Augmenting Reality: Damjanski on Art, AI, and the Future of Creativity

Welcome to our first interview series at WhisperAI, where we dive deep into the minds of creative pioneers shaping the intersection of art and technology. I'm thrilled to kick off this series with my friend and visionary artist, D.a.m.j.a.n.s.k.i. — a true innovator and avid AI enthusiast. His most recent iteration of MoMAR, a digital-guerrilla style take over of the MoMa, had it’s fifth successful year showcasing some of the most innovative digital artworks as an augmented layer inside of the museum.

As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI and AR, I believe it's crucial for us creatives to understand not just the tools at our disposal, but the philosophies and approaches of those pushing the boundaries. Damjan’s work exemplifies the exciting possibilities that emerge when we challenge traditional artistic spaces and embrace emerging tech. My hope is that this conversation offers you invaluable insights as a creative looking to thrive in our increasingly digital world.

Today’s article is a free preview of our Creative Pro subscription. But if you like this format, I encourage you to consider subscribing to support the newsletter. I’ll be interviewing some of the most innovative AI artists, looking at GenerativeAI tools, and releasing monthly AI trend reports, that content is only accessible to paid subscribers. but as a free subscriber you’ll continue to receive occasional content directly to your inbox. Now let’s dive in!

C: Damjan, this year marks your fifth anniversary doing MoMAR; — Tell us about the exhibition and the success that’s bringing you back to it each year.

D: MoMAR is an unauthorized Augmented Reality gallery concept within the MoMA. The fifth iteration of MoMAR, titled ‘Root Access,’ is, for the first time, taking over the entire building with works by Chia Amisola and Yoshi Sodeoka—two artists whose work I greatly admire and am excited about. Download the app and point your phone anywhere within the MoMA building to see artwork mapped onto everything around you.
David Lobser and I started the gallery in 2018. For us, it’s a fantastic way to give back to the digital art community and shine a light on all the incredible digital art out there.

C: How have you witnessed the exhibition evolve over the past few years? How have advancements in tech played a role?

D: With each exhibition, we aim to explore a new technical approach, so every show has a unique feel. In our first exhibition, ‘Hello, we’re from the Internet’ in 2018, which was a group show featuring eight artists, we overlaid artworks with newly created digital pieces that people could experience through their phones. For the 2020 group show ‘Open to the Public’, we gave each artist an entire wall, overlaying it with their work—essentially breaking down the traditional boundaries of the space.
In 2022, for ‘Augmented Species’, we took over MoMA’s sculpture garden with Augmented Reality sculptures that were freely placed throughout the space. This exhibition also became an international touring show, where we took over sculpture gardens worldwide, starting in New York and extending to places like Sapporo Art Park in Hokkaido, Japan, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, and the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa, to name a few.

For the fifth installment, ‘Root Access’, two artists are taking over the entire building, mapping their pieces onto everything within the MoMA. This level of immersion wouldn’t have been technically possible before. So, yes, technological advancements play a huge role in opening new ways to display art within MoMAR.

C: Your work often weaves together experience, and artificial intelligence—why do you feel it’s important to play within this space? How do you see this intersection shaping the future of artistic expression?

D: Ultimately, I see all technological tools as different brushes I use to create unique experiences. Artificial intelligence is a particularly powerful brush, capable of painting new experiences, and it’s evolving rapidly. It allows me to realize projects I couldn’t have before, like KAiRAiOKE—an AI Karaoke where the video behind the lyrics is generated by the lyrics themselves and the tone of the singer's voice. I first had this idea in 2018, but it took almost four years of technological progress to bring it to life.
Still, in the end, it’s just a tool. Artistic expression will always be the main driving force.

C: What's the most exciting AI tool or technique you've experimented with recently?

D: That’s a good question, I am very excited about creating your own AI models as artworks. My first foray into that is the Self-Portrait app where I trained model to detect my face and only work when I am part of the taken image.
One of my favorite pieces in this realm is ‘xhairymutantx’ by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst for the Whitney Biennial. They created their own text-to-image model that generates images with predefined characteristics of Holly, particularly her most notable feature—her hair—transforming her identity within the generated outputs.
I am also very excited about all the generative video tools, the Pikas and Soras out there.

C: It seems these days AI and AR tech are advancing more and more rapidly, do you feel the same? And what new possibilities are you most excited to explore in future works?

D: I’m really excited about merging these two, as it would create unique experiences for different people. Concepts like ‘World Skins’ by Kyle Goodrich offer a glimpse into the future.

C: Many artists these days still have concerns around AI copyrights, and some feel they may potentially lose their jobs to AI. How do you envision some of these issues settling over the next few years and what advice would you give to young creatives?

D: The copyright discussion is a significant one, and I believe it will evolve to adapt to these new tools in the future. At this stage, AI tools are more like assistants—they're great for divergent thinking, helping generate multiple variations of an idea. However, they don’t yet replace the convergent thinking phase, where you have to decide on the best solution. My advice is to try these tools and see which ones help you in your process. There are plenty of tools that can save you a lot of time, allowing you to focus on more important tasks.

C: Since your art and the tech that enables it seem to go hand in hand, what does your wishlist look like for some new tech in the future?

D: I create a lot of apps as artworks, so I’m always trying new tools to see if they can make the development process easier. Atm Claude is quite helpful for programming, but it only gets you about 90% of the way there. What I’d love to see in the future is for these tools to become so advanced that I could simply describe an app and have it fully programmed, ready to submit and share with the world.

C: I’d like to close on a more existential note, and get an Artist’s POV here: Many feel that we’re growing too reliant on technology, and that we’re losing our humanity bit by bit — do you feel we’re going to continue to progress this way as humans into the foreseeable future? Or will there be a push-back moment in the coming years against the amount of tech impacting our lives? 

D: I think the pushback is already happening, and you can see it at the edges. For example, dating app usage has declined over the last two years, and people are joining running clubs to meet new people instead. There was a time when we went online for fun, but now everything, including work, takes place online. I hope that in the future, we find the right balance. Right now, it feels like we’re all spending too much time online

Though this conversation, what struck me most was Damjan's perspective on the evolving relationship between art, technology, and humanity—I feel that as we continue to grapple with the implications of AI and AR in our creative processes, it's clear that the most exciting innovations will come from those who view these tools not as replacements, but as extensions of human creativity.

I hope this interview has sparked new ideas and encouraged you to explore the vast potential of these technologies in your own work. Stay tuned for more exclusive conversations with AI artists and tech enthusiasts at the forefront of the AI revolution, on WhisperAI.