ORGNLPLN

@Origamiplan ∙ Published November 9, 2023

What’s your background and how did you get into AI art?

My background is in fine art painting (BA & MA degree from the University of Fine arts Budapest, pending my Phd degree but still need to find time to start it), and also graphic design since 20 years at this point.

My interests are multifaceted, ranging from music to graphics to code. I continuously learn new things, which is how AI came into the picture. I got into AI art when I received an invitation to test the closed beta of Dall-E. About two years ago, I created my first AI project, “Rå,” using some custom datasets.

And where does the name ORGNLPLN come from?

The name ORGNLPLN originated from my time at Carhartt when I was around 15-16 years old. Coming from a very modest family with a single mom, I had nothing but my talent. Carhartt hired me to create murals and flyers for their events. At that time, they released a DVD titled “Circus Maximus,” featuring some of the best graffiti artists and writers on a European tour. Seeing this, I thought, “daaaam I wanna be like this guys, making cool stuff, doing art, and living from that!” The crew included Koralie, 123Klan, and Jeremy Fisch, who all became my heroes.

I was already in art middle school then, nearing the end of it. I saw things from a fine art perspective and knew that I couldn’t, nor did I want to, be boxed in as just a painter or just a graphic designer. I was thinking about a cool name that could encapsulate everything in one phrase that represented me. I literally said, “man, I need to come up with an original plan”, and once I said it out loud, it hit me.

I merged it together, and ORGNLPLN became the name. It has best represented, until this day, my polymath point of view. I don’t believe that if you’re an artist, you’re only skilled in one area. That is the greatest lie of all…

Did your time in Japan influence you creatively?

I moved to Tokyo in 2007, settling in Shinjuku-Ku, and lived there for several years. There, I began exploring 3D, as AI wasn’t much in the spotlight at that time.

I saw A BATHING APE, one of the earliest brands focused on streetwear, on the top of its game while visiting their original shop in Harajuku. I bought the first release of the “APE Camo book” by Nigo, Tomoaki Nagao, a Japanese fashion designer and entrepreneur.

Not many know, but the book begins by listing Nigo’s accomplishments in graphics and exhibitions, spanning 4-5 pages. Seeing the prototype of a creative mind, not constrainted to only one thing, yet excelling in various fields, was astounding. It influenced me to be free and avoid being put into a box.

Tokyo, and Japan in general had a big influence on my art. I learned not only digital art and 3D, but also traditional pattern making, which later infused my paintings and digital works.

I designed my own XYZ Camo there and also wrote my dissertation on human brain pattern recognition and its effects on the human brain (quite a good subject, very interesting).

Eventually, several of the paintings created from the patterns in Japan ended up in the permanent collections of Raiffeisen Bank Europe and in private collections in Paris.

I might never be able to give back all the good influence to the beautiful country of Japan. All I can say is thank you very much because I’m immensely grateful.

What drives you to create?

I have too many ideas, and I’m very visual. Daily, I have about 30 thousand pictures and concepts in my head. Creating is a way for me to select and channel these visuals into projects and art.

The drive, however, is based more on the realization that we don’t have as much time here as we like to think. I would like to leave as much influence as I can while here, so future iterations of humans have another perspective and set of ideas to take as starting points.

Also, from a more basic perspective, this is what I do best… I would be the worst waiter of all time.

What does your workflow look like?

Over the past 20 years, I have worked in studios and gradually transitioned to working for myself, choosing the projects I prefer. In this time, I developed several workflows for different project lines.

As for inspiration, it seems to come full circle in a strange way after a certain amount of time. I began a visual collection at 16 and still maintain it today, now spanning several terabytes. You can think of it as a manual Architect before Archillect. Periodically, I revisit these collections to draw inspiration.

Since I started in the NFT space in 2018, I believe I was the first artist to publish works in 5K resolution and above, using the TIFF 16-bit archival format. Quality and color-correct reproduction matter greatly to me, and my focus is always on achieving that as an end result.

My current AI pipeline involves Midjourney, Runway, some custom models, and then upscaling via Gigapixel.

If it’s image-based, the final stop in the pipeline is Capture One, to produce archive-quality data for prints and reproductions.

If it’s a video, then the final step is usually Davinci Resolve, for the same reasons: to achieve professional grading and archival data output.

For my abstract works, after AI generation, I typically use Cinema 4D, Indigo Renderer, or Houdini as a middle step to maintain more control over the datasets.

How do you imagine AI (art) will be impacting society in the near future?

