Project details
| Researchers |
|
| Partners | Tilburg University departments including: |
| Project Leader | |
| Funding Program | TSHD Digitalisation of Society seed money grant 2022 |
| Action | Workshops, academic papers |
| Duration | 1/09/22 – 31/05/23 |
| Affiliated activities |
Artistic Process Futures and AI is a project led by researchers at Tilburg University:
- Ashby, Simone (Principal Investigator)
- Hanna, Julian (CoPI)
- de Rooij, Alwin (CoPI)
- Koops, Bert-Jaap (Co-Investigator)
- Keymolen, Esther (Co-Investigator)
- Noorman, Merel (Co-Investigator)
- Kasprzak, Michelle (Co-Investigator, Willem de Kooning Academy)
AI is rapidly becoming enmeshed in our professional and private lives. The ubiquity of such technologies raises a host of ethical questions, value clashes, and unforeseen consequences that must be confronted sooner than later. One domain in which AI is exerting a growing influence is the arts sector. However, the futures such technologies unlock are also unpredictable. Given the speed with which such technologies are emerging and becoming adopted, the need to engage target audiences to weigh in on possible AI futures in this domain is critical. The pilot project Artistic Process Futures and AI aims to explore the role and potential implications of AI technologies for supporting the artistic process by developing and engaging in speculative design activities with artists.
Publications:
Artistic Process Futures and AI zine
Authors: Ashby, S., Hanna, J., Kasprzak, M., de Rooij, A.
Publication: Independently published zine
Abstract: This zine summarizes the process and findings from the three workshops into the future of the artistic process and AI that were conducted in 2022-23. The zine discusses methods, findings, and workshop outputs, and gives practical thoughts and tips for others on workshop methods. Copies of the printed zine are available upon request.
A Multimodal Approach to Exploring Artistic Process Futures
Authors: Ashby, S. Hanna, J. de Rooij, A., & Kasprzak, M.
Publication: Abstract to appear in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Multimodality (ICOM-11): Designing Futures
Abstract: Artists are designers of their own artistic process: they develop theories, methods, and tools to understand their impulses, conceive and evaluate new ideas, and facilitate steps toward a final work. As in other areas, AI has the potential to advance all stages in the artistic process. It can be used to gather, categorise, generate, and evaluate images and other data in ways that are different from, and in some ways exceed, human capabilities, due to the vast amounts of data these technologies can process. However, the potential of AI for the artistic process remains ambiguous. Open questions range from what role and form AI technologies should assume (e.g. preventing unintended consequences that stymie creativity), to how artists can responsibly use purpose-built AI tools (e.g. ensuring algorithmic bias is not hard-wired around Western aesthetics), given the political and social reach of the machine-learning approaches upon which such technologies are based. To support artists in cultivating a vision of their artistic process in relation to current advances in AI, our project enlisted the help of 12 professional artists and designers in: 1) creating scenarios around the intersection of art and AI, in effect ‘prehearsing the future’; 2) making these scenarios tangible through the design of speculative critical artefacts using a range of materials; and 3) articulating an artistic and epistemological point of view in the form of a collaborative manifesto, which we hope will be a lasting statement for (re)shaping the discourse with respect to AI and the artistic process. To facilitate manifesto writing, we developed a special edition of a card game called MANIFESTO!, which will be made available to artists, technologists, educators, and scholars along with the manifesto and documentation of the speculative scenarios and artefacts. In our presentation we will introduce and share the new ‘Art + AI’ edition of MANIFESTO! as well as results from our recent workshop with professional artists. This research is part of a larger initiative called Futures of Europe, an open-ended, multidisciplinary project that aims to help rebuild the commons in Europe and promote dialogue on complex societal issues.
Articulating (Uncertain) AI Futures of Artistic Practice: A Speculative Design and Manifesto Sprint Approach
Authors: Ashby, S. Hanna, J. de Rooij, A. Kasprzak, M., Hoekstra, J., & Bos, S.
Publication: Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition, ACM Press
Abstract: AI is rapidly becoming enmeshed in our professional and private lives. The ubiquity of such technologies raises a host of ethical questions, value clashes, and unforeseen consequences that must be confronted. Developments such as Ai-Da and DALL-E 2 are exciting in that they present robust new capabilities in AI and creativity. However, the futures such technologies unlock are also unpredictable. Given the speed with which such technologies are emerging and becoming adopted, the need to engage target audiences to weigh in on possible AI futures is critical. Our pilot project, Artistic Process Futures and AI, seeks to explore the role and potential implications of AI technologies with artists. In this paper, we show how participatory speculative design processes might be channeled into a public statement, or manifesto, regarding possible and preferable AI futures for supporting the artistic process, and how our workshop exposed uncertainty at the core of such deliberation.
Helaas Pindakaas: ChatGPT schrijft je e-mails, maar het is geen Ron Blaauw
Authors: de Rooij, A. Hanna, J. Ashby, S., & Kasprzak, M.
Publication: Tekstblad
Kunstmatige Intelligentie speelt een steeds grotere rol in creatieve expressie. ChatGPT en DALL-E genereren binnen seconden teksten, beelden en meer. Dit kan geweldig helpen om creatief werk naar een hoger niveau te tillen, maar er zit ook een keerzijde aan deze innovaties. Creatieve professionals uiten hun zorgen over auteursrecht en de structurele bias en fouten in deze software. We staan daarom op een kruispunt. Accepteren we passief onze groter wordende afhankelijkheid van deze technologie? Of stellen we de nodige maar moeilijke vragen over de sociale, politieke, morele en praktische implicaties van kunstmatige intelligentie en gaan we over tot actie?
