A Golden Summer and Grok

We would require the insights of Gillo Dorfles and Tommaso Labranca to help us navigate this new internet kitsch. We are now navigating through ‘AI slop’ – the drivel of artificial intelligence – as American websites and newspapers, ever so punctual, have taught us: we are wandering through that undifferentiated magma of hideous graphics generated by some bot that hasn’t attended – let alone Central Saint Martins – not even the Pegaso School of Design. A gigantic levelling effect, making the video of the leader of the free world look just like a poster for an Abruzzo village festival – there’s now an international body of literature on AI-generated village festival posters, and perhaps even a national emergency. Of course, when we think about our professions, fearing that one day they might be supplanted by AI (not ours, mind you – I’m an optimist; perhaps with AI there’ll actually be fewer typos about), graphic designers really do seem to be at the top of the list.  

First architects, then notaries and accountants (oh dear, I’m not so sure about the accountants – despite having paid your subscription to ‘Fattureincloud’ and the fee to their firm, you’re still receiving the usual grim email at this time of year: ‘Could you send us the invoices that have actually been paid? In the meantime, please download the pre-filled tax return and send it to us’. And you ask, ‘Right, but what on earth am I paying you for, then?’). But perhaps Italian accountants are already in line with Musk’s latest prophecies; we’re already paying them to do nothing. The world where work will no longer be necessary is already here – Italian accountants are way ahead of the curve.

But getting back to the matter at hand, the question we should really be asking is: if a Massimo Vignelli, a Bob Noorda or a Franca Helg were to be born today – designers from Milan’s economic boom era and ‘all-round’ designers whose work spanned everything from underground station signs to packaging and art catalogues – perhaps they’d be on TikTok saying, ‘Instead of going to the office, sell a PDF for seven dollars to seven thousand users’ (though nobody would pay them, unlike accountants). AI aesthetics are indeed taking hold; we see it all around us, from leaflets in tobacconists to newspaper cartoons (some have already completely replaced human graphic designers with AI). And we certainly don’t want to resort to a ‘my goodness, what times we live in’ sort of reaction; rather, it will be interesting to see whether this aesthetic will evolve, and in what direction.

Specifically, the ‘new baroque’ AI is all the rage – the one that pertains above all to, shall we say, the ‘stylised’ genre, the ‘period’ style of vintage videos and illustrations. We’ve seen this, for example, in the recent work of Trump, Vannacci and Andrea Stroppa (partly a ‘Ricciotto’ à la Musk – in the sense of Marchese del Grillo – and partly a ‘Riccetto’ from Pasolini’s *Ragazzi di vita*; in any case, a truly remarkable character). Perhaps created using Grok, perhaps with Midjourney, these videos are hugely successful; here, for example, is “Giorgia vs Giorgia”, written and directed by Ricciotto-Riccetto Stroppa, in which a black-and-white Meloni of yesteryear addresses the current Prime Minister, reproaching her for having betrayed the cause – in short, for having become a dangerous liberal. In this arthouse sci-fi short, today’s Meloni wanders through a Palazzo Chigi ‘as Trump intended’, as if the White House tenant had been given carte blanche to redesign the seat of the Italian government. A psychedelic take on Mongiardino: a strictly gilded backdrop, plenty of shadows, hyper-saturated colours, baroque frames; and then stilted acting, perfect for an Italian film. ‘You say nothing about the censors in Brussels; you make deals with the Arab countries that are flooding us with illegal immigrants,’ says the older Meloni, in a black-and-white version reminiscent of Cortellesi in C’è ancora domani. And then the new one, golden and deluxe like a Calypso from an imaginary "Odyssey" by Ferzan Ozpetek: “Power! Power has worn me down” (one expects Francesco Pannofino to burst in: “You damned bitch!”).

But the main problem is the cinematography; if Boris were to stay on, he’d need Duccio (director of photography or ‘dioppì’ as they say in Pigneto) to ‘open it all up’, because the video is gloomy and grim, just as all these ‘stylish’ AI-generated creations are gloomy and grim. Gold, bronze, permanent golden light like an over-the-top Bigazzi. And slow motion, backlighting, lots of black: a style that’s hard to define, that of this ‘slopaganda’ – a neologism blending ‘slop’ (i.e. AI drivel) with classic political propaganda; we’re somewhere between vintage Ferrero Rocher adverts and socialist realism, a touch of ‘cash for gold’ with Giorgio Mastrota as the spokesperson, no light-heartedness or liveliness in place of the old peplum and sandal films. All set against backdrops reminiscent of Las Vegas or Emirates business-class bars.

Paradoxically, this end to human-created graphics has been followed by an explosion in graphics in general. Just as we’ve never seen so much ‘writing’ floating about – from WhatsApp to little musings scattered across Facebook and Instagram and other self-published content in this era of resurgent illiteracy – now even the retired grandad inviting you to his birthday party doesn’t send a text or a WhatsApp message, but instead sends a complicated invitation (complete with a photo, and in gold, of course) created using AI. The gold AI invitation is the new ‘buongiornissimo caffè’.

But does this style – the new Grokian Baroque – have any specific origins? Whilst we’ve seen Musk protest against rival AIs that train their systems on books, ruining them in the process, on which volumes might he possibly be training his own AI to produce such results? On the Zampetti estate agency catalogue? On "Vogue Arabia"? On monographs by Teomondo Scrofalo? So, anyone who has coffee-table books at home (which, as we know, are now worthless and nobody wants them anymore) should send them straight away to Musk: let’s give him some Munari, some Castiglioni, some Adolf Loos. At a pinch, even some old ‘Masters of Colour’ by Fratelli Fabbri for his training. Or is it not a matter of training at all, and is this Gomorrah-esque taste inherent in the AI’s primal sensibility? Like poetry – someone at some point tried getting the AI to write verses, and apparently it produced some very dark and depressing stuff (but even here, did it train itself? Perhaps on the rejects from the Campiello and Strega prizes?).

Which comes first, AI or the coffee table? And ultimately, is AI inherently tacky and depressing, or does it learn from us?). Conversely, will all this online baroque have repercussions on the old analogue, three-dimensional world? Whilst it’s already a given that books, publications and discourse over the coming years will be full of rhetorical denials along the lines of ‘it’s not this splendid setting, it’s that one’ – as is already the case in property adverts, a sector where AI is used to the hilt – perhaps there will also be an impact on physical space.

When "Gomorra – The Series" was released, the production designer explained to me that, to recreate that fictional style of high-end Camorra-style homes, they’d drawn inspiration from "Scarface" and real-life mafia families, though at one point they feared they’d gone too far: what they hadn’t reckoned with, however, was the procession of onlookers who turned up on set asking where they could buy that fabulous furniture.

Perhaps, even here, all is not lost; on the contrary: architects who will soon find themselves out of work, supplanted by bots, could launch ‘capsule’ and ‘limited edition’ ranges of furniture and ornaments in this Casamonica-Grok style. Gilded console tables, damask upholstery, mini-triumphal arches created using the most advanced 3D printers. This could also serve as a response to Milan’s more minimalist and ‘woke’ furniture fairs and fringe events. All crafted from solid wood, and in walnut, naturally sourced domestically. Perhaps Musk is right; perhaps a new era really is on the horizon. A golden one, of course – oh well.