Designboom_ Filippo Nassetti unveils a series of AI generated artworks that integrate spaceships into paintings produced by some of the most prominent artists in art history, including Hieronymus Bosch, Canaletto and Caravaggio. The Italian architect and generative designer experiments with Midjourney, a recent form of artificial intelligence that takes instruction to produce original images and imaginations. Nassetti tests the extent of the new software’s skills, by prompting it to produce paintings in the style of famous figurative artists that include spaceships – objects that the artists could have never seen or imagined to exist. Through training on a very large database of historical artworks and images, Midjourney learns the visual language of several historical painters, and produces original content that mimics it.

The result of Nassetti’s experimentation is a collection of almost sci-fi like interpretations of the famous artists’ painted worlds. Their distinct styles and techniques are successfully emulated by the AI software, and the visual language and atmospherics of the original paintings are convincingly reproduced and transferred to create the spaceships. The objects contextually appear completely alien to their scenarios and landscapes, but are stylistically harmonious.

The shape and materiality of the spaceships varies in relation to each artist. ‘They are not simply painted in the style of these artists but designed as such’,explains the architect and generative designer. Among the collection of images is a Canaletto with highly detailed vessels flying over a misty Venetian lagoon, a dark and dramatic Goya with people contained inside a light aircraft, a deconstructed Futurist Boccioni, a Turner where the objects blur with the rich turbulent skies, and a Piranesi drawing depicting elevations and sections.

‘Beyond this collection of images, I think this is possibly a very strong tool for concept design,’reflects Nassetti. ‘It opens very new territories for art and design exploration, while challenging many existing ideas, such as our conception of authoriality and copyright, the relationship between concept and development, and the role of technique. I decided to produce these images to discuss the ongoing transformations, and new horizons.’