July 2, 2024, Jerusalem, Israel / Online
As part of LASER Talks Jerusalem and LASER Talks CYLAND.
Online + President Hotel Arts Center, Ahad Ha’Am 3, Jerusalem, Israel.
Chairs: Galina Bleikh (Israel), Daria Kesler (Israel), Anna Frants (USA), Natalia Kolodzei (USA).
Panelists: Kirill Azerniy (Israel), Eugeny Nikitin (Israel), Galina Bleikh (Israel), Dr. Lev Manovich (USA).
Moderator: Daria Kesler (Israel).
Organisers: INEMEA Art & Science Lab, CYLAND Media Art Lab.
The discussion, initiated by the INEMEA Association in collaboration with the CYLAND Media Art Lab, brings together artists, poets, and leading cultural theorists to reflect on shifting relationships between artistic production and artificial intelligence (AI). Taking place both online and offline, this LASER Talk focuses on the challenges posed by AI as a new subject and creator of art. What is an artist and artistic practice in the era of AI? How does the rapid development of AI-related technologies affect the way artists define their roles and methods? Is Artificial Intelligence a competitor, assistant, co-author, or synergistic partner?
During the conversation, speakers will share insights on their work and examine how AI affects their creative thinking. Kirill Azernyi and Eugeny Nikitin will present their collaborative visual and textual project, Whispered Commands, reframing relationships between voice recordings and AI-generated images. Galina Bleikh will speak about her work, The Tumbleweed Cities. Taking images of cities generated by the Mdjourney artificial neural network as a starting point, the project invites viewers to investigate these unreal yet recognizable digital landscapes disconnected from geographical, political, and socio-cultural contexts.
Dr. Lev Manovich will introduce Artificial Aesthetics: Generative AI, Art and Visual Media. The book draws on a unique set of perspectives that combine Emanuele Arielli's expertise in the philosophy of art and experimental psychology of art with Lev Manovich's expertise in media theory, data science, and digital art, as well as his practice as an AI artist. The book is the first to bring these different perspectives together. It examines the impact of generative AI on concepts in art theory and aesthetics and practices in visual art, design, and media.
Kirill Azerniy
Kirill Azernyi is a writer, poet, translator, and publisher. He has been writing fiction since 2005; his stories and short stories have been published in literary magazines Novyi Mir, Ural, Flagi, Artikulatsia, Gone Lawn, Flatbush Review, and The Minute Review. Kirill Azernyi has published two books of prose, The Present (2011) and A Doomsday Man (2015). He is the publisher of the samizdat magazine Zdes (2015—2020), dedicated to contemporary experimental prose, poetry, and essays. He has participated in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (USA, 2015), the IX St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum (Russia, 2021), and the SlovoNova Free Culture Forum (Israel, 2023).
Galina Bleikh
Daria Kesler
Dr. Lev Manovich
Eugeny Nikitin