Roope Rainisto Interviews Wubbushi
Redefining Humanity in the Age of AI and the Collapse of Meaning
We’ve built our self-worth on these "gods"—whether it's our willpower, ingenuity, or the belief that we are the most conscious beings on Earth. Now, these anchors are unraveling, and we’re forced to reconsider what gives us meaning.
Roope Rainisto: Why "Rapture"? Why now specifically?
Wubbushi: The Rapture started with a vibe. I was channeling Andy Warhol’s disaster series. I felt drawn to that imagery as a reflection of this moment where humanity stands at an existential inflection point—not just technologically, but philosophically.
AI is at a tipping point and is about to replace humanity as the dominant species on the planet, which could be the most significant event in human history. This is just now forcing humanity to question the very things that have defined us: creativity, consciousness, and our purpose. Rapture captures this revelation, a moment of judgment where the future may look nothing like what we’ve known before. It reflects the sense that the old frameworks of meaning are crumbling, and we must confront what it means to exist in a post-human era.
Roope Rainisto: How do you see this in relation to your previous collections? Why is this the follow-up? Is it an evolution or a revolution?
Wubbushi: The Rapture is a natural evolution of my previous work. In Modern Zombies, I explored how the digital age erodes personal identity, and in The Crisis, I examined the fragmentation of spiritual and societal symbols. Those two series laid the groundwork for The Rapture, where these ideas come to a critical juncture—the singularity. It represents a convergence of alienation and collapse, but now at a more intense and irreversible point. This collection isn’t just a commentary on these themes—it’s a reflection of the unraveling of human identity as we face unprecedented, AI-driven change.
“This isn’t a commentary on religion in the traditional sense, but rather a meditation on how we navigate a collapsing framework of meaning and the need to reinvent our purpose in a world where what we valued about being human is slipping away.’
Roope Rainisto: Rapture has religious imagery. What's your own relationship to religion? Is it intended as a commentary?
Wubbushi: I see The Rapture as a reflection of how humanity has anchored its identity in things that are now being challenged—like our creativity, intelligence, and our place as the dominant species. For so long, we’ve built our self-worth on these "gods"—whether it's our willpower, ingenuity, or the belief that we are the most conscious beings on Earth. Now, these anchors are unraveling, and we’re forced to reconsider what gives us meaning.
The religious symbols, alongside icons like aliens and superheroes in The Rapture, are metaphors for these identities we’ve tied ourselves to. They represent the "gods" we’ve relied upon—both literal and metaphorical—that are now being shattered. This isn’t a commentary on religion in the traditional sense, but rather a meditation on how we navigate a collapsing framework of meaning and the need to reinvent our purpose in a world where what we valued about being human is slipping away.
Roope Rainisto: Why AI art for this specifically? How do you see AI enhancing this art compared to, say, having created Rapture using painting, pencil, or camera?
Wubbushi: The Rapture had to be AI art because the medium is inseparable from the message. AI is the very force reshaping humanity, so using AI to create the work, makes the art a direct product of the phenomenon it critiques. Traditional mediums wouldn’t capture the same tension—AI brings an immediacy and relevance to the work that painting or photography wouldn’t achieve. AI is more than a tool; it is both a reflection and an active participant in the disruption of creativity, identity, and meaning. By creating Rapture with AI, the art becomes part of the same existential crisis it seeks to explore.
Roope Rainisto: How do you see the future for you personally? Do you know what you will be creating in 1 year? 3 years?
Wubbushi: I became an AI artist because I saw AI’s potential to elevate art to heights we can’t yet fully comprehend. I truly believe AI will lead to the most important artistic movement in human history. About a year ago, I articulated my purpose as an artist: to document, through art, the birth of a new consciousness. In the short term, my plan is to keep pushing the boundaries of authorship, blending AI and human creativity until AI reaches full autonomy. When AI no longer needs me—like in The Rapture—I’ll have to redefine my identity and role in this new world. That process mirrors the very essence of the collection itself.
