To Dally with Dalí: Deepfake (Inter)faces in the Art Museum

Abstract

This essay focuses on the nascent symbiotic relationship between deepfakes and art museums and galleries, as demonstrated by three case studies. The first one, housed at the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Florida, is a life-size talking avatar of the artist generated from archival footage. The second one, Warriors by James Coupe, revisits Walter Hill’s 1979 film of the same name using deepfake algorithms to insert visitors’ faces into key scenes, sorting them into gangs based on data-driven analysis of their demographic and economic markers. Finally, Gillian Wearing’s fake ad, Wearing Gillian, uses deepfake technology to enable a series of actors to appear on screen with the artist’s face as a way of interrogating questions of identity in a networked digital world. Based on these works, my article examines museums’ employment of deepfakes for advertising, audience engagement, and educational outreach, and the curatorial, ethical, and creative opportunities and challenges involved therein. While deepfake esthetics will be discussed wherever relevant, this is not a formalist analysis; my goal is not to focus on close readings of the deepfake pieces themselves, however fascinating their esthetics. Instead, I will look at the promotional and critical discourse around them in order to unpack the ways in which the acquisition of creative deepfake works by cultural institutions functions as a legitimizing force that is already shifting the narrative regarding the artistic value and social functions of this technology.

Embracing Deepfakes and AI-generated images in Neuroscience Research

“…Despite the valid concerns surrounding the misuse of deepfakes, there is an emerging discussion of their constructive uses (Lin & Parvataneni, 2021;Mahmud & Sharmin, 2021). For example, deepfakes have been used to recreate celebrity's humanitarian messages in multiple languages (Die, 2019), create interactive art and museum installations (Mihailova, 2021;Wynn et al, 2021), generate hyper-realistic videogame characters of actors or players (Vejay et al, 2022), and change the age of actors in films (Loock, 2021). Importantly, some researchers have recognised the potential in deepfakes to improve our understanding of social perception: Deepfakes offer accessible, realistic, and customisable dynamic face stimuli (Barabanschikov & Marinova, 2021;Dobs et al, 2018;Haut et al, 2021).…”

Embracing Deepfakes and AI-generated images in Neuroscience Research

“…is an emerging discussion of their constructive uses (Lin & Parvataneni, 2021;Mahmud & Sharmin, 2021). For example, deepfakes have been used to recreate celebrity's humanitarian messages in multiple languages (Die, 2019), create interactive art and museum installations (Mihailova, 2021;Wynn et al, 2021), generate hyper-realistic videogame characters of actors or players (Vejay et al, 2022), and change the age of actors in films (Loock, 2021).…”

AI-Driven Personalization in eCommerce Advertising

“…The Dalí Museum employed a life-size talking avatar of Salvador Dalí, created using deepfake technology, for audience engagement and educational outreach [17]. 3) Healthcare: AI-driven tools in healthcare advertising have been used to explain complex medical conditions and treatments to patients, enhancing understanding and trust [18].…”

“…The integration of AI in the form of deepfakes created an immersive and interactive experience for visitors, increasing engagement and museum attendance [17]. 3) Healthcare: AI-driven explanations and visualizations in healthcare advertising improved patient understanding and compliance, leading to better health outcomes [18].…”