Despite my lack of artistic credentials and only the most rudimentary notions of AI, I was curious to know more about the ethical aspects of AI in relation to art and the artist and found Leila Hogarth’s ‘playful talk and workshop with collage’ both fascinating and thought-provoking.
Leila was engaging and encouraging throughout and her enthusiasm for the subject was infectious. I was intrigued by Leila’s own creations such as the Data Oracles, collage and tapestry and I think we were all astounded by how Leila’s AI image generator interpreted our collages!
I can’t wait for her follow-up session next year!
Ann McKeever
Leila’s workshop was a fascinating and activity packed three hours. Leila introduced her work with some of the objects that she has made during recent practice. She then considered how artists can use Artificial Intelligence [AI] to ask important questions about Art “through the eye of a machine”. We debated how AI can be used ethically from the artist/designer’s perspective for example:
- How are artists using AI to create work?
- What do artists have to say about image provenance and preservation of copyright of the original work?
- Is AI “as applied to art” genuinely transformative or incremental?
The participants then began the ‘hands on’ session. First, generating collages, focussing our hopes, dreams and concerns about the future that AI poses. Each collage was discussed with the class and the themes drawn out to provide the text input to generate hybrid AI images. Leila then gave a live demonstration to create a set of images, using our text prompts and audience suggestions.
Outcomes:
Participants had a considerable amount of fun. We had hands on experience with AI image generation. For the most part, it was clear how AI had interpreted our inputs but also the AI sometimes did ‘see’ the world somewhat differently to what we had expected.
As well as the image generation, participants had the opportunity to discuss the interplay and integration between Artists and Artificial Intelligence and questions of originality and ownership.
FOTH have taken our first small steps!
Further Reading.
The AI package used was “Night Café Creator” https://creator.nightcafe.studio/ .
Michael Browne
Friends of the Hatton 