Anindya Sen in Conversation with MORF Gallery CEO Scott Birnbaum
Daniel Ambrosi and Scott Birnbaum in front of Point Montara Solstice, light box, 240 x 487cm.
Scott Birnbaum is the CEO and co-founder of California-based MORF Gallery, which offers award-winning Fine Art created with breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and neuroscience. The gallery also adds an experiential dimension with its breakthrough innovation ArtStick™, which transforms TV screens into art galleries for art lovers, collectors and NFT art investors.
Before launching MORF, Birnbaum led Samsung's multi-billion-dollar display business in America for more than a decade. Prior to that, he also held leadership positions at All American Semiconductor, Sharp, and Texas Instruments. He has driven megatrends in the industry, like the vidification of devices, bringing the cinema experience to the home and pocket everywhere and enabling TVs that double as art galleries.
Sotheby’s Institute of Art alumnus Anindya Sen spoke to Scott about his career journey, his inspiration for co-founding MORF Gallery and his views about the exciting possibilities through the creative fusion of art and technology.
Daniel Ambrosi, Japanese Tea Garden, light box.
Anindya Sen: You were a senior executive at Samsung - how did the interest and foray into art come about?
Scott Birnbaum: It started with Texas Instruments (TI), where I had the opportunity to look five or ten years into the future and worked with artificial intelligence when it was just an emerging technology. I used the same knowledge that I learned at TI when I joined Samsung. While I was running the display business, I also had a look at the new products that were going to come [to market].
Back in 2006, when books, music and movies converted to digital, I thought that art could benefit from digital technologies as well. So, for the first time, we put together a TV that, when you turned it off, turned into a piece of art. We partnered with artist Thomas Kinkade to create a prototype called Digital Masterworks Art-TV and showcased it as a demonstration for the press at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. That was my first foray into the art space [of] the digital world. When cloud computing emerged, we thought it would be interesting to have many artists on this platform, and we created what we called the SM’ART TV, not the Smart TV of today, but one that focused on the possibilities [of art].
AS: How did you come to found MORF Gallery and what was your inspiration behind it?
SB: For MORF, I was not only looking [to] put images on [a] screen, but how [to] create an art ecosystem and take advantage of other available technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and neuroscience. In terms of evolution of art from cave drawings to photography and modern art, these technologies are just the next step [to] help further unleash human creativity - that’s why we launched MORF gallery. While we launched the gallery in December 2020, we formed our company earlier to develop the required technology, IP and infrastructure.
I co-founded MORF Gallery [together] with Steve Matson and Nicolas Donel. Steve is an accomplished artist, who has won numerous awards for movies like Star Wars and Life of Pi. When Steve started selling his art through galleries it was very cumbersome – he was bundling his art with a massive display. Nic, our other co-founder, came up with a way to encrypt, store and play art, which became the genesis of the first iteration of our ArtStick™.
We named ourselves MORF because we want to be dynamic and multi-faceted. A traditional gallery is more about a physical space. What we are is a hybrid between a collaborator, a gallery and a platform. We also write patents, develop technologies and market them, while helping our artists to become better technologists. It is really exciting for us to play in this space, combining technologies and the creativity of the artists.
Daniel Ambrosi, Point Montara Solstice, interactive multi hundred-megapixel zoomable dreamscape artwork.
AS: Can you tell us a bit about the artists you represent and their practice?
SB: Our first artist [and co-founder] Steve Matson starts with a single painting in acrylics, digitises it, breaks it down into pieces and then adds video, sound, [and] special effects. The final output is a ‘moving painting’. It takes him eight to ten months to produce a single piece but it is incredible. Daniel Ambrosi, a pioneering AI artist, takes super high-resolution photographs, stitches them together and uses proprietary algorithms co-created by Google and Nvidia to convert them into ‘dreamscapes’. We also present his works in large light boxes in addition to digital formats. Pindar Van Arman is a technologist and an artist, he works with robots and taps into AI algorithms to [make] his robot paint. His dream is to have a robot [that] can paint with the free spirit of a child. Our fourth artist, Kevin Mack has a honorary medical degree in neuroscience based on his knowledge of the human brain - he taps into that understanding to create his art. Finally, Oxia Palus is a multi-disciplinary team of researchers. They focus on discovering paintings hidden underneath masterpieces and create both digital versions as well as 3D prints that can be displayed and acquired as physical paintings.
Pindar Van Arman, Portrait 18,434, acrylic on canvas, 45 x 45 cm.
AS: Oxia Palus currently have an exhibition at the Lebenson Gallery in London - can you please tell us what this exhibition is about?
SB: Oxia Palus team has just won the CogX 2021 award for ‘Best Innovation in Creative Arts’. We are very excited to have them as one of our founding artists. [Since] we are an online gallery, we wanted to partner in the physical space so people could experience [the artworks] in person, and we are very proud to [be working] with Lebenson Gallery in London on the world’s first Neomaster™ exhibition. With Oxia Palus, we have two jointly developed, patent-pending technologies that enable us to bring the artwork to [the] canvas and protect it from forgery.
