How are artificial intelligence and automated digital systems affecting contemporary art and curatorial practices? What ethical and critical questions arise from new human-machine relations?

This course will teach participants about the various applications of artificial intelligence and semi-automated digital systems to contemporary art and culture. By drawing on case studies and historical references, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how automated digital technologies are defining the future of contemporary art, in terms of aesthetics, ethics, languages and markets.

First, the course begins with an overview of the role of semi-automated intelligent softwares in contemporary art and visual culture from the 1990’s to today.

Second, we will learn about GAN database machine learning processes and AI prompt systems (including Open AI, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Imagen) and how these recent technologies have been applied in media art and the digital art market.

Last but not least, the course reflects on questions and new possibilities that arise from the development of artificial intelligence, including:

• creative and productive ways of working between organic and inorganic intelligence
• alternative concepts of authorship and provenance
• new challenges in archiving and conservation
• different ethics and relations between human being and context

This course is aimed at art creatives (artists, photographers, visual designers) and professionals (curator, critics, gallerists, collectors) with a keen interest in fringe technologies and scientific research related to the application of artificial and automated digital methods to contemporary art.

Image by Marko Brečić