New media, big data algorithms, blockchain, artificial intelligence... Technological change affects the medium and way of thinking artists create. When AI becomes a clear sign of the context of the times, how will the art field cope with the intervention of artificial intelligence and maintain a unique artistic value in the future?
On June 10, "Expectation@Find@Algorithm-Young Artists Exhibition" opened at Nanjing Yiguan Art Center, where scholars and experts in related fields shared their insights and outlined artistic portraits in the AI era.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence has prompted practitioners to have a deeper analysis and thinking about the essence of art. "Because AI brings a strong sense of crisis to the entire industry, we often take the lead and put AI in opposition to people, to consider the ethical relationship between it and humans. In fact, AI still exists only as a tool, like all the electronic devices people use today. Lin Shu, deputy director of the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts.
Lin Shuchuan compares AI to an algorithm model with only "addition" and no "subtraction", forming a huge database through continuous iteration, but it cannot replace the main part of creation and the most critical part of the artwork, that is, the uniqueness of painting art. Chen Yan, an associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai Normal University, further explained that no matter how large the size of artificial intelligence, it still relies on the logic of computers, "This principle is set by the scientist Turing, and all problems are reduced to black and white 0s and 1s." He said that artificial intelligence uses an inductive method to link questions with the answers that people want, and although the speed of linking can be faster and faster, human imagination experience, artistic intuition, etc. are difficult for artificial intelligence to obtain. The processes that produce these imaginations and intuitions actually arise with the emergence of human beings. For example, nowadays, when you go to an archaeological site, you will often see some pottery vases, many of which are two in pairs, which is the simplest symmetry; The decorative patterns on the clay vases are all balanced and beautiful. Why do people deliberately keep these lines at the same distance from each other? This is the embodiment of human culture and system, which cannot be understood by computers. ”
Art historian Lan Qingwei believes that painting is naturally "resistant" to AI due to its relatively low degree of standardization. "At present, many times it is the concept of AI images that steals the concept of painting, so as to dissolve the essence of all painting and only emphasize the characteristics of painting as information."
So what are the real challenges that AI presents for artists? A number of art scholars said that is how to maintain the irreplaceability of painting art. "In the future, works without ideology and spirit will definitely be replaced the fastest, and we are ushering in such an era of rough extraction." Lan Qingwei said. Song Zhenxi, an independent curator and art critic, believes that in the future, people need to improve the level of written language and better dialogue with AI, "In the foreseeable time, human beings still need to 'domesticate' AI to avoid over-solidification of its image world, and the imagination of words is infinite." ”
Experts and scholars have also generally paid attention to the relationship between technological change and living conditions. "Rather than abstracting AI, it has become the current social context, which also means that AI is already a creative material; Thinking about how to reflect the situation and psychological state of people in the AI era in the expression content is what artists should do. "The legend of Lin Shu. Cross-media artist Jiang Dafang said that the impact of AI on social behavior and social ethics has entered the creation of young artists as a topic, "The research objects of art history include people, their environment and people's response to their environment. These works that analyze and study people will really make AI leave a mark on art history. ”
Jiang Dafang believes that although AI has caused a certain impact on the painting industry, people's subjective initiative plays a more critical role in artistic creation. "Whenever a painting is created, the artist always asks himself, why is he doing this? He needs to look for evaluation criteria and the value of painting. For this reason, he will always 'ask for trouble', find problems, solve problems, and the next problem will follow... This is the essence of art and science, to maintain a pure heart, to rush to a wider sky or a deeper abyss, to pursue perfection in the mind, an ideal model. ”
"Whenever we feel a crisis in the process of moving forward and are at a loss about the future, we always go back and annotate the traditional classics, thinking about why they survived, and what of the ways they responded to the crisis at that time can we apply what we can learn?" Song Zhenxi said that looking at the many precedents in art history where technology has entered the field of art can not only gain experience, but also provide artists with new perspectives, "In this way, the relationship between artists and tradition is no longer just nostalgic, but can find their true feelings and current life situations in tradition." ”
Xinhua Daily Junction reporter Wu Yuyang
Image courtesy of Eguan Art Center