Melbourne Writers Festival combines AI artwork with famous passages from literature in new art project via TBWA\Melbourne
The Melbourne Writers Festival, Australia’s boldest literary festival, has partnered with TBWA\Melbourne to develop a collection of AI artwork, created by inputting humanity’s most imaginative writing, word for word, into AI.
The art project arrives following the launch of AI Mid Journey, an AI bot that turns written prompts into artwork. The technology has initiated an intense worldwide debate on what AI-generated imagery means for the future of art.
To explore the possibilities of AI generated art in the creative industries, Melbourne Writers Festival and TBWA\Melbourne’s new project looks past the images themselves and shines a spotlight on the creativity of the words needed to make them. Without these written prompts, AI art wouldn’t exist.
To create the unique art pieces, passages from classic works of literature from literary icons Mary Shelley, Herman Melville, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker and George Orwell were inserted verbatim into the AI Mid Journey. Each breathtaking visual stands as a timely reminder of the enduring power of the written word.
Says Casselly Main, Marketing & Communications Manager, Melbourne Writers Festival: “This year’s festival is all about ambition and this campaign is the perfect encapsulation. We’re ecstatic about the response the images had at the festival. Even though most of these books were written over a hundred years ago, their words continue to inspire today.”
Says a spokesperson for TBWA Melbourne: “Like most of the industry, when we first saw Mid Journey, we experienced a momentary existential crisis. ‘What does this mean for creativity? Is it now out of human hands?’ The short answer is no, far from it.
“AI, like Mid Journey, is an incredible creative tool. Even in the past weeks, we’ve seen huge leaps in visualisation, composition and lighting. But our partnership with the Melbourne Writers Festival shows the strength of beautiful writing — past, present and future.”
The campaign launched in conjunction with the Melbourne Writers Festival appearing in OOH and digital. In addition, illustrated ebooks of the classic novels, featuring further AI interpretations, are planned for release in the coming months.
Client: Melbourne Writers Festival
Creative Agency: TBWA\Melbourne
Production: TBWA\Melbourne
Sound: Squeak E Clean Studios Melbourne
35 Comments
Absolutely nailed it.
Very clever indeed.
This is well done.
yeah hats off for this one.
Beautiful approach to this emerging technology.
Great ads, as long as someone is standing next to it to explain it to a punter walking past trying to understand what it is trying to tell them.
Phillip K Dick is alive and working in advertising. Love this.
Not impossible but this execution will be hard to beat.
These are really disturbing!!
And by Gold, I mean Cannes, One Show, D&AD and Clios.
What an (ironically) exquisite celebration of words
very cool
This is bloody great
This is proper good. Great client match. Congrats to all involved.
More of this please.
Wow, TBWA Melbs nailed! Brilliant work. Whats happened to TBWA Sydney?……Crickets. Well done indeed.
Fantastic
Not sure who lead this from Melbs but well done indeed.
Wish I made this.
Love love love these, to the point of enquiring with MWF if prints were available. They’re not. But can they be, TBWA?
What does writing have to do with AI? What am I supposed to take away from this? I get that it’s cool to see what the AI makes of famous written passages, and these ads are admittedly beautiful. But how does this promote a writing festival in any way shape or form?
I cannot love this enough.
What a bloody good line. Well done all.
As a freelancer who’s been kicking round four or so different agencies since AI art became a viral ‘thing’ and seeing literally every creative department try and shoehorn it into an idea, I’ve been waiting to see who would win the race to get something to market.
That said, the visuals here are beautiful but what the hell is the link to the Writer’s Festival? That words are nothing without visuals?
This comments section needs to chill.
this is just sick. awesome work
Goes to show how starved we are of good work when we’re in awe of a pretty formulaic, albeit well executed poster campaign…
splooge
I don’t get this. It seems to be more a tribute to AI than much else. Brilliant writing has a lot more to offer than being fodder for an AI visualization bot.
Writing has everything to do with AI. The whole concept is a challenge. We live in an almost entirely visual world, and programs like Dall.E. etc can only exist because of the world we’ve created. The written word is constantly on deaths door because of this.
Ok sure but what person is gonna look at these ads and get that? The concept you just described is really interesting and if it was a piece of long form content then it might make a compelling piece of communication to promote a writers festival – but you’re having an absolute laugh if we’re supposed to believe that the audience for these ads will reach that conclusion without a clever bystander explaining it.
Super excited to see such simple and powerful ideas exist using a new tech platform Smashing work
Long live the written word – ok I can buy that. However, how does it give me a reason to get excited about the young up-and-comers that presumably the Melbourne Writers Festival exists to promote? Why pick authors centuries old, none of whom are Australian? This feels like an excuse to be ‘first’ on the (presumably) many Mid Journey executions we’ll see at award shows this year. Yet it does nothing to help promote young Melbourne writers and feels quite average in terms of the amazing Mid Journey art that is out there.
Great and relevant use of AI.
I suspect Cannes will be chockers with this stuff this year though.
Your pov isn’t landed in the idea unfortunately. But it would make a very popular Guardian article.
Pure laziness. LinkedIn is full of lazy creatives using AI to do this and that. How about you go back to thinking and crafting for yourself. The industry already commoditised is losing any credibility.