‘Contemporary Classicism’ Copy of a Copy: Appropriating Classical Statues as Conceptual Readymades

Conceptual readymades – a contemporary artist’s use of a classical work selected as a key point of reference taken out of time – have developed in recent years as part of contemporary art’s appropriation of Greco-Roman statuary. This investigation argues that a contemporary artist’s use of the classical does not represent ‘copies’ but cultural readymades. Contemporary digital and sculptural work foregrounding the classical sheds light on the parallel phenomenon whereby Roman re-interpretations of Greek sculpture may have been equivalent to contemporary classicism. Contemporary case studies featuring digital media, generative art, and sculpture are approached both from the perspective of what they can reveal about contemporary art’s use of the classical and what contemporary art’s use of classical sculpture can suggest about Roman reinterpretations as cultural readymades. Remade as part of contemporary art, classical sculpture is uniquely positioned as an accessible point of reference with which to comment on our own time by concurrently reframing the past.

Artificial intelligence in artistic practices

The article considers methods of involving artificial intelligence in artistic practices. Based on the analysis of ways to use this technology in visual arts and music, the basic principles of working with artificial intelligence technology are identified, including: imitation of historical art, implemented in projects The Next Rembrandt and Choral; generative art, which is found in the works “Hyperbolic Composition І” and “Hyperbolic Composition ІІ” of S. Eaton and also in the AIVA program (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist). The importance of the mechanisms of neurobiology in the process of working with artificial intelligence on the example of the project “Neural Zoo” of S. Crespo, Iamus program, in which the development of musical material is based on the principle of evolution, is stated. In the application Endel and in the opera “Emotionally intelligent” Artificially Intelligent Brainwave Opera» of E. Perlman, a neural network is used to read information about the human condition and its further processing for modification into a sound landscape or image. The development of artificial intelligence and its use in artistic practices opens up new opportunities, expanding both the field of authors of artistic content and attracting new audience. This phenomenon provokes many issues, including: the ability to think artificially of artificial intelligence, the ability to create works of art without human intervention, as well as issues related to copyright.

Generative Meditations: Exploring Generative Art From the Perspective of Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy

<p>the purpose of this thesis is to document and explore the subjective struggles I have encountered in my own practise as a generative artist rather than to provide an objective overview of computational generative art. Hopefully this process will give some context from the ground up (from an artist’s perspective) to some of the larger questions that I and others in the field are asking about generative art. From the preliminary questions arising from these struggles I begin to explore and develop a generative art practise that primarily focuses on the topics of human experience and ideas directly related to human experience. This is opposed to using generative processes to explore ideas fundamentally based on computation (a-life, emergence, computational creativity, and data etc..). The foundation of, and reasons behind, such a focus are based on the non-realist and non-materialist philosophical tenets of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the philosophy of the Madhyamika-Prasangika school of thought. The purpose of developing a generative practise based on the philosophy and symbolism of Tibetan Buddhism is to find a method to create personally relevant artwork with a firm foundation in a well established culture of art and philosophy. I might add however, that this isn’t merely a self-reflective exercise but rather it should be of interest to others in the field of (and study of) Generative art to see how this artistic method might be approached from a vastly different philosophical stance to the materialist view that receives the majority of attention in the field.</p>

Generative Meditations: Exploring Generative Art From the Perspective of Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy

<p>the purpose of this thesis is to document and explore the subjective struggles I have encountered in my own practise as a generative artist rather than to provide an objective overview of computational generative art. Hopefully this process will give some context from the ground up (from an artist’s perspective) to some of the larger questions that I and others in the field are asking about generative art. From the preliminary questions arising from these struggles I begin to explore and develop a generative art practise that primarily focuses on the topics of human experience and ideas directly related to human experience. This is opposed to using generative processes to explore ideas fundamentally based on computation (a-life, emergence, computational creativity, and data etc..). The foundation of, and reasons behind, such a focus are based on the non-realist and non-materialist philosophical tenets of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the philosophy of the Madhyamika-Prasangika school of thought. The purpose of developing a generative practise based on the philosophy and symbolism of Tibetan Buddhism is to find a method to create personally relevant artwork with a firm foundation in a well established culture of art and philosophy. I might add however, that this isn’t merely a self-reflective exercise but rather it should be of interest to others in the field of (and study of) Generative art to see how this artistic method might be approached from a vastly different philosophical stance to the materialist view that receives the majority of attention in the field.</p>

