Fashion residency can also be about artistic research

“Life Lived by Nobody”: When AI Meets Fashion

Klára is an independent Czech fashion designer. Her work is based on craftsmanship and materials. Her passion is upcycling – working with waste and dead material. During last year’s residency in Milan, she explored fashion design through artificial intelligence. And she shared her findings with us.

 

You planned to explore new technological challenges for fashion design in a more experimental way. How can the uniqueness of fashion design work in collaboration with artificial intelligence?

My research project focused on the integration of artificial intelligence tools into the creative process of fashion, particularly in the creation of promotional and advertising fashion “photos”. As this new technology emerges, it is imperative to explore how it can be used in creative practice. I have approached the topic reflexively, as this technology also raises significant ethical issues, particularly in terms of authorship, the decline of the representational function of photography and related issues. The aim was to explore these issues through practical artistic research.

 

Have you been able to create promotional fashion photos using AI in a way that preserves the author’s input? Or conduct a Chat GPT interview on fashion design topics?

Actually, that’s pretty optimistic. As a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence tools, I found that without human input, editing and extensive post-production in my chosen program, artificial intelligence alone was unable to produce satisfactory promotional photos of the garments I designed and created during my residency. The raw results generated by artificial intelligence were inadequate. However, I used the images generated by artificial intelligence as the basis for the synthetic visuals that I created myself during the residency.

Your residency resulted in a small multimedia installation of clothing through synthetic images. Will you share it with us?

The result of my reflexive exploration of artificial intelligence tools was a multimedia installation called “Life lived by nobody”. It consisted of physical garments made during my stay in Milan, a video projection of synthetic images depicting these designs, thought-provoking quotes exploring the interaction between the natural and the artificial (including excerpts from my interview with ChatGPT), music and interior scents. I photographed the garment with fellow artist in residence Michaela Stanova from Slovakia. These photographs became the basis for my project, which was created by combining real photographs with AI-generated backgrounds. The aim of the installation was to evoke a sense of ‘false’ memories and artefacts belonging to a person who may have lived in an unspecified past – but never did.

What do you appreciate most about the residency, what was your most powerful experience?

It’s hard to single out just one experience. For me, it was incredible to spend two months in a country where fashion is truly a living organism – where all its parts work seamlessly together. The Accademia Costume & Fashion programme was exceptionally well prepared and I gained a lot of valuable knowledge. We visited many interesting exhibitions and among the excellent excursions I would highlight in particular the visit to the extensive archive of knitwear of Modateca Deanna in San Martin, Rio, the Dolce & Gabbana exhibition “Dal Cuore alle Mani” at Palazzo Reale Milano and the fabric fair Milano Unica. I can wholeheartedly recommend this stay to anyone working in the fashion industry. I am truly grateful for this opportunity and experience.