Artificial intelligence - machine learning and computer vision - constantly analyze and produce images.
AIIM - Centre for Aesthetics of AI Images explores how these new image practices significantly shape us aesthetically – and thereby also culturally, socially, and epistemologically.
We are excited to announce the publication of the article "Democratization and Generative AI Image Creation: Aesthetics, Citizenship, and Practices", authored by Maja Bak Herrie, Nicolas René Maleve, Lotte Philipsen, and Asker Bryld Staunæs. Recently published in AI & Society (2024), the article examines how generative AI reshapes aesthetic practices, notions of citizenship, and democratic engagement. The article critically analyzes how contemporary image practices involving generative artificial intelligence are entangledwith processes of democratization. It demonstrates and discusses how generative artificial intelligence images raise questions of democratization and citizenship in terms of access, skills, validation, truths, and diversity. First, the article establishes a theoretical framework, which includes theory on democratization and aesthetics and lays the foundations for the analytical concepts of ‘formative’ and ‘generative’ visual citizenship. Next, the article argues for the use of explorative and collaborative methods to investigate contemporary image practice, before analyzing the central part of our investigation, which takes the form of four collaborative workshops conducted in 2023 with external partners in different domains. After analyzing insights from these workshops, the article significantly nuanceshow visual citizenship is at work in different manners depending on the different concrete image practices using generative artificial intelligence. Finally, it concludes that an aesthetic perspective offers valuable insights into foundational aspects of belonging to contemporary visual communities.
AIIM researchers Nicolas Malevé, Maja Bak Herrie, and Lotte Philipsen attend the annual conference of The Nordic Society of Aesthetics (Iceland, June 2024) with a joint AIIM panel on “Aesthetics of Generative AI Images.”
In February, AIIM researcher Lotte Philipsen, was interviewed by videnskab.dk about the Sora, OpenAI’s new AI video tool. She elaborated on some of the aesthetic implications of tools like Sora: We should pay critical attention to the clean, extreme high definition, ‘Disney’ aesthetics of Sora, which may change our implicit expectations to what our surroundings should look like. At the same time, such tools offer new possibilities for image making, which artists will probably explore, use, and critique more deeply. Link for the article (in Danish): https://videnskab.dk/teknologi/tre-forskere-om-sora-saadan-kan-nye-ultra-realistiske-ai-videoer-aendre-din-verden/
In January, AIIM researcher Maja Bak Herrie was interviewed by Politiken about the use of AI-generated images in Psykiatrifonden’s recent report on children with diagnoses. She emphasized the strategic employment of images in aesthetic communication to capture attention and establish credibility for a cause and addressed the potential challenges associated with the introduction of generative AI tools in such contexts. Link for the article (in Danish, access restricted): https://politiken.dk/danmark/sundhed/art9731698/Dette-er-ikke-et-barn-med-en-diagnose
