“As a media” Interactive Art
“As a media” initially aimed to discuss the public's need for private spaces in public areas. However, after extensive research and iterations, I chose to use AI as a new creative tool to convey this concept. As a result, the focus of my discussion has expanded from a narrow concept to exploring the role that AI should play in future artistic creation.
My artwork consists of a combination of five half-AI and half-human created images and five fully AI-generated images. I interviewed four individuals with different backgrounds and personalities but with artistic experience to ask for their perception and definition of "spaces with a sense of security and comfort." I then submitted their feedback through AI language to generate spaces that best matched their perception. After that, I returned the batch of AI-generated images to the interviewees and provided my personal example for them to evaluate the images generated based on the keywords they provided and reflect their evaluation on the printed images.
During this process, I realized that our "evaluation" of AI-generated images itself had an incorrect perspective. In fact, the interviewees evaluated not only AI's creative ability but also my ability to choose AI-generated images.
Initially, I believed that AI was an independent, copyrighted creator, but after a series of discussions, my perception of AI's role changed from a creator to a tool. Therefore, the goal of my artwork shifted from hoping that the audience understood the concrete concept of a "resting room" to discussing the concept of AI's role with the audience. We should act more like curators or collectors, using our accumulated artistic theories and aesthetics to select AI outputs rather than collaborating with AI. Indeed, each audience member has a unique understanding of AI's situation, but I hope my artwork will help the audience understand my perspective. Therefore, I ultimately chose to name it "Untitled." I cannot name this ongoing work at this stage of the discussion.
April. 2023
Yang Zhiyuan