For me so far neon works or taped works with simple words were too arbitrary. I have seen them “a thousand times”, they come across as important and yet are banal. You can declare virtually any word or pair of words a work of art. But without a concept, they are empty shells and it may make more sense to play Scrabble.
Why did I have to create, precisely for this reason, the work “what is the prompt?
Those who do know about my oeuvre know that I deal with icons. Icons that gain meaning out of nothing and have an effect in their time. During the Corona pandemic I worked with some of the icons of the pandemic, for example with the QR code, which suddenly became known and accepted through the certificates and contactless entrance and menu cards, realized in the work “QR“. Further for example with “1 meter 50” the recommended and officially proclaimed measure for social distance against infection and spreading of the virus. Consequently, I had to implement the question that arose with the (mainly) imaging artificial intelligence and that I was asked in the comments of almost every post of my AI images “what is the prompt?” (namely: with what text sequence were you able to generate this image with the AI software?). This question wasn’t asked before because it just didn’t make sense in life. Suddenly, it’s hugely important to those who want to get into AI image generation and learn how the Pros do it. Similar to a magic trick.
(here with gallery owner Marat Guelman setting up for the first time in June 2023)
what is the prompt? (2023)
Mixed media, LEDs, electronics, plexiglas
Weight: 3kg
Size: 18cm(H) x 175cm(W) x 2,5cm(D)
Edition: 10+1ea
Exhibited:
Olaf Schirm – Main Works, Guelman und Unbekannt Gallery, Berlin, 2023