Kims Mihailovs blurs reality, refining the use of AI to create a subtly magical visual for Paul White.

Mihailovs' video for Surreal follows the similarly AI-generated promo for Glory In Stories for the electronic artist. Again it creates a dreamlike space around a female protagonist, and the craft is such that the combination of 'real' and surreal is smoothly realised, with any drift into the uncanny reduced to fine margins.

Mihailovs explains the process began with an experiment to embrace the deformations and irregularities of AI models, and then working to erase the 'AI-ness' of the resulting imagery.

"The initial concept was to depict a person's fragmented memories, with the distorted imagery symbolising how details fade over time," says Mihailovs. "However, the resulting visuals ended up looking more like the generic AI-generated content often seen on social media. To avoid this, I took a different approach, focusing on quick cuts and simple shots to reduce the AI's presence.

"The final concept evolved into a play between the environment and the woman featured in the video, blurring the line between reality and illusion. Is it the creases in the duvet or her body? A flock of birds or her dance? A grapefruit or her lips? The video leaves these questions open, exploring the fluid boundary between past and present.

"Creating a fully AI-generated video was a new and tedious process. Unlike traditional creative processes, where you can get lost in the act of creation, working with AI involves a lot of waiting. You generate images, wait, select the best ones, run them through video AI, and wait again. This interrupts the creative flow, though the technology's speed and results are rapidly improving.

"While generating images for each shot, I noticed a stop-motion effect when scrolling through similar images. Intrigued, I produced hundreds of images which resulted in the creation of the effect featured during the song's chorus."