney after a few hours of prompting. Blending art, data and code, it’s an immersive site-specific AI-driven data painting that was made by using cognitive technology to visualise the brainwaves of influential figures from the arts.

Istanbul-based Ouchhh Studio used “data as a paint and algorithm as a brush” to create the piece. They used a cognitive headset to capture the brain waves of seven ‘Game Changers’ who have had a “transformative impact across Arts & Film over the past 30 years”. These were then fed through an AI algorithm to create a living, breathing canvas for the V&A’s Exhibition Road Courtyard.

We’re told the imagery was created using data illustrating different states of consciousness: alpha waves from creativity and daydreaming, beta waves from deep thinking and problem-solving, delta and theta waves from the subconscious mind during deep sleep ad gamma waves associated with problem-solving, happiness, and compassion. Ouchhh also tracked participants’ heart rate data to add another layer to the artwork.