The idea that Salvador Dalí belongs on the side of artistic traditionalism has always struck me as strange. That’s the guy who, just for kicks, sold his signature on blank canvases to shake up the art market—because, why not?
Dalí was about turning the world upside down. Meeting you, and instantly figuring out how to pull your strings and offend you to the core.
But even more than that, he was big on new technology. Wrote about it, dreamed about it, made it part of his work. And yet, some folks reason he wouldn’t be into AI. Really now?
We can’t know what he would have done with tools he never encountered. But my read is that, for the ardent traditionalists who think of Dalí as one of them, he wasn’t. He would have literally spit at you for suggesting it.
There are a ton of good examples of his interest in different technologies, but here’s a really interesting one: his 1927 essay, “Photography, Pure Creation of the Mind.” Just read the way he talks about it. He’s one of us.