UAl students bring Frida Kahlo to digital life using AI

A team of students from UAL’s Creative Computing Institute have been working on a leading technological project commissioned by AMIRO and the Frida Fund.

Frida Kahlo continues to be one of the biggest icons in art and fashion today. The mission of the project is to recreate the image, voice, and movements of Frida Kahlo using pioneering AI technology alongside the currently available data we have of her.

Bringing Frida’s unique essence to life using creative computer technology has allowed the group to work with some of the most advanced AI tools available today, with some still being in the testing phase.

The group of PhD students have been using a range of AI video tools, such as RunwayML and D1D, to generate Frida's moving image.

The project team is made us of students from across UAL (University of the Arts London), with CCI (Creative Computing Institute) PhD student Jie Fu, CCI graduate Yanbing Liu managing the technical aspects. Camberwell graduate Rafael Morales Cendejas made sure the language was consistent with Mexican Spanish, and Micheal Zhao from CSM led the photography.

“As the main organiser, I enjoyed working alongside a talented team of UAL alumni and students in this first of a kind project.” Jie Fu.