this project was created with the help of five fantastic tutors and generative AI, and was inspired by fear, awe, and the module prompt: ‘subjectivity, objectivity, and power’. the author found that out of all of the ideas she had come up with for the project, nothing spoke to that prompt quite like AI does:
a technology that is touted as the great democratiser, capable of objective machine learning, and is often more capable than 100 humans combined seems like the perfect fit.
AI seems like a lot of things, indeed. but through the course of her module, she learned that all is not as it seems.
AI, created and trained by us, is too, a subjective entity. these tools, which offer magic-adjacent powers to their users, are, like many things, most accessible to the elites. and while its capabilities may be more extensive than ours at times, its creativity and knowledge is taught and mimicked; inauthentic.
by mixing analogue techniques with generative technology, the author created two videos and three series of images to investigate and express her aversion towards AI, while considering where subjectivity, objectivity and power fit in to each unique part of the project.
her chosen medium for the still images is collage, with many parts of it generated by AI, and others shot or sourced by the author.
her moving images offer two versions of the same ‘story’: one created solely by humans, one featuring 100% AI-generated visuals.
one thing that she would like her readers to know is that creating AI-generated content is not the easy way out. it requires technical knowledge and skill, and at this point in time, a fair bit of money. just things to consider…