Earlier this year (January 23) it was announced that the artist Salvador Dalí – who died in 1989 – would be “brought back to life” via AI for an exhibition called Dalí Lives at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Well, today (May 11) the exhibition opens, and people are already kind of freaking out about interacting with the surrealist icon.
Specifically, Salvador Dalí – raised from the dead with the help of ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners – seems to have a penchant for taking selfies (and including viewers in the frame). Video shared to Twitter shows this in action: deepfake Dalí holds up a phone, snaps a pic with his fans, and then enthuses over it.
It’s kind of like one of those photo booths you get at an office Christmas party. Afterwards, the artist asks, “Would you like me to send you this dream photograph?” and you’re given a number to pick it up.
It goes without saying that it’s all pretty weird (and a little creepy). There’s also the question of ethics, which has previously been raised around the Amy Winehouse hologram tour and the digital resurrection of Tupac.
However, Salvador Dalí did famously say: “I believe in general in death, but in the death of Dali, absolutely not.” So maybe he wouldn’t be all that opposed to his posthumous selfie taking after all.