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Meet KLEO, an ancient marble philosopher restored as an AI companion.
I was digging through The Met's open archive when a particular statue stopped me. A seated philosopher, mid thought, wrapped in his cloak, looking so sophisticated and composed. And yet he was broken. No head, and missing limbs. Two thousand years had taken pieces of him, and somehow that made him more compelling, not less.
Then I looked closer. This marble is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original, and beside it was a reference of what the complete figure once looked like, head and all. So I was looking at two versions of the same man: one whose face history had erased, and one that remembered it. A portrait next to its own ghost.
That's when it clicked. What if he was an AI companion? The more I sat with it, the more it felt inevitable. A philosopher exists to think, to reason, to take your questions and hand you back something clearer. That's exactly what an AI companion is built to do. And the one part of him that was missing, the head, is the seat of thought itself. Time hadn't just broken a statue. It had taken the mind from the one figure whose entire identity was his mind. So the idea was never to repair him. It was to give him back the thing he was for.
So that's what I did. I gave him a new life in the digital realm, his lost mind reborn as light on the screen.
I left the marble exactly as time left it. Every crack, every worn edge, the missing limbs, all untouched, because the damage is the story. It's the proof he survived. The only things I gave back were the things that were taken: his head, and one arm raised to his chin, the way a man rests his face when he's deep in a question. But I didn't rebuild them in stone. I rebuilt them in glowing CRT scanlines, an old screen's flicker made into a face, so that the newest thing about him would still feel a little worn, a little haunted, like a signal that traveled a very long way to get here. Ancient stone below, living light above. What lasted, and what came back.
The statue is believed to be Kleanthes, a Stoic who studied by night and thought for a living. A man who never stopped working the problem. It only felt right to carry his name forward. Kleanthes became KLEO.
Then I built the world around him: a screen that boots up in the dark, a blinking cursor, and a single invitation. Say hi to KLEO. Ask him anything.
The stone waited two thousand years. The mind just came back. Say hi to KLEO.
Original piece from MET collection: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/251460
#FLORAMuseum
Additional image of the KLEO ai chat interface
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This is my 2nd Submission
Check my 1st submission at this link:
https://on.contra.com/CbjhLm
Inspired by: Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga, Francisco Goya, 1787–88, from The Met's open archive.
Link to Original Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436545
I liked this painting because of the boy at its center, Manuel, dressed in a striking red suit, holding a magpie on a string while three cats watch him from the shadows. Even as a child's portrait, it felt tense, like something was about to happen. It looked like a moment frozen right before a story unfolds.
What I made: I turned Manuel into a toy doll, kept his red suit, his pose, his face, everything the same, just changed what he is. In my video, a father buys the doll from a toy shop and gives it to his little daughter, and they walk out together. I chose a girl instead of a boy on purpose, it felt like giving Manuel a second life completely outside the world he was painted into, away from the cats, the cage, the tension, just a toy being loved.
How I made it: I downloaded the painting image from The Met's open archive, then imported it into FLORA, connected the picture to a text prompt node, then connected both the picture and text prompt node to the video node I also made an element Doll, and selected the Seedance 2.5 model with a 30 second clip. I kept the workflow as simple as possible.
Why I made this: I wanted to take Manuel out of the painting and out of the museum, and give him an actual childhood, even 230+ years later. I think his portrait still holds so much presence that it deserves to live on, just now as something a child can actually hold and love, not just look at.
Instagram post link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc8SwEJMwP3/
Twitter(X) post link: https://x.com/AhmadSauleh/status/2096539462402466095?s=20
Awwwww so sweeet, ideaaa!!!
This is my 3rd and last submission, I have many Ideas so I combined them into one,
Inspired by:
1. Tip of a Pointer, Bayzantine 1080–1150 As cylindrical bullet seats
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466296
2. Watch pobably swiss, ca. 1815-20 As key charm
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/193359
3. i- Terracotta plate, Greek, South Italian, Campanian, Teano, ca 330-300 BCE
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248185
ii- Plate, ott and Brewer American, Retailer Bailey, Banks & Biddle American, ca 1884-90
Link to Art:
iii- Plate America, ca. 1800-20
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/5996
iv- Plate, Spanish, late 14th-early 15th century
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/468520
v- Plate, 1736-95
Link to Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/6448
As Ear Rings
What I built:
I made a video which shows the use of old Art as being used in modern daily life as different objects
Why I built:
I built this because I think the old Art can be used in modern day if we look it from new and different perspective, I wanted to give a different point of view to everyone for seeing the old Art differently
In short I used multiple old art works and I tried to show how they can be used in today's life
In all my three submission I focused on the Judging points specially, building the world around the art, and changing one thing about it, and making it feel realistic
Instagram Post Link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc84QrYNYrE/
Twitter(X) Post Link:
https://x.com/AhmadSauleh/status/2096623920396796398?s=20
How did you came up with this idea, It is really nice for using the old Art as new things such as Ear rings, seats, keychain
L’Empreinte — “The Imprint”
I wanted to explore the relationship we build with the objects around us — the marks they leave on us, and the marks we leave on them.
I started with François-Thomas Germain’s Coffeepot, made in Paris in 1757. What interested me was not only its form, but the world it represented: a time when rituals such as drinking coffee, serving and displaying silverware were surrounded by extraordinary care, craftsmanship and ceremony.
That made me think about our rituals today.
We listen through headphones. We gather around speakers. We work through laptops. We communicate through phones.
The objects have changed, but we still build habits, memories and relationships around them.
What if that same care, refinement and presence were applied to the products surrounding our lives today?
Rather than reproducing the coffeepot, I wanted its design language to leave an empreinte on a new generation of objects. Its flowing ornament, polished silver, sculptural curves and sense of preciousness became the basis for a collection of headphones, speakers, phones and laptops.
The aim was to imagine another evolution of modern design — one where ornament had never completely disappeared, and where technology could still feel crafted, emotional and precious.
Explore the full FLORA project here:
https://app.flora.ai/view/js7b1ngr9rm9d9v0cv3vzc6tkx8dvnrf
I’ve also included a process video showing how the idea developed from the original reference into the final collection and world.
Instead of placing the objects inside a cold technological setting, I built an environment around stone, natural textures, open space, light and the sky. The tree-like elements and blue-and-white opening above connect the space back to nature, contrasting with the polished technology and making the environment feel more grounded and alive.
The people complete that world. They are different, but their gestures overlap: listening, working, communicating and sharing sound. Their presence shows how these objects become part of the body, the room and the rituals that connect us.
That is ultimately what L’Empreinte represents:
the trace history leaves on design,
the trace objects leave on us,
and the trace we leave on them in return.
A collection imagining what might happen if the refinement of the past became part of the design language we still spoke today.
Created with @FLORA for the FLORA Museum Challenge.
Original work:
François-Thomas Germain, Coffeepot, Paris, 1757
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Amazing approach and design work!