Τεχνητά Συστήματα Εικαστικής Παραγωγής: Συναρμογή, Αυτονομία και Δημιουργικότητα

Τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες, στο πεδίο της θεωρίας της τέχνης, γίνεται προσπάθειααφομοίωσης και χαρτογράφησης μιας αναδυόμενης τάσης καλλιτεχνικής παραγωγής, η οποία σχετίζεται με την ικανότητα τεχνητών συστημάτων και αλγορίθμων να δημιουργούν έργα τέχνης με μια σχετική αυτονομία. Στην προοπτική ύπαρξης εξ ολοκλήρου αυτόνομων συστημάτων καλλιτεχνικής δημιουργίας στο εγγύς μέλλον, η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να θέσει υπό αμφισβήτηση την εξήγηση της τεχνητής δημιουργικότητας της παραγωγικής τέχνης (generative art) μέσω του ανθρωποκεντρικού παραδείγματος. Μέσω της παρατήρησης μεταμοντέρνων και σύγχρονων εικαστικών projects, η ανάλυση φανερώνει πως η φύση της αλληλεπίδρασης των καλλιτεχνών/προγραμματιστών με τα τεχνητά συστήματα εικαστικής παραγωγής, οδηγεί σε μια γόνιμη κατανόηση έμβιων και άβιων δημιουργικών δρώντων στο πλαίσιο μιας συναρμογής (assemblage), με στόχο την από κοινού εξερεύνηση νέων δυνατοτήτων καλλιτεχνικής δημιουργίας. Το δεύτερο μέρος, διερευνά κατά πόσο η ακαμψία που χαρακτηρίζει του αλγόριθμους μετριάζεται μέσω της ανάδειξης των λιγότερο γνωστών πτυχών της συμπεριφοράς τους και εάν οι πτυχές αυτές δύνανται να αποτελέσουν δίοδο προς την οντολογική εξερεύνηση της τεχνητής δημιουργικότητας. Υπό ένα μεθοδολογικό πρίσμα, η συζήτηση καταδεικνύει την ανάγκη συγκρότησης ενός θεωρητικού πλαισίου το οποίο θα απομακρύνει την εν λόγω τάση από την τεχνολογική μεθόριο στην οποία βρισκόταν καθηλωμένη για χρόνια και θα επιτρέψει την ένταξή της στην εξελικτική αλυσίδα του τεχνοϊστορικού αφηγήματος.

Designing Color Symmetry in Stigmergic Art

Color symmetry is an extension of the symmetry imposed by isometric transformations and indicates that the colors of geometrical objects are assigned according to the symmetry properties of these objects. A color symmetry permutes the coloring of the objects consistently with their symmetry group. We apply this concept to bio-inspired generative art. Therefore, the geometrical objects are interpreted as motifs that may repeat themselves with a symmetry-consistent coloring. The motifs are obtained by design principles from stigmergy. We discuss the design procedure and present visual results.

The A.I. storyteller: Perpetuating orality using developments in machine learning

Oral histories are a part of all cultures and societies, however, our knowledge and interest in these practices has waned, and arguably with it, a sense of social identity and belonging in many contemporary communities and cultures. This paper pulls from aspects of experiential and theatrical design, generative art philosophy, physical computing, and machine learning in artificial intelligence research combined with a theoretical foundation of Adorno, Benjamin, and Ong to discuss and propose the creation of an embodied and immersive story experience. This project will overturn key aspects of traditional orality to encourage interactivity with, and ownership of, the stories and will prompt discussion about its use as an archival process that will promote perpetuation rather than preservation, moving beyond the current processes of audio and video recordings.