I believe AI art will have only positive effects. It accelerates time, allowing us to create a hundred years’ worth of conceptual artworks in parallel computation within a day. This rapidity propels our thinking to that level. It will result in a more sophisticated level of visual understanding and more advanced ideas on an individual basis.

As for general AI and society, that is a different question. I think we will see pretty horrific things, in ways that will either lead us to collapse or to some rethinking of what it means to be human. I’m pretty sure that once we achieve fully realistic human-like robots, we will either use them to revolutionize the sex industry, or we will invent a TV show where we all watch self-conscious robots being killed and executed on live TV every night. Thus, the masses are entertained by the death of what is perceived as a lower life form compared to humans. We are in for a shitstorm when it comes to ultra-realistic AI robots.

Who is your favourite artist?

I usually become a fan of artists based on their way of thinking. From that standpoint, if I must choose, I would select Tomoaki Nagao, aka Nigo, Yves Klein, Marina Abramović, and Ai Weiwei.

What is your favourite prompt when creating art?

Hahahaha that’s a great question. My favourite prompts have to be 80mm from above and kissing.

When I started using these prompts with AESOP and the [ MEDIUM ] sets, no one else was using them, and I found it interesting to push the boundaries and risk being banned from AI use.

The kissing prompt came about because I saw people doing the same things over and over with AI. They were basically aiming for some beauty concept, trying to regenerate the same style they had seen elsewhere, and I found it lame. I mean, we can create anything, so why not kissing? I like when two girls kiss, so here we are.

From a conceptual point, I wanted to see if it was even possible, if there was some dataset the AI could use to reproduce a kiss. This is mainly because it is so human. We connect with a kiss. It’s very soft and sensual, and you’ll spot immediately if it’s incorrect, with no cultural boundaries. It was the perfect test for the AI I wanted it to do, and also it’s very sexy… so win-win.

Do you have a specific project you’re currently working on? What is it?

Yes, [ MEDIUM ] and AESOP were minted on the Foundation marketplace. [ MEDIUM ] was created by me to represent the entirety of the AI medium, hence the name and brackets around it, indicating the medium’s code-based roots. Its creation’s primary purpose was to provide a boundless canvas for my AI works.

As you will notice, [ MEDIUM ] BLOCK ZERO consists solely of static images. [ MEDIUM ] BLOCK ONE comprises exclusively animated “text to video” artworks. [ MEDIUM ] is designed to be the canvas for my visions and artworks in the AI field, capable of evolving from ZERO’s images to real-time AR artworks.

AI is the [ MEDIUM ]. I believe it is the perfect name and branding for it. BLOCK represents its data organization. You can think of it as one of PAK’s cubes. BLOCK ZERO is a collection of 10 x 10 cubits of artworks, encompasses a single vision.

[ MEDIUM ] BLOCK ONE is, if you will, a 10 x 10 x 100 artwork. The last number in this equation is for the collectors to decide. It comprises 100 video artworks, forming a base for the collector to join in the [ MEDIUM ] collaborative environment online on Runway.

BLOCK ONE is a collaborative effort with the collectors, mainly because I want to see what they create. I also want them to start using AI a bit. So we break this invisible boundary of artist and collector, and maybe they like it or maybe they find a new respect for the art form seeing that it’s not that “easy” creating something original and relevant.

In a nutshell, [ MEDIUM ] is an ongoing conceptual canvas for me. There will soon be a new release, 0.5. And after, we plan to move it to Apple Vision Pro, marking a totally new field of reality and how collectors experience my art.

I intend to continue this for years to come, as I’m sure we will see many advancements in AI and technology that can be used to create.

AESOP is a more philosophical body of work, with more raw thematics, society reflections, and future scapes. Its name comes from the Greek storyteller and fabulist, AESOP. Both fall under the category of photon graphics, with AESOP representing digital storytelling via AI.

Could you tell us about your Genesis on Makerplace? You have been one of the first invited artists on the platform in 2018.

One of the founders of MakersPlace, which comprised three guys at the time, noticed my work on ELLO and emailed me an invitation to join their marketplace in the summer of 2018. Back then, there were only ten artists.

My Genesis piece was a Be@rbrick design I did in Tokyo in 2007. That’s where I began my journey in 3D and discovered a passion for designer toys and collectibles.

At that time what I remember about MakersPlace and the whole crypto movement is that I was very sceptical about it. I used to get weekly invites to exhibits and design awards and to be real, most of them are a scam.

