Jorge Castro transforms his Córdoba gallery La Cúpula into La Cúpula MediaLab, a production company blending artificial intelligence, film post-production, and music. Led by the band Cóndor Neck and its avatar Mathilda, the project aims to professionalize technological experimentation in art. The debut is set for the coming weeks with a work on the Patagonia fires.
In Córdoba's artistic ecosystem, Jorge Castro, a pioneer of technological art, has run his gallery La Cúpula for 18 years as a hub for noise, trash, and marginal aesthetics. After a residency in Finland and a process of technological introspection, Castro launches La Cúpula MediaLab, an audiovisual production company focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), music, and film post-production.
The debut, planned for the coming weeks, will feature a work inspired by the Patagonia fires, combining heavy metal with AI tools and traditional post-production processes.
The project's core is Cóndor Neck, a musical group that has released 16 albums on Bandcamp in two years and exceeded 100,000 organic views on social media. Mathilda, its AI-generated avatar, elicits varied reactions, from admiration to criticism from analog art defenders.
"People hate AI because mistakes are being made. If I clone you and make you say something stupid, that's wrong. But if a fictional character appears, like Gorillaz did, we all fall in love," explains Castro, who has taught Multimedia at UPC for 13 years.
Castro stresses that AI requires human input: "AI doesn't do anything alone. Things move faster than you think, but without someone behind it, it doesn't exist. You can produce twenty songs and publish them right away, but if the lyrics don't connect, if they don't touch anyone's soul, they say nothing".
The key collaboration is with Martín Moretto, known as Magnetic Hills and son of Gustavo Moretto from Alas and Vox Dei. "I became good friends with Martín. I started playing with a great musician who demanded a lot, and I began proposing my AI research to him. He said: 'I don't care if it's AI or not, show me.' And when he heard Mathilda, he said 'Hey, she sings nicely. Let's do a first track'," Castro recounts.
La Cúpula MediaLab's structure divides into three areas: the gallery with six established artists, the MediaLab for mastering, DJ services, and training, and Intelligent Management, an agency for actors and virtual avatars. Mathilda already has advertising contracts and fashion shows in September, along with other developing avatars like Nala Dover (cumbia), Bea (folklore), and Marely (romantic songs).
On copyright, Castro welcomes traceability systems like Sony's: "In this first phase of AI, there was a chaotic explosion, lots of 'in the style of...', lots of irresponsible uploads, but if technology starts distinguishing inspiration from imitation, the ecosystem orders itself. It doesn't clean creativity: it cleans laziness".
His compositions are registered with Sadaic, where he was told: "We don't care if it's AI or not, we care if you are the author". The team includes Castro as executive director, Franco Aráoz as executive producer, and Martín Eschoyez in 3D, with Castro bringing 30 years of music experience.
