Chadia MathurinA few weeks ago a group of photos swept across the digital landscape like wildfire. Immaculately clad, vibrant, stylish elderly men and women confidently strutted down a dimly lit runway. Their outfits, purposeful in their efforts not to subtract from the wisdom of their years, borrowed inspiration from the Nigerian gele, African wax prints and other African and Eastern regalia.
A fashion show for senior citizens?
Yes.
A real, live fashion show for senior citizens?
No.
These images, as life-like as can be, were ideated, and generated through the use of artificial intelligence by a Nigerian film maker, Malik Afegbua.
Malik Afegbua’s Elderly Series
In West Africa, particularly in Nigeria, where Afegbua is from, the elderly are viewed and revered as unchallengeable portals of wisdom and righteousness; fierce guardians of tradition and culture. This story is often shared in our books and on our screens in the form of withering, stubborn men and women who are unyielding in their positions about the ways in which things MUST be done, but Afegbua’s work has given us fresh eyes through which to view old age and the elderly in our midst. Consider that with a relatively low average life expectancy of 52.89 years in Nigeria, old age, though desired, is not a logical conclusion for many Nigerians. Malik Afegbua’s AI generated photographs have enabled Nigerians to explore the reality of aging, and simultaneously, reconceptualize their perceptions of what it means to be old. Additionally, his art has perhaps led them to consider the lifestyle infrastructure and calibrations that will best facilitate these reimagined realities: food, exercise, mental and emotional health. They are certainly doing the same in a universal context, even more so for men and women of color across the globe..
Afegbua’s photographs can also be commended for proffering considerations for how those in the fashion industry choose to design for and dress the elderly. While the fashion worn by his senior models have kept to the need for comfort, practicality, and classic styles, they have veered away from the often drab mundanity associated with the choices available for seniors. They have embraced style and boldness.
Malik’s work has made room for lots of imagination and re-imagination and it is likely that he will continue to find ways to stimulate our imaginations. When he thinks about how AI can help us reimagine African stories, he believes that the “possibilities are endless”. His continued series uphold that belief. From happily married couples running in the rain, to elderly men and women baring their torsos in swim wear for their time at the beach, Malik has successfully and definitively facilitated converted perceptions of old age; vibrant and not withering, alive and not dying, progressive and cognizant that good things can come from mixing things of the old with things of the new.
Paul Thompson’s Caribbean-Inspired Movie Ideas & Posters
A little over 9000km away from Nigeria, Paul Thompson, a Creative Technologist with a background in Marketing and Advertising from Jamaica slants the lens of artificial intelligence generated art to give us stories from a different angle. In 2022, Paul founded HelloScribe, a suite of AI writing and brainstorming tools to help PR and Marketing professionals work smarter and faster without creative blocks or wasted time. He used this very tool to generate the movie poster ideas that are helping many to redefine their expectations of Caribbean cinema. Using HelloScribe, Paul created a unique “Text-to-Image” Prompt Tool to enable anyone to come up with text prompts for use with any Image Generator such as MidJourney AI. The end result? Exciting, highly salable stories that almost every Caribbean native can identify with.
We had the idea for these movie posters, and we had ideas of unique locations in Jamaica, and stories that have never been told on screen. But I needed a way to accurately describe the images I was going for. Our software made the process seamless.
His stories draw from familiar and popular headlines, history and socio-economic realities in his native Jamaica that have seemingly been bypassed as just headlines and realities. For example, the plot for his movie idea, Cockpit Country, “A band of indigenous warriors set out on a daring mission to protect their native land from a powerful foreign mining conglomerate. With divine assistance from their ancestors, they must tap into their courage and fortitude to liberate their homeland from exploitation” borrows from the recent conflict in Jamaica’s Maroon territory. A young, newly instated chief, Richard Currie, made international headlines in his vehement opposition to the grant of mining leases in what had been dubbed protected territory.
Return of the Gaza King, another movie idea borrows from the real life trajectory of famed dancehall artist, Vybz Kartel. The plot reads, “After a long stint in prison, a Dancehall superstar is determined to reclaim his place at the top of the charts. In his quest for redemption and glory, he must rebuild his career from the ground up and navigate the treacherous world of fame, greed and betrayal”. This story, though distinctly Jamaican, resonates well beyond Caribbean shores, primarily because of how great an impact Vybz Kartel had on the dancehall genre.
Portia, a proposed biopic about Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Portia Simpson-Miller, borrows from a rich Jamaican political history that insinuates the unlikeliness of a woman, let alone a dark-skinned woman, rising to the highest office in the land. In his movie ideas, Mango and Norbrook Redemption, though fictional, Paul continues to speak to issues of classism and colorism in post-colonial Jamaica. Mango tells a remarkably familiar love story “as a poor farmer and the adopted daughter of a wealthy merchant discover an indelible connection under the shade of a mango tree. As they come to terms with their forbidden love, class divides threaten to unravel their relationship“. Norbrook Redemption is quite similar. Its plot reads, “Against all odds, a convict develops an unlikely romance with the daughter of a powerful politician. But as their bond grows stronger, they will be tested by society’s prejudices and challenged to rewrite the rules of love, justice, and power“. Its accompanying poster provides a striking visual in the joined faces of a young man of African descent and a young woman of Caucasian descent that lend to deeper understanding of the divides that face the two main characters.
Now that they’ve been rendered in visual and written form, these movie ideas seem obvious enough. These are stories that have been seen in one shape or another in European and American cinema. We’ve seen the Erin Brokovichs, the biopics about the world’s greatest musicians [the ones who are not Caribbean], civil rights movement leaders and great American Presidents, but these templates have never been fully imagined or explored in Caribbean contexts. Artificial intelligence coupled with Paul Thompson’s imagination have made them real and alive, and are forcing practitioners as well as everyday citizens to imagine the breadths of Caribbean cinema.
The Ethics of It All
The work of Paul and Malik have granted new lens through which to reimagine African and Caribbean stories, but as they create, there is a contention lurking in the hallways of ethics. Numerous artists are concerned that artificial intelligence generated images such as the ones produced by Paul and Malik have been commercialized, and piggy back on their talent and hard work while they are left without compensation.
Paul holds a balanced and sympathetic view on the ethical art debates. He said,
I believe where it can be proven, artists should be adequately compensated for derivative works if an entity or person is using AI to mimic their style for commercial purposes. That said, nothing is completely original. All great art is inspired by other great art. And so AI provides this new and unending stream of inspiration. I think we’ll see the emergence of a new category of artists who can manipulate language to create unique works of art that the world has never seen before. There is no turning back for AI. And I think our people should dive into it head first.
Paul Thompson
Malik, shared an opinion, quite similar. On the subject of ethical art debates, he said,
If an artist goes online and tells the AI to create an art work that looks like someone else’s art work then that’s stealing that other person’s artwork in a sense. You could create some things that are original with AI. Even if you want to get inspiration from another person’s artwork it doesn’t mean you’re going to sell it and pass it off as yours.
Malik Afegbua
Thus, both Paul and Malik believe that it is quite possible for there to be unethical use/generation of art by artificial intelligence. However, they both believe that AI can produce works that have never before been seen/produced. As a matter of fact, they both seem to think that AI is driven by the same thing that drives all great artists: inspiration.
And inspired, many are.
Chadia Mathurin
Gilbert Morris
