As we seamlessly swimming through the current ongoing post truth times, Francesco Boccini brings his Video art called ‘Showfooking’ generated by AI, as not only a thought provoking and enticing piece but also a reminder of meaninglessness of main stream media in a hyper active space as a distraction from the real gist.

Francesco, How did this name ‘Nobel’ come about as your artist name?

The story of my name is very simple but has much less meaning than you might think; it started as my tag. When I was younger, I was quite involved in the graffiti culture, and while searching for my tag, I thought that the word NOBEL had beautiful letters along with a real meaning.

Can you please take us through the early growing up memories. How was life as a teen, any fun stories?

My teenage years were closely tied to music and graffiti. I was always fascinated by computer graphics but had a connection with music early on. It's only been a few years since I ventured into the world of graphic design and motion design. A pivotal moment in combining my passions dates back to when I was 14 or 15. After getting my weekly allowance from my parents, I would go to Ricordi Media Store, a record and DVD store in the center of Milan, every Saturday after school. I would head to the electronic music section and ask a random person browsing the CDs to recommend one to me. This way, I learned everything I know about the genre. In 2003 a couple of guys recommended a DVD to me: "The Work of Director Chris Cunningham." I was struck by the entire concept of music videos and VFX. In the following months, I purchased three more DVDs from the Directors Label series: "The Work of Director Spike Jonze," "The Work of Director Michel Gondry," and "The Work of Director Jonathan Glazer." That was a life-changing moment for me that solidified my passions.

You are also a DJ since more than a decade, Please take us through your creative process as an artist, What kind of any influence your music knowledge and expertise had on your visual art work?

Interestingly, even as a DJ, I have always been closely connected to visuals for inspiration. When creating my tracks, I've always drawn inspiration from videos, films, or even just photos to get my ideas.

Your recent AI artwork 'showfooking' is your very first artwork. Let's talk about the inspiration behind this. How did the overall ideation come to life? What's the story and influence behind "Showfooking," and why this name?

The "Showfoodking" created with FIRM studio is closer to video art than visual art. It draws a parallel between a cooking show and work, emphasizing the importance of the container even at the expense of the content itself. The video intentionally distracts visually, leaving the viewer perplexed.

The idea came to us when thinking about cooking videos where chefs prepare beautiful dishes that no one will ever eat. Whether they are real or not, whether the chef is real or an AI, the result remains the same. From this concept, we created the "Culinary Artist," a concept developed with the help of ChatGPT, which is about a fictional person preparing dishes in a crescendo between fiction and reality. This represents our work: we spend our days creating fake things to satisfy the needs of the public or our clients (who are sometimes also fictitious).

"Showfooking" focuses on visual content that defies logic, with the container being more important than the content. It's a parallel between cooking and graphics, between fiction and reality—a pure indulgence experiment.

New age art works are in general an organic urge of blending genres, styles and pretty much the overall synthesis from various sources. What is it that you think ai is doing to creativity in this regard?

In my opinion, it depends on whether AI is a technology that is certainly useful and not as easy to manage as many might think. It can have various uses and purposes in video or visual art. In my case, I use AI to simplify certain steps in the process of creating my videos. I draw a lot of inspiration from how a machine can process a task that might be obvious or already established for me. When there will be a visual balance between humans and machines, where both complement each other (perhaps a bit utopic?), then, in my opinion, we can truly unleash the full extent of our creativity to bring our visions to life.

In the world that is post truth and post modern, What is it that you are intending to highlight through this art work? What is your intention?

I believe that the intention of "Showfooking" is simply to hypnotize the viewer with the container at the expense of the content. This phenomenon happens all the time, but in this case, it's made explicit.

I wonder how ai would read and analyze its own processes art work? Lets get on the need of exploring ai integrated creativity in this time.

As I mentioned earlier, it would be ideal for these two things to coexist and support each other. However, it might be too utopian as a prediction.

Please talk about the influence of AI for both positive and negative association, and your personal thoughts upon it?

I use AI in a small part of my projects, and while the result might seem different, I'm actually just using it to simplify certain aspects of my creative process. So, for me, it's definitely a positive approach and result. However, my skills in this area are limited. I like the idea that AI in my work operates more behind the scenes and less in the spotlight.

Last but not least, What's coming up next? What are you excited about, and what are your current influences? Any shout out to any artists or movies that you’d like our community to know?

Right now, I've created a video installation for Mental Athletic that will lead to more content. I'm trying to further define my own visual style. One film that continues to inspire me greatly for my work is "Prometheus." Every aspect of that film, from costume design to the UI of the spacecraft, is extremely well-crafted and innovative.