death of the a(i)uthor

The property ‘human-made’ is poised to become increasingly valuable in a world where AI generated content saturates creative spaces… Or will it?

At one extreme viewpoint, creative intent and authorship plays no role in the meaning of an artwork – all that matters is the viewer’s experience. In literature, this theory is called Death of the Author (from Roland Barthes’ eponymous essay). At the other extreme, some people’s experience of art is fully dependent on the knowledge of the artist and their intent from which they draw richer meaning and value.

In the age of generative AI, this spectrum of experience is given a new dimension – the ‘AI creator’. Is it a soulless, tireless machine, churning out cheap knockoffs and stolen ideas, or an amalgamation of humanity’s creative expressions, distilled into a pure, singular synthetic artist? Perhaps both, neither, or something in-between? More importantly, does any of this even matter to you, the viewer?

Machine learning engineer and artist, Jemima Goodall, aims to challenge the viewer with these questions by mixing a traditional art exhibition experience with a scientific study, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own internal journey as they engage with the artwork. Some of the art is AI generated, some is human-made. The question is: How much will this information change your experience?

We invite you to explore the artworks and then scan the QR code below to participate in the research study. As you move through the gallery space, you will encounter screens where you will see the outcome of the research study thus far, including its inclusion of your real-time response.