The Models is a captivating interactive installation that explores the oddities of generative artificial intelligence and the boundaries of truth and wonder through the improvisational theatre tradition of Italian Commedia dell’Arte. The installation consists of an infinite number of real-time generated scenes, where the characters respond based on audience input.
The artistically rendered characters merge the archetypical, popular, and exaggerated features of Commedia dell’Arte masks with tendencies observed in generative AI—such as fabrication, contradictory behavior, or excessive servility.

Visitors can influence the characters’ behavior with their smartphones: they can cheer or boo the performance and throw controversial props onto the virtual stage, symbolizing superstitions, falsehoods, or classic Commedia gags. The dialogues and voices of the characters are generated by artists using the Leonardo Supercomputer, based in Bologna, Italy.

dmstfctn (Oliver Smith and Francesco Tacchini), a London-based artist duo, explore hidden systems of power through installations, performances, video games, and films. Their work often invites audiences to both demystify and remystify these systems by building new worlds, characters, and myths. They have showcased their projects at renowned venues and festivals such as Serpentine, Berghain, HWK, Unsound, CTM, and transmediale. Their latest explorations around AI anomalies have been developed in collaboration with scientific institutions such as the Alan Turing Institute and the Leonardo Supercomputer.