One of my first bricks was a black and white dead Mickey Mouse. I was just happy that people liked and collected it. ETH was around $400 at that time. I was like, “yeah we are not gonna get rich with this thing here hahaha”. But it was cool, and I appreciated the comments from people expressing how much they liked it.

I started the bricks because there never was digital version, and I made my own. In Japan, and also in global street-art, toy designs are a part of the culture, to paint on them and collect them like Flying Fortress and 123Klan toys.

Plus, from Nigo to Gucci, everyone has produced their own versions. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce them at the end of 2018, since I already had a huge set of them on Ello. Bricks are literally the first item created as a free gift, which accidentally rose to global icon status and established its own genre of “designer toy.” This paved the way for all subsequent toy art. In the crypto art space, I am fairly certain I was the pioneer in introducing toy art.

Currently, my Be@rbrick collection is valued at just over 50+ ETH. A new collection is coming in 2024.

Have you noticed any significant changes in the NFT space, particularly in AI art, since 2018?

There are fewer scammers now. The beginning was innocent; I felt everyone was supporting each other, but as it usually goes, people and artists began to form cliques, similar to middle school. There are a lot of fakes here who have never been to art school and only learned some 3D application. They gained a large following after shamelessly self-promoting themselves as some sort of demi-god. Now, they are gone because the value of Ethereum is down. I don’t like that mentality, so I’m happy.

Regarding AI art, exactly what I expected happened. The loud screamers who were fueling the fire by claiming it’s “not art” have become silent. I think now it’s an integral part of the space in general, and the art world at large is slowly acknowledging it. Artists like Kevin Abosch, Roope Rainisto, Milo Poleman, Katie Morris, and Julie W are truly pushing the boundaries and have already found a solid fan base that understands their work. So, the medium has begun its own evolution.

Would you be willing to share about your creative contributions to @FellowshipAi?

I’m not sure how much I can share, but there’s a guy called showsupnaked, and I don’t want him showing up naked in my studio, hahaha. Jokes aside, I think a long road of lucky events led to us working together.

We got introduced through a common friend just as the release of PPP1 (Post Photographic Perspectives 1) was around the corner, yet there was no trailer ready for the release. So we started to work on it together to have something really high quality and energetic for this first of its kind release… and I think we knocked it out of the park.

I also had the great pleasure of designing the Daily.xyz logo for their new evolution into AI video experiments on the contemporary fronts, and I couldn’t be more happy with the outcome.

As I’ve mentioned before, in my own work, I aim for quality in everything I do. If the new trailers require me to be up all night and all day till we have something that hits the same quality and power as previously, then I am a maniac about it, until it’s on that level.

However, Alejandro Cartagena is always there to have a fresh eye on things. It’s not just me; we all have to maintain a standard and quality that surpasses what we achieved last year.

So, please don’t send me messages asking how to get into Daily.xyz. As you can see, I’m not part of their team, so I can not help you with that :)

Would you tell us about the AI Surrealism exhibition in NYC In June 2023 with 100 AI Artists in which you took part?

Oh, it was fantastic! I’m super honored and happy to be a part of AI Surrealism.

This was my third show in NYC. Before that, my works were displayed at NFT NYC, and our collaborative work with KNNY was shown via The Crypt Gallery.

I think the significance of AI Surrealism’s curation by Exquisite Workers and the Superchief Gallery NFT is that it still feels like a small group, more intimate and delicate than, say, a highly funded organization like NFT NYC. The curators, Anna Dart and Roger Haus, are also artists, so they have a much more realistic and up-to-date perspective on what’s happening in the space. As a result, their curation is more on point than the usual “follow the hype” mentality.

Ultimately, when it comes to curated AI artworks and considering how early we are in this field, looking back a decade later at what the AI Surrealism exhibition meant, I think it will most probably be mentioned alongside some early Fauves movements and exhibits.

I also collected some artworks, and most importantly, I got to know many of my contemporary artists. So, nothing but praises.

What does it mean to be an AI Surrealist for you in the times we live in?

On my end, nothing has really changed. I use and perceive AI in the same way I did 3D in 2007 Tokyo. It is the perfect tool for creating worlds and manifesting the ideas in my head in a way that others can enjoy. I’m not sure how it feels. I have been living this since 2007, just with a different MEDIUM.

Anything else you would like to share?

If anyone has Chiaki Kuriyama’s number… Please don’t hesitate.

On a serious note, maybe as an advice for artists, we’re living in a very twisted social structure. Just be yourself. Give and take critique. And don’t believe the hype that everything has been done already. It’s not true and is often said by very shortsighted people.

You can find me on X and Instagram.