AI art as a hyperobject-like portal to global warming

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Abstract

This paper situates artificial intelligence as a vehicle that can allow human agents to engage with complex issues such as global warming. Drawing on Timothy Morton’s conceptualisation of global warming as a ‘hyperobject’ which, by its very nature, resist knowability on a human scale, I consider the extent to which AI, when it is itself approached as hyperobject-like, can become a useful medium for engaging critically with the issue of global warming. The argument, then, is not that AI can make global warming human-knowable, but that through AI, human agents can access the quasi-unknowability of global warming. I begin by surveying Morton’s theory of the hyperobject and its valence in critical discourse on contemporary/digital art, and then explore the positioning of AI as hyperobject-like. This discussion is bookended by analysis of a representative artwork, Tega Brain et al’s Asunder (2019), which, as I argue, addresses global warming issues by incorporating AI as a hyperobject-like technology.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationxCoAx 2022
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 10th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X
EditorsMiguel Carvalhais, Mario Verdicchio, Luísa Ribas, André Rangel
Place of PublicationPorto
Publisheri2ADS
Pages104-116
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9789899049338
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Jul 2022
Event10th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X - Coimbra, Portugal
Duration: 6 Jul 20228 Jul 2022
Conference number: 10th
https://xcoax.org/

Publication series

NamexCoAx proceedings of the Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X
Publisheri2ADS
ISSN (Print)2183-9069

Conference

Conference10th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X
Abbreviated titlexCoAx 2022
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityCoimbra
Period6/07/228/07/22
Internet address

Keywords

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Global warming
  • Hyperobjects
  • Digital art
  • Anthropocene

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