Are artists the canaries in the coalmine for the wave of change that is coming for everyone?
Can AI ever be a tool for genuine creativity?
With a polarisation in views among high profile creatives like singer Nick Cave who believes AI can never be more than a facsimile of art because ‘algorithms don’t feel and data doesn’t suffer’, while Jeanette Winterson describes OpenAI’s metafictional short story about grief to be beautiful and moving, what are we to make of the dichotomy? And that is before we get to Paul McCartney and the copyright issue!
If you were immersed in all the controversies surrounding “Unsupervised” by Refik Anadol at MOMA, and were perplexed that if AI wasn’t really art then why was it that the world’s leading art gallery was devoting so much space to it, an upcoming talk by Eric Drass at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution on Friday 30 May at 7:30 pm attempts to contextualise the “AI revolution” within the broader history of art and investigate the tension between AI, art, culture and authenticity.
A visual artist who has been exploring AI as a contributing factor to his paintings for more than five years, Eric studied psychology and philosophy at Oxford and set out on a PhD addressing cognitive psycholinguistics before committing himself to making art.
A perfect candidate, then, for engaging with the complexities of what it means to be an artist in a digital age.
In recent years, Eric has addressed audiences of all ages at venues as varied as the Royal Institution, Glastonbury Festival, and for programmes across the BBC. For his event at BRLSI, Eric will put his own work as an artist at the centre of a discussion ranging across history and culture.
All Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution talks end with a Q&A, and if you want to come and enjoy some fantastic discussion with fellow arts lovers, then this is a wonderful chance to do so.
Tickets live and online at www.brlsi.org
Title: AI, Art & Culture
Speaker: Eric Drass
Date: Fri 30 May 7:30 pm
Price: £3.00 members – £6.00 non-members
Booking Link:
