(This is just slightly risque. You know you love it.)
What kind of future do you see for using AI as a creative medium?
I’m excited to see it develop , it’s always upgrading and getting better with more accurately executed prompts. I think most films will be made with the help of AI soon.
What do you think of Damon Packard's films, which are longer than yours? Any plans to do longer films?
I do plan on making a longer film. I have a few rough ideas in mind. I would need a good writer and team, perhaps I’ll find them. I haven’t seen his work, no, but I will watch something tonight for some inspiration.
How did singer Erykah Badu end up posting some of your images as an example of exemplars in the AI-generated field?
The guy whose image she used had quite a lot of followers, so she must have seen it circulating in her algorithms and reached out to him. Which is great! It wasn’t my own art. Nobody famous yet ! But I do get DJs requesting videos for their new releases from time to time.
Any other AI creators you rate out there, and why?
Goatcigs, and Mr.Bingbot are masters of gore. 9icons is good, he’s from Brazil and love his colours. Apromptona , authentic real Mexican homoerotic art, kind of feminine flash tattoo characters. There are lots of great artists in the community. Some can be a little repetitive, I like to see people branch out of their comfort zones, more than just staying with the same style.
Do you think AI can overcome sniffy artworld prejudice towards it, or will the gatekeepers always try to protect and project their feeble outdated views? How long will it take until AI is accepted as a genuine creative medium amongst the general public or art world? Will it ever be? And if not, would that make it more fun, more perverse?
I think some people will never take it on. But more and more people are taking it up, I’m seeing new accounts with some really cool videos popping up more and more. I do like being on the dark side. I always have been one to go against the grain. It is quite exciting. Being able to make our own movies within a few minutes is far more fun than paying for Netflix and being programmed by Hollyweird into whatever social agenda they want to infect your mind with.
How do you choose topics to cover, and how you will cover them?
Usually a song I’m listening to, I’ll think of some mental scenario in my head that goes with the music. And maybe something or someone I have seen during the day that lingers in my mind. I see people and they spark off little stories within me, and I use them as inspiration.
What makes one AI program better than another for what you want to do?
Midjourney is one of the best for creating an image, but I haven’t really ventured out too much on the other apps. I like using Kling and Hailuo for video because they are crisper and the prompts are pretty spot on.
Do you collaborate with others online?
Yes, I have done quite a few. I have a page @Megakulab where me and few others pick a theme and all generate an image on that word. We haven’t done one for a while but it was really fun. Then I make a collage of everyone’s work. I am in a couple of collectives. One is called. @FrmWrk. We do a lot of collaborations, and it’s a good leg up for exposure. There is also @echosmagazine and @iiii.ai, very supportive pages in the community.
Anything you think the culture, society in general, or the government should be doing for AI creators? Or do you not care?
I’m not sure to be honest, I’m just enjoying the ride so far.
There seems to be a fair bit of use of twisted religious imagery in your work. Where does that come from? Geographic location?
I am not religious, if anything I’m just a Gael. None of it makes sense to me or feels like it belongs to me. It’s cult-like…which is quite scary to me. Perhaps it’s rooted in my DNA to fear it. I lost another dear friend to suicide, Batenga. She was from Uganda she was very vulnerable, and I find that this is when religion slides in for some as it did for her. It consumed her to the point of psychosis and it was disturbing to witness. I still love the architecture and everything that has come from religion it’s fascinating and beautiful in parts, but it feels alien to me.
Does the concept of creating work with national boundaries even exist anymore, in a world where anybody from anywhere can just access anything they want?
I think so yes. I hope people fight for it. But this is where we are heading, just plug in and enjoy .
Your images are sometimes quite graphic on Instagram, but never overtly so. I suppose this would be to do with their ludicrous censorship rules. Are you ever going to do something more graphic, more hardcore, maybe set up your own site with this sort of material? Or are you happy where you are right now?
It’s quite hard for me to get certain things, Midjourney is a bit of a wet wipe in that respect…but there are ways. I like gore, but not too much. I’d rather have a mysterious strange vibe than violence. But whenever I have tried I usually get banned! I have lost a few accounts in the past on Instagram so I’m trying to be as edgy as I can get away with right now. But a darker private page might be good.
