ClownVamp is a conceptual artist whose work breaks conventions, challenging audiences to rethink our relationship with technology. During the 2024 Marfa Art District weekend, he premiered 'The Junk Machine', a pink spectacle that uses AI art to expose the dark undercurrents of technology.
This installation is wrapped in a nostalgic aura of 1980s pop culture, irresistibly cute; however, beneath its approachable exterior lies a sharp social commentary – that's the point.
Inside Do Right Hall, a neon pink roll printer occupies the center, producing a large quantity of AI-generated spam that, although distorted and biased, is infused with nostalgia.
ClownVamp's machine draws inspiration from childhood items like vintage Polly Pocket toys and the coveted Electronic Dream Phone, humorously critiquing the growing influence of artificial intelligence in modern advertising through interactive multimedia elements.
This isn't ClownVamp's first time inviting audience participation; his project 'Detective Jack: The Case' invited collectors to co-write a missing person's story, releasing one NFT at a time. However, 'The Junk Machine' takes audience interaction in a different direction, featuring a Looking Glass holographic display on the wall connected to bubblegum-pink headphones.
Audiences can wear headphones to view AI-generated social media ads that mimic the style of TikTok videos and Instagram reels. Whitehot magazine described this installation as 'disgusting' and 'terrifying,' balancing between cheesy allure and thought-provoking evocation, prompting reflection on how technology increasingly shapes our culture.
View the collection here:
opensea.io/collection/the-junk-machine
This interview took place during the 'Junk Machine' exhibition at Do Right Hall.
Note: This record has been edited for brevity and clarity.
OpenSea: Can you explain what the 'Junk Machine' is to those who haven't seen it? How does it work? What is its purpose?
ClownVamp: About a year ago, I became interested in how advertising and AI come together. I had this idea because every time I went to my mailbox, I felt overwhelmed by spam, and I thought, in the age of AI, we're going to keep sending a lot of this kind of stuff.
So, I wondered if I could find a way to print spam on demand. I spent months researching different methods, and ultimately decided to use the NVIDIA Jetson, a small supercomputer – it’s like a Raspberry Pi but built for AI.
Then, I paired it with the roll printer, the kind you see in wedding photo booths, because it has a Linux driver, so I could connect it to the system.
I installed SDXL Turbo on my computer, an open-source lightweight AI model that's perfect for this purpose because it's portable. Although the functionality is a bit rough, it's used in many practical applications, and I think it expresses my ideas well.
Ironically: I had never written any code before this; I used AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT to help write Python code. I iterated between these two tools to find the best one for different tasks and eventually built a script that runs on prompts, selecting a prompt each time the button is pressed, generating an image using a random seed and printing it out.
This summer, my studio basically consisted of just my desk, printer, and computer, which didn't even have a case. I spent the entire summer testing and optimizing it; initially, generating an image took around 10 seconds, and now it only takes 2 seconds, with printing taking about 10 seconds.
OpenSea: So fast!
ClownVamp: Yes, it works.
OpenSea: Can you talk about the design inspiration behind the components we see?
ClownVamp: Sure, I drew a lot of inspiration from 80s nostalgia, with shapes mimicking Polly Pocket toys and the Electronic Dream Phone. I actually put them in there; I love that injection-molded pink aesthetic. The idea is to make the machine feel like a fun plastic toy.
But at the same time, it has an evil side, for example, even though I didn't tell it to, it only generates white blonde women, all the women in car ads are tall, and food ads are strangely sexy. I want people to notice how these biases manifest while also making it appealing enough to excite kids.
OpenSea: How did you make this casing?
ClownVamp: This casing is actually made from plywood that looks like plastic. I found a manufacturer with CNC machines, and we used heat-bent plywood to create a smooth pillow shape, then we finished it with body paint. It’s not perfect, but very close to the look I wanted.
OpenSea: It looks amazing; I love the Polly Pocket inspiration.
ClownVamp: Thank you, yes, I wanted that soft, rounded feeling. I made it high so that it would spray out fingerprints, kind of like when you use ChatGPT, it spits out an answer like, 'Here you go!' It has an almost violent immediacy.
OpenSea: What are your thoughts on AI and its future in the art market?
ClownVamp: I think AI art is splitting into two directions: one is on the cutting edge of technology – like 3D environments and world-building; the other is more reflective and self-referential, where artists use AI to comment on AI itself. It’s no longer just about making pretty images – once the tools become perfect, I think they lose their value, and it focuses more on the intent behind using AI, like asking 'Why are we doing this? What does it mean?'
I also think we might see a third category, more nostalgic or glitchy, as people explore post-AI aesthetics, so I think you’ll see it being a bit fragmented.
OpenSea: That makes sense.
ClownVamp: Yes, many of my artist friends are moving in the same direction; they think, 'Hey, this is the most significant thing to happen to society since the internet, we're using it, what does that mean? How do we view it?'
OpenSea: It feels absolutely right, thank you very much, ClownVamp, for agreeing to our interview.
ClownVamp: Of course! Thank you for coming.
Content from OpenSea that you care about
Explore | Collect | Sell | Buy
Collect and follow the OpenSea Binance channel
Stay updated