The Dawn of the Dead: (Improbable) Art After AI-Zombie Apocalypse i

In recent years there has been growing interest in artificial neural networks (ANNs) which are quickly becoming the primary device for machine learning. Used for finding patterns in large data sets, ANNs were also recently employed in many artistic contexts: as tools for artists, semi-independent creators of content, and even as invisible “critics” which / who predict our aesthetic preferences. The aim of this paper is to speculate about the disruptive effect of these ‘alien agencies’ on the (modernist) aesthetic regime of art centred around the notion of autonomy. The author examines how neural networks and connectionist epistemologies may potentially affect the most common ways of producing, circulating, and valorising art. He claims that the possibility of automatizing creativity and art criticism may lead to the emergence of a new aesthetic regime based on forms of dynamic, distributed and probabilistic governance.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Konrad Wojnowski

Conference

Publication date: May 2018

Publication date (Print): May 2018

Pages: 1-8

Affiliations

[1 ] Jagiellonian University

Kraków

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.19

SO-VID: 393f7b44-1ec2-48da-b409-9bb0e5276b13

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Politics of the Machines - Art and After

Conference acronym: EVA Copenhagen

Conference number: 7

Conference location: Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Conference date: 15 - 17 May 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Digital arts and culture

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.19

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

W Benjamin 1969 [1936] The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Illuminations H Arendt Schocken New York
M Bishop 2014 History and Philosophy of Neural Networks H Ishibuchi Computational Intelligence Eolss Publishers Paris
E Blakemore 2016 ’New’ Rembrandt Created, 347 Years After the Dutch Master’s Death Smithsonian.comAvailable from:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-rembrandt-created-347-years-after-the-dutch-masters-death-180958664/ 5 May 2018
R Brandom 2016 Google's art machine just wrote its first song The Verge. Available from: https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/1/11829678/goo gle-magenta-melody-art-generative-artificial-intelligence 13 June 2018
J Cage 1973 On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and His Work J Cage Silence: Lectures and Writings Wesleyan University Press, Hanover (NH)
A ClarkR Lutz 1992 Introduction A ClarkR Lutz Connectionism in Context Springer Verlag London
C Cotton 2004 The Photograph as Contemporary Art Thames & Hudson London
J Crary 2001 Suspensions of perception MIT Press Cambridge (Mass.)
Dainius 2016 New Neural Algorithm Can ‘Paint’ Photos In Style Of Any Artist From Van Gogh To Picasso Bored Panda. Available from: https://www.boredpanda.com/computer-deep-learning-algorithm-painting-masters/ 12 June 2018
D Draaisma 2000 Metaphors of Memory: A History of Ideas About the Mind P Vincent Cambridge University Press Cambridge
N Elias 2010 [1939] The civilizing process E Dunning Blackwell Publishing Mladen (Mass.)
A Greenfield 2017 Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life [ebook] Verso Books London
B Groys 2016 Towards the New Realism e-flux journal, 77. Available from: https://www.eflux.com/journal/77/77109/towards-the-new-realism/ 13 June 2018
R Horning 2016 Fear of Content DIS. Available from: http://dismagazine.com/disillusioned/78747/fear-of-content-rob-horning-2/ 13 June 2018
I Kant 2008 [1790] Critique of judgement N Walker Oxford University Press Oxford
A Mackenzie 2015 The production of prediction: What does machine learning want? European Journal of Cultural Studies 18 4-5 429 445
W McCullochW Pitts 1943 A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 5 4 115 133
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G O'BrienJ Opie 2002 Radical connectionism: thinking with (not in) language Language & Communication 22 3 313 329
A Oliveira 2017 The Digital Mind: How Science Is Redefining Humanity The MIT Press London
C Perez 2018 Artificial Intuition: The Improbable Deep Learning Revolution CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
J Rancière 2004 The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible Gabriel Rockhill Continuum International Publishing Group London
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P Weibel 2012 The Post-Media Condition Mute. Available from: http://www.metamute.org/editorial/lab/post-media-condition 13 June 2018

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] W Benjamin 1969 [1936] The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Illuminations H Arendt Schocken New York

[2] M Bishop 2014 History and Philosophy of Neural Networks H Ishibuchi Computational Intelligence Eolss Publishers Paris

