Albert vs. Machine (2016)

Albert vs. Machine (Albert Barqué-Duran, Simon Colton) is a project at the intersection between art, science and technology. It was Premièred at Creative Reactions (London, UK) exploring the definition and concept of computational creativity. For some months, Albert faced and compete with an Artificial Intelligence Agent with creative capabilities. Which of the two was going to be considered more creative? And how to scientifically measure it? The Machine was called ‘The Painting Fool’ and is a computer programme that one day hopes to be taken seriously as an independent, creative artist. It has been trained for more than a decade to produce artworks and poems by its teacher, Prof. Simon Colton. Simon is a Professor in Computational Creativity at Goldsmiths and EPSRC Leadership Fellow. ‘The Painting Fool’ uses a mixture of machine learning, machine vision, artificial intelligence and computational creativity software to exhibit behaviours that involve skill, appreciation, imagination, intentionality, accountability and learning.

Salvador Dalí
Basket of Bread (1945)
Oil on panel (13 cm × 17 cm)
Dalí Theatre and Museum, Figueres (Spain)

Albert Barqué-Duran
Basket of CPUs (2016)
Oil on canvas (60 cm × 49.5 cm)
Private Collection (Spain)