When we launched our new visual identity, we didn’t expect the interest it generated from marketers at some of the world’s largest pharma, life sciences and healthcare companies, or how it would resonate with them. People loved the symbolism of the heart iconography, its story and how we were experimenting with it, testing the limits of artificial intelligence as a creative tool.
Inspired by their interaction, we set ourselves a challenge. Let’s bring the hearts to life. With many people predicting artificial intelligence set to replace human creativity, we wanted to see if we could turn the tide and use it to support traditional artisans whilst also having a genuine brand engagement role.
Working with animators, cardiologists, ceramists and fine artists, we set about bringing our AI hearts to life in the real world using only traditional methods.
Our brief was simple. ‘Every heart is different, and we wanted to create a tangible platform for expression that captured different human stories.’
Each piece was individually cast and fired to approximately the same size and weight as a human heart. After a lot of experimentation and broken hearts, we found a technique that worked – our first step in proving artificial intelligence could be seen as an aid to furthering human creativity rather than replacing it.
Visiting the Barlaston factory in Stoke-on-Trent, home of Wedgwood and the archives of the V&A, we set about recreating traditional stencil techniques and augmenting these with AI – blurring the lines between artificial intelligence and human creativity.
On completion of the commission, we had a bank of handcrafted ceramic hearts that had been inspired by ideas from the marketers who had engaged with us on initially seeing our AI inspired artwork.
Our tangible hearts were then sent to those who had engaged with us to help reframe their industry and professional view of artificial intelligence as something not to replace the skills of human creatives, but as another tool in their arsenal that could be enhanced with greater purpose when augmented by human skill, craft and ingenuity.
A.I. and 3D Modelling Development
Ceramic Development and Creation
Completed Ceramics
Large Scale Ceramic
