Description
Creative Coding: Generative / Algorithmic Art and the Exploration of Authorship and Authenticity
Moderated by: Casey Reas and Bonnie Mitchell
The September SPARKS is focusing on artists that work with computer code to express critical and creative ideas in unique and innovative ways. The works presented are related to generative, algorithmic and creative code practices as well as issues of authenticity (as exemplified by NFTs), and authorship (which has been challenged by AI).
The information age was ushered in with a radical disruption to the definition of art and authenticity. In the 1960s, pioneering artists began writing computer code to create their art. By collaborating with, and controlling the computer to produce the work of art, these artists challenged society’s notion of authorship and authenticity. Most code could be easily replicated to produce similar results without the original hand of the artist. Code that went beyond basic commands and involved randomness, artificial intelligence, and machine learning produced works that superseded artistic intent and shared agency with the machine.
Today, computer code plays an important role in the production of a wide variety of types of artworks including interactive art, design, algorithmic art, animation, generative art, architecture, internet art, and so much more. Computer code does more than define the output of a work of art, it enables the artist to explore complex systems such as chaos, order, complexity, simplicity, regenerative processes and other dynamic systems that sometimes defy human comprehension. Through coding, the artist is free to break free of the limitations and constraints of software and traditional media and invent novel solutions to creative problems.
The controversy and excitement surrounding NFTs has also sparked a resurgence of interest in the issue of authenticity of a digital entity. As an artform that has traditionally had little to no economic value on the market, digital art produced using code or otherwise, is now sometimes sold for millions. How did this happen? Authorship is also being challenged as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANS) create works of art replicating existing styles. Artists using these systems often relinquish some artistic control to a system that was created using machine learning algorithms and now no longer needs them to direct the whole process.
Presenters and Speakers:
• Authorship and Distribution of Source Code in Creative Coding Works: Problems and Potentials – Amy Alexander
• The Zombie Formalist – Ben Bogart
• Piping Workflows, Or Outputs to Inputs and Back – Romello Goodman
• StyleGan2 – Who Owns This Image? – Shawn Lawson
• Asking a Shadow to Dance: Creating Poetic Spaces through Interactive Typograp – Priti Pandurangan
• Shared Ideas, Grief and the Daily Practice of Drawing with Code – Alexandre Villares
• Achieving the Interplay of Visual and Music with Creative Coding – Rebecca Ruige Xu – Sean Hongsheng Zhai
https://dac.siggraph.org/sparks/2021-09-creative-coding-generative-algorithmic-art-and-the-exploration-of-authorship-and-authenticity/