Magisto, the cloud-based mobile video platform, is unveiling a concept called the Magisto Exhibit, a new medium that uses artificial intelligence to fuse iconic, critically acclaimed photography with music and transform both into a new artistic presentation.
The first Magisto Exhibit will feature photos from renowned rock music photographer Jay Blakesberg and offers a series of short movies composed from his photographs of artists like Levon Helm, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Jane’s Addiction and the Grateful Dead, as well as numerous other musicians like Chris Robinson, Neil Young and others, combined with their music and music from other related bands.
The result is a new presentation of Blakesberg’s photography that chronicles three generations of American rock and demonstrates the power of the Magisto’s artificial intelligence engine to create an emotional and moving narrative.
“Video, photography and music have long been classic and celebrated art forms, but Magisto set out to see what happens when they’re combined with artificial intelligence to bring stories to life in a new way,” said Reid Genauer, CMO of Magisto and a 20-year veteran of the popular touring bands Strangefolk and Assembly of Dust. “Technology and art have a tremendous ability to impact one another, and the Jay Blakesberg Magisto Exhibit gives us the perfect opportunity to showcase how versatile artistic expression becomes when you find the intersection between the two.”
The Blakesberg Magisto Exhibit is the first in a planned series of projects. Subjects of future exhibits will include noted photographers in sports, portraiture and nature subjects, although no other specific exhibits have been announced.
“My life’s work has been to document the rock and roll experience, onstage and off. This is pop culture history…visual anthropology”, said Mr. Blakesberg. “I have always approached my photography as a way to tell a story, and for me, this has never been with a single photo, but a series of photos. Magisto’s A.I. has given me a new way to put a series of images together to help tell that story. Photography has always been a technology based art, and now more then ever we have new opportunities to merge the two easily and share.”
Jay Blakesberg is a San Francisco-based rock and roll photographer and film maker, whose work appears regularly in numerous publications, Over the last 25 years Blakesberg’s photography has been included in over 200 CD jackets and he has also published seven coffee table books of his photography.
Magisto recently announced that it had surpassed 20 million registered users, acquiring users at a staggering rate of two million per month. The company has more than doubled its registered users since September 2013, and users are uploading 29 million videos and photos per month. Interestingly, 20 percent of these movies are made up of photos only, taking advantage of the recently launched “photos-only” feature.
About Magisto
Driven by artificial intelligence and simple user experience, Magisto is a cloud-based mobile technology service for creating and sharing beautiful quality personal movies. It automatically selects the most compelling moments from ordinary videos and photos and, like an expert video editor, weaves them together to convey a story with customized styles and music. Magisto is used by millions of customers and can be accessed across iOS, Android and the Web, and is the highest-rated video creation app in the Google Play and iOS App Stores.
More information is available at http://www.magisto.com/about and http://www.magisto.com/ how-it-works.
The company is funded by Horizons Ventures, Magma Venture Partner, Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture capital arm, Qualcomm Ventures, and SanDisk Ventures. The company maintains its headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel with offices in New York and California.
