The steel that unites AI and Art – “Impossible Statue” by Henrik Loikkanen and Jakob Pettersson

The development of artificial intelligence represents one of the most significant technological transformations of our era, with profound impacts on every aspect of life. In recent decades, advances in AI have influenced many sectors, greatly expanding the applications of this technology. Today, the potential of AI is employed in fields such as healthcare, finance, industry, and assistance, but it also extends to cooking, art, and, in this case, sculpture.

Two Swedish engineers, Henrik Loikkanen and Jakob Pettersson of Sandvik Coromant, accepted the challenge of creating a sculpture entirely in steel using AI. Initially, they created the 2D model of the statue, then transformed it into a 3D image using AI, through various algorithms and estimators, resulting in a total of 9 million polygons and complex details.

Once the design was finalized, Sandvik Coromant selected different tools to sculpt each part of the statue, treating the production of the various components as if they were delicate parts of the aerospace industry.

The final result is “Impossible Statue”, a sculpture weighing 500 kg and standing 150 cm tall, exhibited at the Tekniska Museet in Sweden in 2023. This work combines the styles of five different artists (Michelangelo, Rodin, Kollwitz, Kotaro, and Savage), spanning a period of 500 years. The sculpture seems to defy the laws of physics and traditional geometry, using optical illusions to create a sense of impossibility. From certain angles, the structure appears as something that cannot exist in the real world.

Article written by:

Marketing & Communication Department

Pipex Italia

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