The Sweetshop is joining forces with futurist Tomas Roope and AI artist Jacqui Kenny in a partnership called The Gardening.Club. The moniker springs from Roope’s use of the “gardening” metaphor for years to explain how AI is radically changing the creative process.
The creative duo heading The Gardening.Club had previously been in partnership with The Sweetshop via The Rumpus Room. Their work combined brands like Nike, Google and Coke with cultural icons such as Pharell Williams, Kobe Bryant, Lewis Hamilton, David Beckham and One Direction via proprietary fan-centric technologies that anecdotally inspired the early days of TikTok and Snapchat.
Melanie Bridge, co-CEO of The Sweetshop, stated, “As a futurist Tom has a vision beyond what most people can imagine, and Jacqui’s exquisite artistic sensibility ensures that we continue to push The Sweetshop’s legacy of craft to the highest level. We feel beyond lucky to work with these two as we navigate this new era which Tom equates to a monumental change as significant as the advent of the internet.”
At the heart of The Gardening.Club lies a commitment to change the perception that AI is merely a tool for efficiency and cost-reduction; it’s a manifesto for the future of creativity, where technology, craft and integrity converge to create magic.
Kenny and Roope have been at the forefront of AI innovation since 2020. Roope was previously the group creative lead at Google Zoo, a creative think tank that works with Google’s top clients and agencies.
Roope said, “It’s not often you live through a paradigm shift in creativity. We are moving into an era where we are not going to have to make the same choice between speed, price and quality. We are going to see things and hear from people we have never heard from before. It is going to be amazing.”
Roope continued, “Though there are some uncertainties around rights and remuneration models, the genie is not going to be put back in the bottle as its future potential is far greater than the current obstacles.”
Kenny is established in the art world as an AI artist. Her work has become hugely sought after, showing in galleries in New York. She has had success in the web3 space, with three sold out NFT collections and has worked with brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Google and OpenAI. In 2016, Kenny launched ‘The Agoraphobic Traveller,’ a project that originated on Instagram and gained a massive following as @streetview.portraits.
Kenny stated, “I have been using AI to create photographs and video since 2020 and over that time I have witnessed a rapid evolution in the tools. It is becoming clear that what has been evolving out of the world of AI art is beginning to merge into a more commercial space, leading to the potential for some groundbreaking collaborations.”
Said Bridge, “As the world evolves, The Sweetshop evolves with it. Since the inception of The Sweetshop the core belief has always been that as co-creators, ideas are and always will be the most important aspect in any production.”
