The project initiates an inquiry into the possibilities of AI and particularly Machine Learning to reconstruct and generate lost antique greek and roman friezes and sculptures by the means of algorithmic analysis of 3D scans of antiquity. It concerns about the potentialities of methods involving data, ML, AI and other forms of automations turning into semi- and quasi–archeological knowledge production and interpretations of history and culture in the era of ubiquitous computation.
An algorithm capable of self-learning is directed to replenish lost fragments of the friezes and sculptures. Based on an analysis of models, it generates models, which are then 3D printed in various materials and used to fill the voids of the original sculptures and their copies. The synthetic intelligence that tends to faithfully restore original forms, also produces bizarre errors and algorithmic speculative interpretations of, familiar to us, Hellenistic and Roman aesthetics, revealing a machinic understanding of human antiquity.

The residency linked Data Pitch an EU-funded open innovation program around shared data and the artist Egor Kraft. Data Pitch has set up an innovation space that offers the technical, legal, and ethical infrastructure for organizations owning data to be able to share it safely, securely, and responsibly; and facilitates and nurtures partnerships of these data providers with micro, small, and medium-size entrepreneurs to develop new business ideas and co-create value.

The project Content Aware Studies inquires the possibilities of AI and Machine Learning to reconstruct and generate lost antique Greek and Roman friezes and sculptures based on the analysis of a custom-compiled dataset of thousands of 3D scans. It concerns about the potentialities of methods involving data, ML, AI and other forms of automation turning into semi-and quasi–archaeological knowledge production and interpretations of history and culture in the era of ubiquitous computation. Synthetic intelligence capable of self-learning is directed to replenish lost fragments of the sculptures. Based on an analysis of models, it generates models, which are then 3D printed in various materials and used to fill the voids of the original sculptures.

The project juxtaposes the aesthetics of classical ancient art and the generative method, explores the mechanization of artistic labour and new forms of material cultures. The artist explores the possibility of a collaboration with artificial intelligence, potentialities of involving it’s synthetic subjectiveness and the data-driven form of the history production, it’s ethical implications, thereby calling into questioning the ideas of authorship, genuinity and production of art and history in their traditional sense.

Read the final report