Towards an Automated Art? Learning Machines, Human Creativity and Uncertainty
International Conference, Lisbon, 24 May, 2024
Cultural production is becoming progressively controlled by machine-made calculations. Computational tools in the form of algorithms and AI seem to be getting closer to the loop of producing, distributing, selling and validating artworks in a completely digital context. It is possible to predict that, in the near future, they will be able to make their own decisions and produce new creative forms without direct human hand intervention. The arrival of an entire synthetic creative system is drawing nigh.
While images abound and never-ending streams of data are becoming unachievable for humans, the need for reflection is more urgent than ever. The predominant discourse has naturalised technology as neutral and unstoppable, favourable to all. Nevertheless, art might feature there not as a blind ally of technology, but as a necessary counterpart, a means of reflecting on the need and direction of its benefits through its use.
The widespread use of software tools and apps makes us dependent on our trust in technology while interacting with the real physical world. The search engines guide us in our navigation of the Internet, its platforms and databases, making things visible in the virtual digital world. How are they programmed? By whom? To see what?
Are we finally entering a new art ecosystem where artists are as replaceable as images? Are we becoming immersed in a new mechanized and financialized art system where artworks can be rapidly produced, consumed and wasted? Can human creativity survive in this context? Can machines really learn how to make art?
This conference is a collaboration between Institute of Art History, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Universidad de León (Spain): Instituto de Humanismo y Tradición Clásica and Grupo de Investigación de Estudios Literarios y Comparados. Insólito, Género y Humanidades Digitales;  Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa; Museu Zer0, Tavira; e MAAT, Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia, Lisboa.

Important dates

- Deadline for extended abstract submission - 22 March, 2024
- Notification of acceptance – 15 April, 2024
- Final programme – 30 April ,2024
- Registration deadline – extended until 22 May, 2024 (Last days!!)
- Conference - 24 May, 2024
Organisation
IHA is funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the project UIDB/00417/2020, DOI 10.54499/UIDB/00417/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/00417/2020).
Partners