Project proposal initial ideas: dogs and dolls

Many humans, including artists, have complex and nuanced views on AI.

I personally feel dual, and have empathy for members of the discussion on both sides. I appreciate AI's creative potential, and believe that it can be used as a tool to enhance and streamline the creative process as well as enable new forms of artistic expression. But I also have concerns about the impacts of AI on the art world, such as job displacement, homogenization of styles, or questions around authorship and ownership.

The truth is, as with most things, that there is no binary answer. 

Being able to hold pro and anti ideologies around a subject is a reflection of critical thinking, a valuable life skill that allows us to analyse, evaluate and share information objectively and rationally: often challenging assumptions along the way, including our own.

Creating work that holds both pro and anti-AI conversations in parallel allows me to articulate my own current best understanding and explore the complication inherit in the issue. 

I was already resolved to talk more about AI via my work this year. And there is a wonderfully serendipitous opportunity to feature in an AI themed external show next year, in collaboration with Kate Whyles. At the moment I feel drawn to create two interrelating yet separate bodies of work:

1.) A series of screen-prints that use AI generated images to explore the tension between perception and reality.

2.) An interactive installation that features an art doll and a collection of mix tapes made by me; a piece that seeks to reclaim intimacy as an act of rebellion, inviting audiences into a slower exchange of presence, vulnerability and listening. 

I will chat more about each idea in separate blog posts.