[3] E Blakemore 2016 ’New’ Rembrandt Created, 347 Years After the Dutch Master’s Death Smithsonian.comAvailable from:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-rembrandt-created-347-years-after-the-dutch-masters-death-180958664/ 5 May 2018

[4] R Brandom 2016 Google's art machine just wrote its first song The Verge. Available from: https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/1/11829678/goo gle-magenta-melody-art-generative-artificial-intelligence 13 June 2018

[5] J Cage 1973 On Robert Rauschenberg, Artist, and His Work J Cage Silence: Lectures and Writings Wesleyan University Press, Hanover (NH)

[6] A ClarkR Lutz 1992 Introduction A ClarkR Lutz Connectionism in Context Springer Verlag London

[7] C Cotton 2004 The Photograph as Contemporary Art Thames & Hudson London

[8] J Crary 2001 Suspensions of perception MIT Press Cambridge (Mass.)

[9] Dainius 2016 New Neural Algorithm Can ‘Paint’ Photos In Style Of Any Artist From Van Gogh To Picasso Bored Panda. Available from: https://www.boredpanda.com/computer-deep-learning-algorithm-painting-masters/ 12 June 2018

[10] D Draaisma 2000 Metaphors of Memory: A History of Ideas About the Mind P Vincent Cambridge University Press Cambridge

[11] N Elias 2010 [1939] The civilizing process E Dunning Blackwell Publishing Mladen (Mass.)

[12] A Greenfield 2017 Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life [ebook] Verso Books London

[13] B Groys 2016 Towards the New Realism e-flux journal, 77. Available from: https://www.eflux.com/journal/77/77109/towards-the-new-realism/ 13 June 2018

[14] R Horning 2016 Fear of Content DIS. Available from: http://dismagazine.com/disillusioned/78747/fear-of-content-rob-horning-2/ 13 June 2018

[15] I Kant 2008 [1790] Critique of judgement N Walker Oxford University Press Oxford

[16] A Mackenzie 2015 The production of prediction: What does machine learning want? European Journal of Cultural Studies 18 4-5 429 445

[17] W McCullochW Pitts 1943 A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 5 4 115 133

[18] C Metz 2016 The Sadness and Beauty of Watching Google’s AI Play Go Wired. Availible from: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/sadness-beauty-watching-googles-ai-play-go/ 24 August 2018

[19] G O'BrienJ Opie 2002 Radical connectionism: thinking with (not in) language Language & Communication 22 3 313 329

[20] A Oliveira 2017 The Digital Mind: How Science Is Redefining Humanity The MIT Press London

[21] C Perez 2018 Artificial Intuition: The Improbable Deep Learning Revolution CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

[22] J Rancière 2004 The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible Gabriel Rockhill Continuum International Publishing Group London

[23] J Rancière 2013 Aisthesis: Scenes from the Aesthetic Regime of Art P Zakir Verso London

[24] W Robinson 2014 Flipping and the Rise of Zombie Formalism Artspace, [online]. Available from: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/contributors/s ee_here/the_rise_of_zombie_formalism-52184 10 June 2018

[25] G Rockhill 2004 Editor’s Introduction: Jacques Rancière’s Politics of Perception J Rancière The Politics of Aesthetics

[26] I Salian 2016 How Deep Learning Can Paint Videos in the Style of Art’s Great Masters NVIDIA Blogs. Available from: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/05/25/deep-learning-paints-videos/ 13 June 2018

[27] C Salter 2015 Alien Agency: Experimental Encounters with Art in the Making MIT Press London

[28] F Schiller 1954 [1795] Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man R Snell Yale University Press New Haven

[29] The Next Rembrandt https://www.nextrembrandt.com/ 5 May 2018

[30] M Tyka 2015 The art of neural networks | TEDxTUM [online video]. 7 December 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qVOUD76JOg 4 May 2018

[31] t uglow 2017 Thoughts on Neural Networks, Art, and Driverless Culture… Medium. Available from: https://medium.com/@teau/thoughts-on-neural-networks-art-and-driverless-culture-e7f2842c48e9 12 June 2018

[32] P Weibel 2012 The Post-Media Condition Mute. Available from: http://www.metamute.org/editorial/lab/post-media-condition 13 June 2018

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