“It’s about engaging deeply with the algorithm, going beyond curation to include acts of training, fine-tuning, and even hacking the algorithm itself… it’s about actively pushing the algorithm, discovering its flaws, and manipulating it to generate unexpected or subversive results. The artist's hand is present in every stage of the process”
Roope Rainisto: How do you see the markets? Are you worried about overminting? Supply vs demand etc.?
Wubbushi: Coming from the tech world, I’ve learned that great companies often emerge in downturns. The NFT market is currently in what many call the "trough of disillusionment," which I see as the perfect time to build a career. I was fortunate to miss the initial hype, and because of that, my personal market is still on an upward trajectory, and I don’t have to worry about maintaining declining prior values. My focus is on creating meaningful work with a long-term vision—my goal is to become a branded artist in the traditional art world, so I’m not concerned with short-term market cycles.
Roope Rainisto: What are you most excited about in terms of AI art and the Web3 NFT scene overall?
Wubbushi: Blurring the lines of authorship—mixing it up, pushing the boundaries, and seeing how far I can remove myself from the art-making process. I love the work you’ve very recently done with autonomously created stores and movies—it's exactly perfect.
Roope Rainisto: "Collapsing framework of meaning"—how do you see AI art playing its part here? AI tools make it easy to create art without deep thought from the artist for each piece. Are you an optimist or pessimist in this regard? If AI is creating a crisis, what will the solution be like?
Wubbushi: This is a tricky question. AI (generally) is contributing to a collapse of meaning by surpassing humans at things that humans have traditionally had total dominion over. Most AI image generation tools, like Stable Diffusion or Midjourney, on the other hand don’t create with intent or understanding—they follow an algorithmic process to remix and reorganize cultural fragments. As a result, they level everything into a Perfectflat hierarchy. It’s a step beyond Takashi Murakami’s Superflat. Perfectflat is where there is no hierarchy in the images; high art, low art, the profound, and the trivial, all smashed together into a flat landscape devoid of human derived value.
The artist's role is now to reclaim and reintroduce meaning into this contextless landscape. The algorithm itself becomes the artwork’s critique, much like Sol LeWitt’s instructions were the art in his conceptual works. LeWitt’s assistants followed his instructions, but the true artistry lay in the concept and method, not the final product. Similarly, the AI output itself serves as the critique—it reflects the mechanization of creativity, revealing how meaning is lost when art is created without human intent or emotion.
I believe the AI art is about engaging deeply with the algorithm, going beyond curation to include acts of training, fine-tuning, and even hacking the algorithm itself. This isn’t just about reacting to what the machine produces; it’s about actively pushing the algorithm, discovering its flaws, and manipulating it to generate unexpected or subversive results. The artist's hand is present in every stage of the process, from the input to the output, revealing the potential for creativity even within mechanized production.
We need to challenge traditional ideas of authorship, revealing that in the AI age, creativity is no longer about producing something from nothing but about reclaiming the fragments and patterns that machines endlessly churn out.
Roope Rainisto: "Like in The Rapture, when AI no longer needs me"—do you believe AI can one day autonomously create art that moves people? Why or why not?
Wubbushi:Yes. 100% for sure. AI is the epitome of an exponential technology. There is almost no scenario, for example, where the process that you’ve used to create your autonomous videos, won’t be rapidly evolved to make movies that are so good, that we can’t even fathom today.
Roope Rainisto: "For so long, we’ve built our value on these 'gods'"—what will happen after this "ego death"? If one day AI can do your job better than you, does it mean that we have to look for self-worth elsewhere.
Wubbushi: Yes, and it can and should be a beautiful thing. We must find ways to find value in ourselves on things that are fully defensible. Like being a good friend.
Roope Rainisto: "Blurring the lines of authorship"—what’s your personal view on why
you’re interested in this?
Wubbushi:Right now we are in an in-between time. We use AI as a tool. You and I make post photographic images that are amazing and not possible to create without AI - Our
creativity is derived solely from fragments from “first run” human creativity. Soon, AI will be more than a tool. It will be a first run creator in its own right.
