Tall Tales is a critique of AI — so why do people think it was made with AI?
For the past three decades, multidisciplinary artist Jonathan Zawada has produced art across various mediums: sculptures, paintings, videos, installations, and more. He's also been making visualizations with his friend Mark Pritchard, a record producer and experimental musician. They became close friends, talking nearly every day. But the relationship changed when Pritchard brought him a new, daunting project: a collaborative album with Thom Yorke, the frontman of Radiohead.
"I'm a massive fan, and I've found he's kind of a terrifying person," Zawada says. But despite being intimidated, he found Yorke to be a great collaborator. "He's so switched on, and he's so clear and concise… Yeah, I was very nervous a lot of the time."
Before the record, Tall Tales, was even a complete album, Zawada was working on a visual accompaniment to it. Songs would arrive in his inbox - oftentimes just sketches or demos - and Zawada would send back pictures or start a collaborative whiteboard. It's just whatever popped into his mind after listening to the music: Dutch painters Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch came up a lot. Five years later, the album is now available and Zawada's accompanying "v …