At the Musée d’Orsay, an avatar of the Flemish painter Vincent Van Gogh converses with visitors who wish to do so at the end of the exhibition about the last moments of his life.
The exhibition “Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: the last months” at the Musée d’Orsay, dedicated, since Tuesday October 3, to the very latest works of Vincent Van Gogh, is exceptional. To end the stroll, an electronic terminal powered by artificial intelligence comes to life on demand. This terminal, in the avatar of the famous painter of starry nights and almond trees in bloom, allows us to question the artist on the basis of his letters. Uthere is no painter in its decor with whom you find yourself chatting as if you were a friend.
An artificial intelligence in full learning
This Vincent Van Vogh 2.0, certainly less lifelike, but still quite similar, is painting a field of wheat, with a half-cut ear. If we ask his favorite color, he answers the yellow of sunflowers of course. However, he will not give the reason which pushed him to kill himself by a bullet in the abdomen, in a field, at the age of 37 after having painted 74 paintings in 70 days.
This avatar doesn’t really abolish the boundaries of space and time, and he sometimes talks nonsense. In fact, visitors are more useful to him than he is to visitors, because with each question he is asked, he becomes more efficient. Training is the key to artificial intelligence.
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A magnet to bring back to continue the process?
This avatar of Vincent Van Gogh has cleverly been available in the form of a magnet to take home. At the museum store, you can find this magnet on the back of which a QR code links to artificial intelligence. This allows you to converse with the painter as with a friend, about nature, an inexhaustible source of inspiration and backdrop to the life of Vincent Van Gogh, but why not also to philosophize about artificial intelligence.
No doubt the real Van Gogh would have wondered if this simple avatar could one day rival his artistic talents. He would surely then wish him courage to paint with as much passion and madness as him, poor mortal.