Colección SOLO has announced that Slovak-British artist Gregor Petrikovic has won the SOLO AI Award 2024. This award focuses on the moving image and aims to recognise excellence, innovation, and storytelling in artworks created using artificial intelligence (AI).
A total of 450 pieces by 372 artists were submitted for the award. This year’s winner of the SOLO
AI Awards is Sincerely, Victor Pike, by the Slovak-British artist Gregor Petrikovic, who received a prize of €10,000 and the piece’s exhibition at Espacio SOLO in Madrid, the exhibition and participation in the +RAIN Film Festival at Pompeu Fabra University and the exhibition at Sónar+D 2024 (Barcelona), among others.
This award is made possible through the collaboration of Goldsmiths University, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Artnet, and Google Arts & Culture.
The winner has been chosen by a distinguished jury consisting of Rachel Falconer, Head of Digital Arts Computing BSc and Lecturer in the Department of Computing at Goldsmiths University; Sophie Neuendorf, Vice President at Artnet; Lady Cactoid, an artist, curator, and co-founder of Cactoid Labs; Ana Brzezinska, an immersive and digital media expert responsible for Immersive Programming at the Tribeca Festival; and representatives from Colección SOLO, the institution promoting the prize and an international artistic support project based at its museum in Madrid.
The award was presented in a ceremony on the afternoon of 5th June 2024 at the University of London. The ceremony will begin with a talk on art, narrative, and AI given by experts invited by the university. Attendees will also have the opportunity to view the exhibition of works by the nine finalists.
2024 WINNER: SINCERELY, VICTOR PIKE
Gregor Petrikovic’s award-winning work, Sincerely, Victor Pike, stands out for its innovative use of artificial intelligence to create a moving image that seamlessly combines voice recordings with AI-generated visuals. Produced in 2023, this piece has a duration of 12 minutes and 17 seconds and is a testament to Petrikovic s unique approach to exploring the intersection of technology and human memory.
The film is built upon an archive of audio recordings collected since 2016, featuring conversations with friends, partners, and acquaintances. These recordings form a tapestry of voices that intersect with physical forms, movements, and gestures, ultimately weaving together narratives of individuals who never met in time or space but coexist in the memory of the semi-fictional character, Victor Pike.
At its core, the film raises questions about the capacity of technology to preserve the ephemeral nature of human interactions and the potential of storytelling in maintaining our shared humanity
explains Petrikovic
During an artist residency at ISCP in New York, Petrikovic transcribed these recordings into text using AI, resulting in an extensive script printed on hundreds of pages. This script served as the foundation for transforming written memories into images, with AI acting not merely as a tool but as a creative ally. The artwork delves into the fragility of human memory and its reconstruction through technology, showcasing how AI can collaborate with art to reconstruct and preserve human experiences.
I’ve been creating an audio archive of recordings for several years, always hoping I would be able to one day sit down and listen back to the hundreds of hours of conversations that I’ve gathered. Last year, I started to use AI as a tool to transcribe these documents, and they would become a sort of ‘scripts of life’. When looking at the AI transcripts, I felt a strange sense of holding source material that was somewhere between documentary and processed fiction
I think AI is often seen as this cold tool that stands separate from human creativity and emotion. Though I understand that point of view, I find myself intrigued by its unpredictability and possibility to generate new ways of seeing. As humans, we aren’t used to seeing AI images. When we see visuals that are generated, it makes us pay attention to it more because it’s novel, and I believe even the audio element is then experienced in a new light because of its context and relation to such images. In contrast to AI being typically seen as cold and calculative, I hope this film can show that there is a possibility to use it constructively to highlight moments of human spontaneity and unity instead.
says Petrikovic.
Petrikovic’s innovative use of AI challenges the common perception of the technology as cold and detached, instead highlighting its potential to generate new ways of seeing and experiencing both visuals and audio. The work encourages viewers to recontextualise their own memories and their relationship with archives, illustrating that AI can be a powerful tool for artistic expression and human connection.
Sincerely, Victor Pike’ reflects the artist’s personal journey and philosophical exploration, underscoring the potential of AI to bring images to memories and emphasising moments of human spontaneity and unity. “This film is a significant contribution to the discourse on technology and art, demonstrating the possibilities of AI in contemporary art practice from a more human perspective, focusing on memory and community
Oscar Hormigos, Chief Creative Officer of Colección SOLO.
About the artist
Gregor Petrikovic is a Slovak artist and filmmaker residing in London. With a background in photography, fine art, and dance, Petrikovi?’s work uses bodies and movement to explore themes of human connection. He is a Burberry Design Scholar and holds an MA from the Royal College of Art’s Graduate Photography Programme 2023, and a BA in Philosophy from Durham University. His films have been showcased at various international festivals, including Kunsthalle Bratislava, Oberhausen International Film Festival, Athens Digital Arts Festival, and The
Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts.
About the Colección SOLO. Colección SOLO is an international arts project based in Madrid (Spain) that aims to foster, support, and share current art production. SOLO seeks to generate dialogue and experimentation in the field of art. SOLO runs a wide variety of arts-support projects and is housed at Espacio SOLO, a museum which shows the collection’s holdings through different temporary exhibitions. Designed by Juan Herreros and awarded the Madrid College of Architects’ Prize in 2018, Espacio SOLO is located in Puerta de Alcalá, Madrid (Spain).
Goldsmiths Digital Arts Computing BSC The Department of Computing at Goldsmiths University London shares a progressive approach to innovating and supporting creative practices engaged with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. The Department of Computing is dedicated to providing a space of open and inclusive participation in creative and socially aware forms of Computing in all its modes and manifestations. Goldsmiths has a unique vision of Computing research as an interdisciplinary set of practices, methods and techniques, and the collaborative potential between human and AI and Machine Learning is a central focus for both research and practice within the department.
Pompeu Fabra University. Founded in 1990, UPF is a public university, located in the city of Barcelona,
highly competitive in research and with a vocation for educational transformation to respond to the challenges of the future. The Department of Communication at University Pompeu Fabra co-organizes
with Sónar the +RAIN Film Festival, Europe’s pioneering festival of films generated using artificial intelligence
