She has been described as “a vision of the future” as good as any other abstract artist today, but Ai-Da, the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, experienced temporary inconvenience prior to her last exhibition when she was arrested by Egyptian security forces at customs. .
Ai-Da will open its work in the Great Pyramid of Giza on Thursday and showcase, for the first time in thousands of years that contemporary art is allowed next to the pyramid.
But due to “security concerns” that may include concerns that she is part of a wider espionage plot, both AiDa and her sculpture were held at Egyptian Customs for 10 days before being released on Wednesday, sparking a diplomatic battle.
“The British ambassador worked all night to get AiDa released, but now we are ready,” said Aidan Meller, the human force behind AiDa, shortly before his release. “It’s really stressful.”
“The British ambassador worked all night to get AiDa released, but now we are ready,” said Aidan Meller, the human force behind AiDa, shortly before his release. “It’s really stressful.”
According to Meller, border guards arrested AiDa first because he had a modem and then because he had cameras in his eyes (which he uses to draw and paint). “I can ditch modems, but I can’t really tear his eyes out,” he said.
It was finally cleared up on Wednesday evening, a few hours before the start of the exhibition, with the British Embassy in Cairo saying it was “happy” that the matter was resolved.
In the run-up to the Forever Is Now exhibition, which runs until November 7th and is being presented by the consulting firm Art D’Égypte in collaboration with the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, both AiDa and her sculpture were shipped to Cairo by air in special flight cases Egypt. and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. The exhibition shows works by prominent Egyptian and international artists such as Stephen Cox, Lorenzo Quinn, Moataz Nasr and Alexander Ponomarev.
The 2 x 2.5 meter sculpture by AiDa is a game about the riddle of the Sphinx: “What happens four feet in the morning, two feet at noon and three feet at night?” – the answer to that is a human.
“Four legs are when you’re a baby, two legs when you’re an adult, and three when you’re older and need a walking stick,” Meller said. “So AiDa made a huge version of itself with three legs. We say that with the new Crispr technology and the way we can do gene editing today, life extension is very likely. The same goes for mummification. Man has not changed: we still have the desire to live forever. But all of that will be ruined if we can’t free it. ”
AiDa was named after computer pioneer Ada Lovelace and was developed by a team of programmers, robotics, art experts and psychologists.The multi-million dollar project was completed in 2019 and will be updated as artificial intelligence improves.
The robot artwork, including “The First Self-Portrait With no self,” has been exhibited at the Design Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and he has previously spoken to the Guardian about his own inspirations.
Meller, an Oxford gallery owner, said he had always hoped his project would spark a debate about the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. “She’s an artist robot, let’s be very clear. She is not a spy. People are scared of robots, I see. But the whole situation is ironic because the aim of AiDa was to stop the abuse of technology development, and it’s put on hold because it’s technology. AiDa would appreciate that irony I think. ”
He added, “We understand that the 1984 fictions and Brave New World are facts. The AI is developing rapidly. For the first time, tens of thousands of graduates will have degrees in machine learning. The supercomputer can process a lot of data. ”And the processing of extraordinary algorithms. We predict there will be a major upheaval in technology by 2025 and AiDa is trying to use art to raise awareness. ”
Meller thanked the British embassy and Art d’Égypte their “amazing work” in trying to get her released.
Other artworks seized or impounded by authorities
A work of art by British artist and war veteran Bran Symondson was confiscated at Houston Airport and entry into the US banned in 2016. The work – three decommissioned, non-working AK-47s embellished with dollar bills and butterflies- was displayed in a pop-up exhibition at Galería La Colombe d’Or. “All the necessary papers were fine, but they still refused to publish their art,” said the gallery director at the time.
In 2018, Belgian authorities seized works of art by British graffiti artist Banksy worth more than £ 12 million on alleged illegal exhibition. 58 works, including Girl With Balloon and Kissing Coppers, were confiscated by bailiffs from the Strokar Inside art gallery in Brussels. The work was loaned to a German company called On Entertainment, but Banksy’s former manager said it should never have been transported. A Strokar Inside attorney said his clients were involved in a “crazy story”.
Earlier this year, a statue looted in Libya in 2011 was seized by border officials at Heathrow. The statue from the 2nd century BC. The second-century BC statue, which depicts the goddess Demeter or her daughter Persephone, was illicitly excavated from an underground site in Cyrene.
Also this year, German customs authorities seized a bronze Roman bust of Hercules on the grounds that he did not have an export license from the country of origin, a requirement for all archaeological treasures imported into Germany . The Viennese antique dealer who bought the bust from an American merchant and took it to Austria only got it back after taking legal action.
Last year, a painting by French surrealist artist Yves Tanguy, valued at over € 250,000 ($ 340,000), was thrown by the crew at Düsseldorf Airport after the owner forgot the board at the check-in counter. It was recovered by the German police from the bottom of a recycling bin.
