Manon Bails Talks How AI Spoils Fate

On April 6, 2023, our Base Brussels Strategist Manon Bails was interviewed by David Courier on Brussels’s cultural program, Mont des Arts. The conversation addressed the advantages and drawbacks of utilizing artificial intelligence in creation in a discussion titled, “L’intelligence artificielle, un danger pour la culture ?” (in English, Artificial intelligence, a cultural danger?). Manon referenced the recent work Base produced for Brussels’s La Monnaie opera house, where AI was used as a creative tool to play with the concept of Fate, the muse of this season’s calendar.

Wagner’s Ring served as the focal point for the campaign, with the theme of these drama epics linking to destiny and fatality. The teams at La Monnaie and Base Brussels collaborated together to select keywords to prompt a tailored selection of images from Dall-E, a digital image generator. This use of AI created a unique result, and illustrated how the careful balance of human and machine can foster endless possibilities. That said, while AI provided many intriguing results, the careful eye of the teams at Base and La Monnaie proved indispensable when curating the most relevant options. In addition, a distinctive typography that combines digital details with a classic font was developed, adding to the layers of identity for this modern-meets-classic pitch. This hybridization of technological enhancement paired with an authentic, human touch generated a result that translates fate into an ironic outcome: a spoiled destiny. Learn more about how artificial intelligence allowed us to find a way within the creative process to translate fate by listening to Manon’s interview (in French), here.