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6 Between Technological and Aesthetic Grids: Philosophical Challenges Posed by AI Artists

  • Sagit Alkobi Fishman
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The Arts of the Grid
This chapter is in the book The Arts of the Grid

Abstract

Among the recent thought-provoking technological developments there are machine learning systems that aim at creating art using grid-based artificial neural networks. Those grid-based art systems exhibit a high degree of autonomy in the creation process, thus inviting questions concerning the identity of the artist as well as the artistic status of the resulting works. In this chapter, I shed light on these matters by asking: how shall we interpret or understand such works? That is, what is their source of meaning, hermeneutically speaking? Can we reasonably talk about the artist’s intention as the source of meaning of such works? What might be an alternative? Because the process of creation consists in part of grid-oriented computations, at first glance it may seem impossible to endow the works with meaning by appealing to the artists’ intentions. However, close analysis shows a more subtle picture. Reflecting upon a few analytic philosophical approaches, I show that although under actual intentionalism one encounters what I have defined as the problem of intentional gap, fictional intentionalism, wherein the artist’s intention serves as a methodological interpretive principle, provides an alternative direction worthy of consideration.

Abstract

Among the recent thought-provoking technological developments there are machine learning systems that aim at creating art using grid-based artificial neural networks. Those grid-based art systems exhibit a high degree of autonomy in the creation process, thus inviting questions concerning the identity of the artist as well as the artistic status of the resulting works. In this chapter, I shed light on these matters by asking: how shall we interpret or understand such works? That is, what is their source of meaning, hermeneutically speaking? Can we reasonably talk about the artist’s intention as the source of meaning of such works? What might be an alternative? Because the process of creation consists in part of grid-oriented computations, at first glance it may seem impossible to endow the works with meaning by appealing to the artists’ intentions. However, close analysis shows a more subtle picture. Reflecting upon a few analytic philosophical approaches, I show that although under actual intentionalism one encounters what I have defined as the problem of intentional gap, fictional intentionalism, wherein the artist’s intention serves as a methodological interpretive principle, provides an alternative direction worthy of consideration.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Content V
  3. List of Illustrations VII
  4. Foreword: On Grids and Networks XI
  5. Acknowledgements XV
  6. 1 Introduction ‒ The Arts of the Grid: Interdisciplinary Insights on Gridded Modalities in Conversation with the Arts 1
  7. 2 The Networked Artwork: The Grid as Dynamic Relational Form? 22
  8. Part I: Planting and Planning the Grid
  9. 3 The Grid Specialized: Practical Town Planning, Artistic Features, and Natural Settings in Twentieth-Century Brazilian New Towns 39
  10. 4 Centrifugal or Processional: Divine and Mundane Power in Ancient Chinese Funeral Grids 54
  11. 5 Globalizing Senegal’s Grid-Plan Legacies in Light of Islamic Studies, World History and Urban Studies 70
  12. Part II: Generating Grids of Computational Arts
  13. 6 Between Technological and Aesthetic Grids: Philosophical Challenges Posed by AI Artists 83
  14. 7 Sounds in Grid: History and Development of Grid-Based Musical Interfaces and their Rooting in Sound, Interaction and Screen Design 97
  15. 8 On Grids of Contemporary Art Production: A Convergence of Artistic, Computational, Craft and Performative Making 109
  16. Part III: Kinetic Grids: Bridging, Digging, Floating
  17. 9 Searching for the Grid at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century: When Art and Science Shared their Fragments 127
  18. 10 Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective 143
  19. 11 How to Do Things with Grids: Anarchitectures of Navigability 157
  20. Part IV: Grids of Learning: Linguistic, Virtual, Visual
  21. 12 The Linguistics Relation in the Virtual Grid: A Digital Dialogue 177
  22. 13 Storytelling in Virtual Reality: A Multidisciplinary and Immersive Experience using Grid Methodology for Students 193
  23. 14 The Multidisciplinary Learning Grid: A Conceptual Space to Develop Neuropedagogy-based, Arts-integrated Chemistry Activities 204
  24. 15 Concluding Remarks: Grids of Light, Darkness, and Intermediate Shades 225
  25. About the Contributors 232
  26. About the Participant Artists 238
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110733228-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Content V
  3. List of Illustrations VII
  4. Foreword: On Grids and Networks XI
  5. Acknowledgements XV
  6. 1 Introduction ‒ The Arts of the Grid: Interdisciplinary Insights on Gridded Modalities in Conversation with the Arts 1
  7. 2 The Networked Artwork: The Grid as Dynamic Relational Form? 22
  8. Part I: Planting and Planning the Grid
  9. 3 The Grid Specialized: Practical Town Planning, Artistic Features, and Natural Settings in Twentieth-Century Brazilian New Towns 39
  10. 4 Centrifugal or Processional: Divine and Mundane Power in Ancient Chinese Funeral Grids 54
  11. 5 Globalizing Senegal’s Grid-Plan Legacies in Light of Islamic Studies, World History and Urban Studies 70
  12. Part II: Generating Grids of Computational Arts
  13. 6 Between Technological and Aesthetic Grids: Philosophical Challenges Posed by AI Artists 83
  14. 7 Sounds in Grid: History and Development of Grid-Based Musical Interfaces and their Rooting in Sound, Interaction and Screen Design 97
  15. 8 On Grids of Contemporary Art Production: A Convergence of Artistic, Computational, Craft and Performative Making 109
  16. Part III: Kinetic Grids: Bridging, Digging, Floating
  17. 9 Searching for the Grid at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century: When Art and Science Shared their Fragments 127
  18. 10 Depth as Grid: An Improvisational Actor’s Perspective 143
  19. 11 How to Do Things with Grids: Anarchitectures of Navigability 157
  20. Part IV: Grids of Learning: Linguistic, Virtual, Visual
  21. 12 The Linguistics Relation in the Virtual Grid: A Digital Dialogue 177
  22. 13 Storytelling in Virtual Reality: A Multidisciplinary and Immersive Experience using Grid Methodology for Students 193
  23. 14 The Multidisciplinary Learning Grid: A Conceptual Space to Develop Neuropedagogy-based, Arts-integrated Chemistry Activities 204
  24. 15 Concluding Remarks: Grids of Light, Darkness, and Intermediate Shades 225
  25. About the Contributors 232
  26. About the Participant Artists 238
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