By Staff Writer Dominick Sanchez
The world of memes has added a new addition to its ever-expanding repertoire of content, AI. It was only a matter of time until artificial intelligence infiltrated this little corner of the internet. Towards the end of March, a then soon to be viral video made its debut on social media platforms. The video featured hyper-stylized Harry Potter characters dressed in extravagant futuristic clothing set against a backdrop of a seemingly dystopian world while an addictive electronic score bumped in the background. The video is littered with dialogue mixing lines from the film with fashion tropes like “You are Balenciaga Harry”, a take on “You’re a Wizard Harry”. The characters are wearing “Balenciaga”, or at the very least an imaginative version of Balenciaga, the storied fashion Maison whose history has had its fair share of both iconic and controversial moments. The photorealistic characters in the video were created using a controversial new method, AI (Artificial Intelligence). Users now have the ability to enter a sting of text into an AI engine that can render text into an image. The results can be horrifying, or in this case, mesmerizing. A person can’t help but become hypnotized by the videos. There has been great debate over the use of AI in art because, like most things technological, can take away work from physical artists. What makes this new meme even more interesting is the choice of brand used. Balenciaga recently suffered through a near brand killing PR disaster. The designer of Balenciaga, Demna Gvalgia, is no stranger to controversy. His tenure at the brand has been anything but quiet. A recent campaign featuring children holding teddy bears dressed in BDSM gear garnered a backlash that stripped the brand of prestige and relevancy virtually overnight. Now, nearly four months later, this new meme has come bursting onto the scene with Balenciaga front and center. While the characters are not actually wearing Balenciaga clothing, the vibe and style are uncannily similar to what is actually shown on the runway. Like wildfire, the video has crossed over into other genres courtesy of an increasing amount of “how to” videos that explain in detail how to create your very own “By Balenciaga” meme with any characters you like. From Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and Marvel all the way Friends and Seinfeld, there isn’t a genre that hasn’t been exposed to the Balenciaga universe, and with more coming every day the fun is far from over. The meme has even segued into other brands like Gucci and Prada. What truly makes this meme even more fascinating is that it is made entirely using AR. The website Midjourney has been a popular source to create AR generated art. Have the days of selecting a random piece of pop culture come to an abrupt ending now that the technology exists to generate anything we can imagine? It’s both an interesting and slightly worrying notion. It puts traditional art in a strange place when lurking around the corner is a seemingly growing new medium.