In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harmony Korine—a filmmaker and multimedia artist whose boundless imagination has careened into painting, poetry, music, digital art, and pretty much every other artform that exists—talks about moving past his previous pursuits and going all-in on AI.
From the Miami office of EDGLRD, the creative studio Korine started around the time of his infrared movie Aggro Dr1ft in 2023, the provocateur said he hasn’t read a book in decades and the only movie he saw last year was the Smurfs film that starred Rihanna as the voice of Smurfette. Instead, he has been spending his time thinking about “more post-narrative, sensory, experimental kinds of entertainment.”
In response to a question as to whether AI can conceive anything beyond what might be considered slop, Korine said, “We’re just at the point of understanding what we’re capable of with it and then is there a world where the aesthetics take over and we use it in a way that’s not really about the idea of realism but turning it into something more transcendent and experiential and beyond a simple narrative articulation. It’s the idea of adapting it as a tool or a paintbrush.”
On those who dismiss AI out of hand, Korine—the subject of a 2023 profile in Art in America—said, “I don’t understand how anyone can say they’re anti something that’s potentially creative. If it’s not working for you today it could work for you a year from now. Soon conversations like that won’t even matter. It’s like discussing the Internet. It already is.”
While noting that he doesn’t want to be a spokesman for AI, Korine said that questions about the subject itself might be missing the mark. “I feel like even leading with technology is a disservice; that part should almost come last,” he said. “If you’re leading with how it gets made people will be skeptical; if you’re trying to use it to win an argument, you will lose.”
As to whether furrow-browed considerations of process should be a matter of focus, Korine countered, “We should also be asking if there is a way to have fun again, is there a way of not knowing the rules and what you’re capable of, is there something that hasn’t been done, is there a sound or an image or a moment to discover. My interest comes from not knowing and feeling like there’s something new to find or create.”
