Illuminating the New Real: Art and critical AI literacies (Project Report, 2022)
Drew Hemment, Martin Zeilinger, Matjaz Vidmar, Holly Warner, Keili Koppel
ABSTRACT
This report addresses the fourth of the challenge themes identified in our research, critical intelligence, and looks at what we can learn about this theme from a specific area of creative practice: the AI arts.
The landscape of artistic uses of AI technologies in the creation, curation and consumption of online and hybrid experiences is dynamic and diverse. Here we present and discuss seven case studies of cultural projects involving digital artists and collectives using AI and machine learning. Each of these is presented and discussed in order to understand their particular dimensions and features, and also to surface common strands, themes and practices.
A common theme that emerges is that these cultural projects work with AI technologies and data both as medium and as theme, both as tool and as topic. We see that data artists are adept at surfacing critical issues and scaffolding human understanding through the design of digital experiences. The case studies address not only technical, formal and aesthetic themes but also ethics, politics, licensing, security, and environmental impact in working with creative applications of AI. They reveal strategies used by artists and curators to develop and delight online audiences while simultaneously negotiating tensions and dilemmas that arise with AI-fuelled and data-driven experiences.
The potential for these and other strategies identified through The New Real to be tailored and situated for organisations newly producing digital experiences is discussed. Current and future work includes co-creation pilots that explore innovation potential by testing transformative new forms of artistic experience fuelled by AI, the processes by which cultural organisations can commission and present these experiences, and how technologies and practices in cultural organisations can be re-configured to improve resilience. The report concludes with an invitation to take up these forms of artistic production and distribution to reveal economically viable experiences, formats and models to enable and support post-COVID-19 recovery.
Cite as:
Hemment, D., Zeilinger, M., Vidmar, M. Warner, H., Koppel, K. (2022). Illuminating the New Real: Art and critical AI literacies [Project Report]. The New Real. https://newreal.cc/publications/illuminating-the-new-real
