What would Michael Jackson, Freddy Mercury or Princess Diana look like if they were still alive? What about John Lennon and Madonna? Is called “As if nothing happened“, that is to say “As if nothing had happened», The collection of the Turkish artist Alper Yesiltas who, using artificial intelligence, creates the“ aged ”portraits of a large number of artists, pop icons of music, society and culture. Here is Kurt Cobain – who passed away at the age of only 27 – in his fifties and Heath Ledger – who died at 28 – in his forties. Yesiltas’ art goes against time. And against fate.
Madonna portrayed by Alper Yesiltas
“The development of artificial intelligence technology has excited me for a long time – were the artist’s words – for the possibility of showing anything imaginable in reality”. Yesiltas to obtain these portraits uses different software, from Remini, a photo enhancer that takes advantage of artificial intelligence, to photo editing programs such as Lightroom and VSCO.
Michael Jackson portrayed by Alper Yesiltas
«When I started experimenting I understood what I could do and reflected on what would make me happier – added the artist -. I wanted to see in front of me the people I missed most in life and this project emerged ». The biggest challenge for Yesiltas was to make these portraits appear as real as possible. «The most difficult thing in the creative process is that the image should seem ‘real’ – the artist confessed -. The moment I like best is when the image in front of me is so realistic that it seems to have been taken by a photographer ».
Paul Walker portrayed by Alper Yesiltas
As reported Consequences of Sound it is not the first time that artificial intelligence has been used to “resurrect” icons of the past, especially in the field of music technologies: in 2021 the Google Magenta LE program had used in the project Lost Tapes of the 27 Club, in which original songs are created in the style of musicians like Cobain and Hendrix, known to have disappeared, very young, at the age of 27. More and more often, in the cinema, advanced special effects techniques are used to use archival images and make actors who have already died acted.
Heath Ledger portrayed by Alper Yesiltas