Warburton’s most recent film The Wizard of AI (2023) is a 20 minute video essay about generative AI, produced one year after the release of Midjourney v4. Treating this particular release in November ‘22 as an historic moment in visual cultures and creative economies, the essay focuses on the real impacts this technology continues to have on artists and designers around the world. The video itself was produced using generative AI tools, and is 99% comprised of images and videos created with Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Runway and Pika. Yet the artist is careful not to give in to the ‘wonderpanic’ brought about by generative AI, using generative AI tools themselves to discuss and critique the legal, aesthetic and ethical problems engendered by AI-automated platforms.

The Vimeo link to the essay is here: https://vimeo.com/884929644

Alan Warburton is an artist, animator, author, curator and video essayist working with CGI, VR, AR, installation and sculpture. The artist has had over a million views of animated films and even managed going semi-viral with critical video essays about computer graphics and visual culture. Warburton is currently researching digital images and labour for a PhD at Birkbeck’s Vasari Centre in London.

Please note. The subtitle was primarily generated by AI in collaboration with human review and may contain some errors.