Expanding Possibilities in Art through AI

Dall-e (AI) output from prompt for “Wild and hallucinogenic” trees

AI will open art to new possibilities and expand the space of ideas, according to several artists.

In the fall of 2023 I interviewed seventy-four artists, across domains — visual arts, music, theater, film, writing — to explore the role and impact of AI on the arts and creativity. Instead of answers, what emerged was a rich array of perspectives, insights and deeper questions about the nature of art, artists, and the creative impulse.

While prior posts in this series have explored concerns and questions about AI in art, in this post I share what some artists had to say about new possibilities and expanded boundaries, and how a few are already using AI in their art.

In visual arts

Timmy Ghiurãu, co-founder, The Point Labs, and practitioner in XR (extended reality) seeks new narratives and experiences that can build the future and suggests, “AI can do this.” He explains that, “With XR and AI, you can change perspectives, put someone in a [new] scenario. AI will make new reference points that we never imagined with our human minds.”

With AI, Painter Charlie Patton sees possible relief from convention: “[You] can be the most brilliant painter but can be kind of trite in the sense that your tree looks like everyone else’s tree. But overlaid with AI, you now can have something interesting and unique and meaningful.” 

In music and performance

In music, some expect to hear previously unimaginable combinations, like Freddie Mercury singing Don’t Stop Believing. A couple digital musicians I spoke with are beginning to experiment with AI to generate wholly new beats (digital sounds).

Some that I interviewed, like musician and bandleader Noam Eisen, foresee a time where live performers will perform along with something already produced and recorded by AI. Basically, AI interacts in the moment. Noam envisions “An AI musician is on stage, and that AI musician can adaptively create on the fly.” Musician Arya Zarrinkelk describes a scenario where  “AI creates a hologram or visual on the screen in the middle of a song, and if [the performer] has an inspiration, like, ’I want to sing Nat King Cole, Unforgettable,’ AI spits it out. All of a sudden [the performer is] going to do a duet right then and there.”

Other musicians I interviewed believe it will be a long time before AI is integrated into live performance, viewing it as a last frontier. They point to the more intimate nature of live performance and wonder if AI will detract from connection and the exchange of energy between performer and audience.

Actor and artistic director Jeffrey Binder sees AI increasing immersion across genres. “Stories in all forms are likely to become increasingly interactive,” he says. “Everything is going to have the potential to be experiential for an audience.” He calls it, “Terrifying and also so cool.” He imagines a scenario: “You want to be in a horror genre, a fantasy? AI is creating this unique experience for you” in the moment.

In addition to applying AI to make new music beats, some of the artists I interviewed are already using AI to create or enhance other art forms.

Cinematographer Mateusz Miroslaw Lis is using AI to augment storytelling in film. He used AI to help generate a feature-length film, The Diary of Sisyphus (2023), a first of its kind. View the trailer here.

Adam Chin is using AI to augment traditional photographs. He explores the boundaries of photography, including the interplay between a single photograph and a stack of related photographs. In his work, he poses the question, “What does a pixel know?” Check out his series on mug shots, portraits and more using machine learning. View Adam’s website.

Timmy works with clients to add layers of storytelling to complex data sets using AI. Here is an example from his involvement with Ouchhh, a pioneer in data paintings and sculptures. (For a particularly trippy data painting, see this one, AI Dali). Data paintings and sculptures can be extended with mixed reality, including eye tracking and gestures to further immerse the viewer in the experience.

The above developments are sure to intensify concerns, preferences, legal and aesthetic debates. Still, it seems inevitable that AI will increase the range of possibilities in art. In so doing, it is likely to inspire a new breed of artists in the mix and alter our styles and aesthetic.