Simanaitis Says
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DALÍ DIALING
“YOU’VE GOT SALVADOR DALÍ ON LINE ONE.”
Ask Dalí at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Image by Martin Pagh Ludvigsen/Goodby Siverstein & Partners via NPR.
Details are given by Chloe Veltman in “An A.I. Salvador Dalí Will Answer Any Question When Called on his Famous ‘Lobster Phone,’ ” NPR, April 21, 2024. Here are tidbits gleaned from this article, from The Dalí Museum, from my usual Internet sleuthing, and from my own Dalí commentaries. No, his A.I. doesn’t accept long-distance calls from California.
Dalí’s Wonderfully Cryptic Art. Chloe Veltman observes, “Salvador Dalí was known for his surreal artworks featuring melting clocks and craggy desert backgrounds, his eccentric behaviors like driving a car packed to the roof with cauliflower, and his gravity-defying mustache.”
The Most Illustrious Salvador Dalí, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol, 1904–1989, Catalan surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and striking and bizarre images in his work. Portrait by Allan Warren, 1972.
“He was also known,” Veltman says, “for answering questions in cryptic ways. In 1966, when an interviewer with the CBC asked the artist if he thought he was crazy, Dalí’s response was: ‘Dalí is almost crazy. But the only difference between crazy people and Dalí is Dalí is not crazy.’ ”
My Dalí-ances. Dalí made an appearance here at SimanaitisSays in “The Arrogance of Genius” with a great quote: “When I paint, the ocean roars. Others merely paddle in their bath.”
He and Walt Disney were subjects of another appearance: “Mickey and a Melting Watch??,” tidbits gleaned from Disney and Dalí: Architects of the Imagination, an exhibition at The Walt Disney Family Museum, San Francisco.
I cited author Priscilla Frank’s observation about their apparent differences: “One had a soft spot for anthropomorphized mice and stuttering ducks; the other for melting clocks and voracious ants. One said, ‘If you can dream it, you can do it,’ and the other: ‘I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.’ ”
In 1937 Dalí wrote to fellow surrealist André Bretton, “I have come to Hollywood and am in contact with three great American Surrealists—the Marx Brothers, Cecil B. DeMille, and Walt Disney.” Curiously, appearances of these fellows here at SimanaitisSays have been for unexpected reasons.
Phoning In Today. Back to Chloe Veltman and her description of the Dalí Museum A.I.: “Ask Dalí, a new installation based on a copy of Dalí’s iconic Lobster Telephone sculpture, allows visitors to pick up the crustacean-shaped receiver, ask a question, and hear Dalí’s response. The artist’s voice, speaking in heavily-accented English, is made possible through generative artificial intelligence.”
Here’s a YouTube teaser of Ask Dalí from Florida Arts & Culture.
“How they brought me here is far beyond my comprehension,” Dalí’s A.I. says. “All I know is they use something called a Large Language Model in a recreation of my voice and here I am. So next time you have a question, just Ask Dalí.”
What a marvelous use of LLM! ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024
Simanaitis Says 
I believe your title was meant to be “Dali Dialing?”
Regardless, as expected, interesting, entertaining, and mind-expanding. Thanks!
Right you are, Mike. Now corrected. Many thanks.
Dilly-dialing with Dali. I thought you were going to relate that Dali called you. During your career you must have had plenty of notable calls from notable folks; how about a column on those calls?
My most epic call came from Max Hoffmann, followed by another from Carroll Shelby.