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alignDRAW (2015)
Elman Mansimov

The first ever text-to-image artworks.

The first ever text-to-image artworks.

Print Release

Nov 8–12: Paris Photo, Booth E10External Link

Nov 23–26: HERE London, 9 Cork StreetExternal Link

Digital Release

Dec 5-12: Christie'sExternal Link

Dec 12-13: FellowshipExternal Link

 

Click here for full details about the auctions (link to auction page)

More Information

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TwitterExternal Link

installation

Elman Mansimov, alignDRAW 2015. Installation at Paris Photo 2023.

alignDRAW by Elman Mansimov is widely credited as the first text-to-image model that marked a new era of human-machine collaboration.

By early 2015, neural networks had mastered the art of 'image-to-text' and could create natural language captions for images. Flipping this process, and turning text into image, was a much more complex challenge, solved by 19-year old prodigy Elman Mansimov's alignDRAW model.

Fellowship is pleased to present a special release of both print editions and fully on-chain NFTs of this historical artwork, containing all the original images created in 2015.

Learn more about the project external LinkView the Artworkexternal Link

In Conversation - Alejandro Cartagena, co-founder of Fellowship, discusses alignDRAW with its creator Elman Mansimov.

Their in-depth conversation covers Mansimov’s background, his inspiration behind alignDRAW, technical details and his thoughts on the impact it had for the future of art.

Read the interviewexternal Link
a green school bus parked in a parking lot

Elman Mansimov, “A green school bus parked in a parking lot”, alignDRAW 2015.

a group of happy elephants in the grass field'

Elman Mansimov, “A group of happy elephants in the grass field”, alignDRAW 2015.

Historical Context - “alignDRAW images can be compared to the first fixed photographs taken by Niépce in 1826-1827.”

Dr Lev Manovich, the most cited author in the world in digital art, writes an essay on the historical significance of the alignDRAW images. He dives into the history of visual art, the influence of technology and invention and the recent cultural revolution facilitated by generative artificial intelligence.

Read the essay external Link

Fireside Chat - Roope Rainisto sits with Mansimov to discuss the evolution of AI and its contribution to art.

This conversation covers the role of AI from both an artistic and technological perspective, ethical considerations when collaborating with AI and what the future might hold. Rainisto also reveals three special video artworks he created using prompts from the 2015 alignDRAW paper.

Read the conversation external Link
Roope Rainisto, 'a stop sign is flying in blue skies', 2023. AI video, release details to follow.
Artist

Elman Mansimov

1996 (American, b. Azerbaijan)

Image of artist
Elman Mansimov studied Computer Science at the University of Toronto in 2011 at the age of 15. He led a team of developers who created the alignDRAW model in 2015. A that time neural networks had mastered the art of labelling objects and formulate them into natural language descriptions or ‘captions’. alignDRAW’s innovation was to flip the process and turn text into image, a much more complex challenge. The artwork from alignDRAW was first published in the academic paper, ‘Generating Images from Captions with Attention’.
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