AI in art and culture
Humanity has devised Artificial Intelligence in their arts and culture for centuries now. Going back to the 16th century Rabbi Loew created the famous golem, which was made entirely from inanimate matter and magically came to life, and has have had a massive influence on the pop culture to come from “Frankenstein” to “Black Mirror”.
And it is the boon of Artificial Intelligence that we have been able to live up to the hopes and dreams of our ancestors which they had presented through their form of media which we see unfold in front of our eyes.
And not only living in the future of our ancestors, but AI has allowed us to live in their present as well, by restoring and preserving the arts and records of historic sites in the form of 3-D models and more. In Paris at the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, Microsoft has partnered with Iconem and HoloForge and has created a life-like immersive experience with the help of AI, paying Homage to French Icon Mont-Saint-Michel. And Artificial Intelligence is also leading the way in restoring the great pieces of art that have been mutilated by the sands of passing time.
Artificial Intelligence, with the help of sentiment analysis, has taken a step beyond preserving and restoring art and has revolutionized the way we view art. Be it the enigmatic face of “Mona Lisa” or the apathetic faces of Buddha, AI has allowed us to view all of this in a new light by capturing even the slightest traces in the statues, which might portray the sculptor’s mood during the creation of the beauty and provide meaning to even the drabbest aspects of life, reaffirming the beauty of it all. Researchers in Japan have analyzed 200 statues of Buddha, including the perplexing expression of the Ashura Buddha at the Kofuji Temple in Nara. “To provide people with a means for reaffirming the beauty of Buddhism,” was the actual aim of the project according to Professor Syun’ichi Sekine.
Not only that but with the help of Artificial Intelligence, centuries-old language can be restored and preserved. In southwestern Mexico, Microsoft has engaged in efforts to preserve languages spoken in the region, specifically Yucatec Maya and Queretaro Otomi. By harnessing the powers of Artificial Intelligence, the team has been able to protect endangered languages.
Preserving the past has indeed been a work of which AI is carrying its fair share of the burden, but the scope of Artificial Intelligence goes beyond that. And actually, it wouldn’t be fair to merely ask what AI has done for art but also what art has done for AI. As mentioned at the start, it is the art and imagination of humanity, in its literature, philosophy, music, graphic and cinematic representation which has shaped today’s world, pushing us to the boundaries of advancement in the way we experience the world around us.
AI has pushed our limits in all manners, by creating the most vibrant of arts or the most extraordinary symphonies, one could barely imagine. “Recoding CripTech,” a recent exhibition curated by Vanessa Chang and Lindsey D. Felt at SOMArts in San Francisco, reimagined the human body’s potential through new kinds of social and sensory interactions with technology, challenging the so-called “universal subject” (historically assumed to be white, male, and able-bodied). One of its pieces, for example, allowed spectators to engage with an AI-enabled notebook in order to mimic the artist’s non-neurotypical memory recall process. Another experience, named “Borderless” by TeamLab, is an AI-enabled genre-bending experience that develops empathy and goodwill for others as users go through the art and the art builds links and relationships with humankind.
And artists of traditional form have not been hysterical about these changes in their world but rather beautifully incorporated it into their work, expanding the traditional notion of art into a framework which could have left Van Gogh and Picasso speechless at the depth of the notion and the mindboggling blend of the artforms if they were present here with us today.
Science is something humanity needs to survive and prosper, Art and Culture is something that humanity wants to survive and prosper for. And AI has been working towards making it even more transparent than it ever was, transcending above the artificial boundaries, opening a new door of thought.