BUSTING AI

Leading international artists are using artificial intelligence to examine its own social impact.

- REENA DEVI

Images generated by Al are now everywhere as people produce seemingly high-quality artwork with just a few text prompts, be it for social media, company logos or picture books.

As Al hits art forms such as illustration, there are international artists looking beyond the relationship between Al and their artistic practice, far more interested in the impact of Al on culture and politics.

In fact, long before Al became a buzzword, these artists were using Al tools to dissect the technology, study how the tools worked and highlight their inherent issues.

One such artist is Holly Herndon. Along with her partner Mathew Dryhurst, she was in September this year named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Al for pioneering work in machine learning, software and music.

Their ongoing year-long research project, in collaboration with the Arts Technologies team of Serpentine Galleries in London, will be exhibited next year. In the words of Herndon and Dryhurst, the project explores the "dark corridors of what it means to be an artist in the Al age".

According to Serpentine's Arts Technologies curator Eva Jager, "The duo have been influential in the Berlin art and tech scene for many years now. But primarily, Holly and Mat are recognised as musicians and we are trying to position them as artists with a very pioneering practice that touches on music, mechanism design, Web3 innovations and more."

Herndon and Dryhurst are not using Al just as a tool for "style transfer" or to make new sounds based on their past works. "They're asking a lot of questions about ownership, identity and agency when they create new works," said Jager.