Javier Ideami, a Spanish‑Asturian creator based between Barcelona and Asturias, returned from Cannes with recognition for an experimental film presented within the Cannes competition. The film earned the Under‑arm award for best experimental work at the French Riviera Film Festival, a distinction noted by Ideami as meaningful because of the festival’s context and the events surrounding the Cannes program.
Ideami’s ongoing project, titled Totem and associated with the phrase My house that I love madly, marked its premiere at the opening of the 2022 Venice Art Biennale. Ideami explains that My Idea, a backwards rendering of his stage name Francisco Javier Gonzalez Bernardo, serves as an artistic interpretation of a large sculptural work by Wallace Chan, a Hong Kong multidisciplinary artist, as curated by James Putnam for a major British exhibition. The concept, developed by Ideami, blends Chan’s sculpture with a scripted, audiovisual narrative to arrive at the final artistic interpretation.
The study explains that iron and titanium symbolize the earthly and the spiritual, with peaceful faces sculpted in titanium representing Mother Earth. The interaction between iron and titanium mirrors how human activities can disturb Mother Earth’s delicate balance, leading to fragmentation. The narrative seeks a journey toward better integration of the diverse forces shaping this balance, while preserving the dynamic energy that sustains it. A substantial portion of the script, the visual and computational elements, and the soundtrack anchor the piece.
Ideami describes himself as a creative director, a multidisciplinary artist, a computer engineer, and an artificial intelligence expert. His work spans technology, creative projects, augmented reality, virtual reality, and related fields, frequently blended across disciplines. His projects have been showcased at festivals and galleries worldwide, including multiple Venice Biennale entries in architecture and fine art.
Protect creators
Ideami spent six years in Silicon Valley, the cradle of tech entrepreneurship, and has produced artifacts across England and on several continents, from Indonesia to Egypt. He speaks frequently on artificial intelligence and creativity, sharing insights from the field. A recent project is Hamelin 77, described as one of the first films to address rapid engineering in AI, which uses rapid engineering and human language tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney to guide AI production. Various productive AI techniques are integrated into the project.
In addition, Ideami and collaborators launched Geniverse last year, one of the world’s early productive AI platforms that blends creative workflows with machine intelligence.
Totem, the award‑winning work, is accompanied by a set of stills and materials that illustrate the exploration of form, material, and narrative in Ideami’s practice.
As an AI specialist, Ideami advocates for organized use of AI, arguing that automation can handle repetitive tasks, freeing people to focus on creative and meaningful work. He cautions, however, that rapid advancement can disrupt job markets and enable manipulation of scenarios. He also notes that autonomous AIs are on the horizon and could pose existential risks if not properly regulated. He calls for thoughtful, flexible regulation that protects creators and supports innovation, suggesting international collaboration among Europe, the United States, and other regions to establish common standards. He emphasizes the need for responsible governance that does not stifle newcomers or the open‑source movement, and he points to the limitations of early European regulatory drafts that might slow progress relative to other regions. He envisions a future where global dialogue leads to practical norms for AI use and oversight.
Primordial to his view is the protection of human creators. He supports initiatives that help determine whether a work was AI‑generated and references efforts like the Content Authenticity Initiative, which unites companies and startups for provenance tracking. He also underscores the importance of fair compensation for creators whose works contribute to training AI systems. Ongoing moves in that direction are highlighted as essential to sustain creative ecosystems.
Separate category
Ideami argues that until creative AI is fully integrated into society, it should be treated as a distinct field within competitions and similar events. He believes this approach will ensure fairness between those who use AI to compete and those who do not. As AI tools become more prevalent, the phenomenon of deepfakes will rise, making methods to detect imitations crucial. He views AI regulation as a pressing issue that requires practical solutions and ongoing refinement. He notes that density and concentration of people often drive innovation, and in Asturias the challenge is to foster exchanges, movement of ideas, and collaboration with other regions, nations, cities, and projects to sustain momentum and growth.
Ideami’s stance reflects a broader belief that human creativity thrives when a society supports cross‑border collaboration and continuous experimentation. He envisions a landscape where regulatory frameworks protect authors while enabling experimentation, where innovation is tempered by accountability, and where regional ecosystems can contribute to a global conversation about art, technology, and the future of human expression.