Hosted by Gazelli Art House, artist Robbie Barrat joined our CEO and founder, Robert Norton to discuss his participation in Awaken, Metamagical Hands — an exhibition co-curated by John Maeda and Robert Norton featuring artists/engineers including Joshua Davis, Golan Levin, LIA, Lauren Lee McCarthy, John Maeda and Helena Sarin.

Robbie Barrat (b.1999) is a Dublin-born, West Virginia-raised artist, who uses machine learning and GANs, to explore fashion, architecture, and art history, focusing on AI's interpretation of data. Barrat's art, which views AI as both a medium and a tool, has been exhibited internationally, including at the Musée de la Mode Hasselt, Ars Electronica, System Failure in San Francisco, ArtJaws in New York, and the Late Tate during the Nam June Paik show. His debut show, Infinite Skulls, was a collaboration with French painter Ronan Barrot at Avant Galerie Vossen in 2019. Initially focused on AI as both tool and subject, his recent work integrates AI into a broader creative process.
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In this fireside chat, Barrat offered insights into his latest work, Big Buck Hunter Restoration, and candidly discussed his shift away from NFTs and blockchain technology, explaining his evolving artistic focus and working across digital and physical mediums.

The conversation began with Barrat's background, growing up on a farm in West Virginia. He shared how his early fascination with computers began, recalling his desire to become a game designer. A pivotal moment came when he visited a Nam June Paik exhibition at age 13, an experience that reframed how he viewed computers as artistic tools.

“It was really…I would say like the first art show where I was very invested in it and kept thinking about it and I think that really influenced me“

Barrat’s first creative experiment with AI came during his senior year of high school, when he trained neural networks to write lyrics in Kanye West’s style. He then converted these lyrics to speech and layered them over a beat. This project led to an internship with NVIDIA in 2017, where he cemented his need to create and his identity as an artist.

When asked how AI has evolved in his practice since 2018, Barrat explained that while AI played a crucial role in his earlier work, his recent focus has shifted towards generative systems and custom software he develops. Like his recent work, Big Buck Hunter Restoration, which has naturally pivoted away from AI.

“I mean for me for my process, I think that I'm not so interested in prompting cause what I'm interested is in is the misinterpretation that can happen with like the Nude Portraits, what I did was…for the training process, I was able to ensure that the network would not correctly learn the human figure and would just make more. I don't know if it's abstract, but just more kind of impressions of a human figure. I thought that was interesting”

In 2018, Barrat’s Nude Portraits series—also known as the Lost Robbies—marked his first NFT sale. He trained an AI on thousands of nude artworks to generate distorted, surreal forms that questioned how machines perceive the human body and data. At the time, selling these digital works as NFTs made sense to Barrat, but he now views NFTs as a mechanism for selling, distinct from the creative process.

“I remember the first sale on Superrare…Jason Bailey bought...some of the Nude Portraits for just a few hundred bucks, just to show that you know digital art is worth you know, money. Which I think was really kind of radical. I mean we saw that also at Christie’s when we did the giveaway of the cards and everyone kind of just threw them out ”

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The conversation touched on Barrat’s experience at Christie’s 2018 Art + Tech Summit, where 300 attendees received a 1/1 NFT by Barrat in their gift bags, commissioned by Superrare. Only 12 of the NFTs were ever claimed, making them extremely rare and collectible.

“…I could actually give my work to somebody I was very excited about this. So I was really trying to make an abundance of work, and do a giveaway of artwork and with all the hype and the speculation, what we saw this turn into was like a treasure hunt. The value went up and only a few people had them so it was really kind of the opposite of what I would have liked to see happen”

Barrat now distinguishes between NFTs as a mechanism for selling art and digital art as a medium in its own right. While he continues to explore digital mediums alongside physical and sculptural works, he has consciously moved away from using NFTs in his practice.

“…I've really been thinking about that for a long time, how to make them look as close to a screen as possible, you know to preserve that digital aspect of it…I don't think that this work (L-systems) would ever have happened if I stuck with NFTs and because it is kind of a crutch to an extent, where you’re just able to just instantly finish and sell a digital image”

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Barrat also discussed his collaborative project Infinite Skulls with Ronan Barrot. Barrot painted 450 skulls, which Barrat used to train a neural network. Together, they created an interactive installation where a computer generated and erased skulls in real-time. This work led Barrat to rethink his approach to AI, favoring more manual, computational techniques.

“I thought it was interesting and also to really bring the AI more living ways into the work“

Sharing  more insights into his ongoing project Big Buck Hunter Restoration, Barrat reprograms a hunting video game centered around shooting dears from his childhood, removing all violence to make the game world peaceful and eternal. The landscapes re-engineered to become generative, constantly evolve without the player’s interference.

“I think what I'm really trying to do with Big Buck Restoration is kind of restore it to how the world was kind of before the fall of man where there’s no violence, no death and it’s eternal because I really want this to continue being able to generate scenes with the dear forever”

This concept of restoration extends into Barrat’s other works, like L-systems. He described using simple generative systems, originally designed to simulate plant growth, to explore broader ideas of creation and the natural world.

Closing the conversation, Barrat discussed how his own religion influenced his appreciation for nature, creation and non-violence, and in turn how it impacts his work. He emphasized that regardless of the tools or themes, his work always remains deeply personal.

“You know my artwork, even though some of it can be about AI or new tools. I mean it’s stuff that I do care a lot about, it’s something personal to me.”

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Watch the full conversation here

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Couldn’t attend Awaken, Metamagical Hands in person? You can still explore the collection here →

To learn more, visit the artist’s website, X and Instagram.