1,000
canonical images generated
2026 project
11 / 1000
Art, method, and authorship in the age of artificial intelligence
Who is the author when AI generates and the artist chooses?
0
aesthetic retouches to canonical files
11
recognized works
989
images preserved in the experiment
The project in brief
Choice as an artistic gesture
Starting from Gigi Montico's archive and practice, an artificial-intelligence-assisted method produced a documented population of 1,000 images. Montico assessed them without knowing the conditions that had generated them and recognized eleven as works belonging to his own artistic research. None of the canonical images was aesthetically retouched after generation.
The project shifts attention from the material act of production to choice: if the machine generates possibilities and the artist decides which ones to accept into their practice, where does authorship begin?
No proprietary model was trained or retrained on Montico's paintings. The archive, references, instructions, and conditions defined the territory of the process.
The process
From archive to recognition
- 01
Archive
Montico's works and photographs organized as references.
- 02
Conditions
References, instructions, and conditions defined before generation.
- 03
1,000 images
Technically valid results preserved as canonical files.
- 04
Blind assessment
Montico judges the images without seeing the parameters that produced them.
- 05
Recognition
Eleven exact files enter Montico's artistic practice.
Distinct roles
Who does what
Gigi Montico
Artistic practice, judgment, and recognition.
Pier Paolo Monticone
Method, orchestration, traceability, and analysis.
AI systems
Image generation and technical assistance to the process, without artistic intention or responsibility.
The visual center of the project
The 11 recognized works
The eleven do not derive from a mathematical ranking. They are the exact digital files Montico chose to recognize within his own practice. Their canonical pixels remain unchanged.
“I did not generate the pixels of these images. My artistic gesture is to recognize which of them belong to my research.”
Gigi Montico
The question remains open
Artistic authorship, technical generation, and law
Artistic recognition, possible legal authorship, copyright, and ownership do not automatically coincide.
The project questions the relationship among these roles without pretending that the law has already given a definitive answer. The other 989 images are not declared failures: they remain a documented part of the experiment that makes the act of selection legible.
The book
11 / 1000
Gigi Montico / Pier Paolo Monticone
The volume documents the experiment, its artistic precedents, the generation and selection method, the analysis of Montico's preferences, and the question of artistic and legal authorship in the age of AI.
Book completed
The complete authoritative Italian edition is available as a PDF.
A distinct project
Continuity and difference
11 / 1000 is a later, autonomous experiment distinct from the earlier Digital art with AI support series.