Where can you see yourself going in the future with your work?
It would be great if someone saw my page and wanted to make an actual film or series with some of my ideas and direction. But that would be a miracle. I think it will open some doors though in the next few years. I’ll keep doing the commissions I get just now and go with the flow.
You mentioned to me in a DM that you sometimes use artwork of your own in your videos, but overlay video imagery and such on top of it. What other sorts of art do you produce?
I enjoy digital drawing with procreate on the iPad I have done many over the years , and printed some T-shirts. I love oil painting landscapes and portraits, although I am pretty rusty these days.
What do your friends and family think of your work? Do you find they 'get' it? What percentage of the general public do you think is ready to accept such beautiful, pure, alien, totally familiar imagery?
Most people I “know” in the real world dislike it, I think…because they have been told to. Some people just find it all disturbing and have told me so. I try not to concern myself with their feelings, as it will only hold me back.
The colour scheme in your work seems to be slightly turned up, as if the viewer is coming up on ecstasy. Why this aesthetic choice? Was it a conscious rebellion against the greys and bleak blacks of Scottish historical artistic representation, or are you just all naturally fabulously sparkly and rainbow of fruit colours inside?
I am bursting with colour inside. Recently I have been a bit of a shell of a person, I have to protect the small pile of sparkle that’s left before it’s all gone. But I love to have something vibrant with a dull background or something to make the colours pop out.
Are you ever inspired by current events? For example, your 'Demon Debutante' vids, with weird mutant women strutting their aesthetically diseased stuff, came out during the Oscars.
I just had a kind of chick flick night with some cheerleader films, watched a couple other things and I love dancing. The song featured was playing at the time and so I based it around that. Yes current affairs and pop culture, everything inspires me. And sometimes it’s like “I can make a better version”
Your video Happy International Women's Day was, in part, a shot of a woman wrapped in plastic, wearing a barbed wire thorns crown, laugh-screaming through it, before ripping it. Would you describe yourself as feminist, or anarchist, or both, or neither?
I’m not a fan of anything that ends in “ist”. I’m a tomboy, and as a woman right now saying you are a feminist is a joke. Another cult. When I hear the word “patriarchy” I cringe, as half of them have an Only Fans which is just feeding this “manosphere” they all cry about so much. They won’t ever touch on how other cultures treat women, but seem to want to bring these cultures to the UK. A little naive if you ask me. It’s all very messy out there and I am just an observer in this crazy clown world preparing for when it all pops off, if it ever does…in the meantime I’m using Sarah Connor (a strong independent woman) for inspiration to get in shape , have her framed on the mantlepiece, our lord and saviour.
I mentioned that your work reminded me a bit of a changed version of the nude photography of New York underground photographer Richard Kern, and you took that as a compliment. What is it about his work that you like?
I like the seedy coldness about it. The facial expressions and the angles are interesting.
What do you think of 'body horror' as a term for your work?? Or is it more like just 'everything horror?' Your imagery is lunar and cybernetic, but also somehow oddly totally organic. It's contradictory.
I honestly never saw myself as a horror creator, but I guess that’s just what is inside me and it needs to come out. That’s why it feels organic.
What does art and human representation mean anymore in a modern overloaded world? Can anything human or humane be created? Or do you regard your work as entirely human? Have our psyched been colonised by image saturation and sickness?
This question is too much for my tiny human brain. If I gave Midjourney to anyone they could get anything they wanted, but they have to know what they want . Most people try it and it looks crap because they haven’t delved into the possibilities. But none of what I created would ever exist if it wasn’t for me. AI just helped me bring it to life.
Who would design the clothes in your own favoured private Hell?
Myself, of course!
Have you ever had any exhibitions of your work? Do those sort of AI exhibitions even happen?
Yes they do, do hope to have a few exhibitions, perhaps in Berlin. I have a friend there who uses my art for their music promotional page, and she mentioned she would help make this happen. And I would like to make a website with some T-shirts and posters one day when I pull my finger out.
THE BEGINNING
Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/archangeldemons/
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