Using X-rays, spectroscopic imaging, AI and a breakthrough neomastic process (patent pending), they have recreated [a] lost portrait of a woman, which researchers have concluded was that of Amedeo Modigliani’s ex-lover Beatrice Hastings, which the artist painted over later after their relationship ended. The final Modigliani version, Portrait of a Girl, is at [the] Tate Modern, three miles from the gallery – so one can see the original at the museum and then the artwork that was underneath, recreated by Oxia Palus team, at our gallery.
Oxia Palus co-founders George Cann and Anthony Bourached in front of NeoMaster™ 2, MORF Gallery.
Oxia Palus, (Lost) Beatrice Hastings by Modigliani, 67 x 80.6 cm.
AS: Whether works created using artificial intelligence can be considered as art continues to be a subject of debate - what is your take on this?
SB: We are not really letting machines create art, we are [letting] humans [express] their creativity, using AI as a tool - AI becomes like a paintbrush. AI cannot create on its own, at least not today. Pindar Van Arman is a great example of that; while he uses a robot to paint, he is the one, who creates the algorithm and the creative vision of what he wants the robot to do. He has been working [like] this for fifteen years, continually updating his algorithms. He wants his robots to be able to paint with [a] childlike spirit and without boundaries, but he is the one, who guides that process.
AS: The main concerns with digital art today are how to exhibit it, ensure its provenance and thus safeguard its asset value. You mentioned your ArtStick™ as a solution to these problems - how does it work?
SB: The Artstick™ is a proprietary device created by one of our MORF co-founders. You plug it into the HDMI port of your TV and it [transforms] the device into an art gallery. You can have all your digital art on this Artstick™ and it is really simple to use. [Although] it is made for digital art, we really focus on moving art and not just still images. It is encrypted, [part of a] single or limited edition, [and] keeps the interests of our collectors in mind. We purposely chose for it not to be connected with the internet so that no one can steal the art from you. It doesn’t require bandwidth, so the quality of your signal doesn’t deteriorate the art viewing quality. It takes advantage of new TV technology [like] LCD, OLED, 4K, 8K, Neo QLED.
Pindar Van Arman, Pindar Van Arman’s AI Robot at work.
All of our artworks [are] pre-loaded on the Artstick™ and we just license the ones that you purchase. So anytime you want to add a piece to your collection, you buy [it] and we send you an unlock code for that piece. [This way] you don’t have to upgrade your Artstick™ for each work. We know that our artists [will] create new works, and we will add new artists on our roster - we can send an encrypted Micro SD card with those works that you can add to your Artstick™ and enjoy the art in the same manner. It’s a really simple process. Our co-founders [come] from the movie industry so they are very well versed in encryption [since] they had to do this for the movies they were producing. All these technologies are built into our ArtStick™ and we continue to advance those.
ArtStick™, MORF Gallery’s Proprietary Device for Viewing Art on Screen.
Kevin Mack, Mobius Ganesha, 3D printed sculpture: selective laser sintered nylon.
AS: As an online gallery, how do you reach out to potential clients? What is your target customer or collector demographic?
SB: We are an online gallery headquartered in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but we are a global company and work with [international] partners [as well as] sell art across the globe. [In order] to physically reach out to more traditional collectors, and to build credibility within the art and collector community, we have partnered with Lebenson Gallery in London and will extend our global gallery network through partnerships. At the same time, we will take advantage of technology [by holding] virtual sessions with artists and collectors where they can see the piece, zoom in for close-ups, interact with each other and ask questions.
One of our collectors Guy King, who was the co-founder of RetailMeNot, is a tech enthusiast - he really loves what one can do with art and AI and is now becoming an advisor for MORF. It happened serendipitously but we are proud to have him on board. Our target customer is anyone, who is looking to collect Fine Art created with technology.
Steve Matson, Sea Life, Moving Art.
AS: What is your future vision of the creative possibilities at the intersection of art and technology?
SB: When we formed MORF gallery, we were actually called MORF.ai - we envision a time where you can create art using artificial intelligence based on your personal preferences. You don’t have to wait for the artist to create something - based on input from your personal experiences and emotions, AI can unlock and unleash your preferences and translate your creative expression even though you may not have the artistic skills to express it on a canvas yourself. We also think that by partnering with an artist, you can have a piece that was done just for you that nobody has ever seen. That’s in the core DNA of what MORF is and what it will be in the future.
Thank You Scott!
Images Courtesy of MORF Gallery.
MORF Gallery’s Exhibition of Oxia Palus’ NeoMaster™ 1 and 2 is on display at the Lebenson Gallery in London from June 10 until June 30, 2021.
For updates on MORF Gallery, visit their website or follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Contributor, MADE IN BED