[Air-L] New book - AI Art: Machine Visions and Warped Dreams (open access)

[Joanna Zylinska]

Dear All,


I wanted to let you know that Open Humanities Press has just published my
new book, the contents of which will hopefully be of interest to the
readers of this list. Fittingly for our times, it discusses a world behind
windows and screens in which we all become part of a vapour-like global
labour force, no matter how creative our occupations or ambitions are.

AI Art: Machine Visions and Warped Dreams by Joanna Zylinska

Like all Open Humanities Press books, *AI Art* is freely available to
download:
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/ai-art/



Can computers be creative? Is algorithmic art just a form of Candy Crush?
Cutting through the smoke and mirrors surrounding computation, robotics and
artificial intelligence, Joanna Zylinska argues that, to understand the
promise of AI for the creative fields, we must not confine ourselves solely
to the realm of aesthetics. Instead, we need to address the role and
position of the human in the current technical setup – including the
associated issues of labour, robotisation and, last but not least,
extinction. Offering a critique of the socio-political underpinnings of AI, *AI
Art: Machine Visions and Warped Dreams* raises poignant questions about the
conditions of art making and creativity today.



The book critically examines artworks that use AI, be it in the form of
visual style transfer, algorithmic experiment or critical commentary. It
also engages with their predecessors, including robotic art and net art. *AI
Art* includes a project from Zylinska’s own art practice titled ‘View from
the Window’, which explores human and nonhuman forms of intelligence,
perception and action. The book closes with speculation on future art – and
on art’s future.



About the author


Joanna Zylinska is a writer, lecturer, artist, curator, and – according to
the ImageNet Roulette’s algorithm – a ‘mediatrix’. She is currently
Professor of New Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of
London. The author of a number of books on art, philosophy and technology –
including *The End of Man: A Feminist Counterapocalypse* (University of
Minnesota Press, 2018), *Nonhuman Photography* (MIT Press, 2017) and *Minimal
Ethics for the Anthropocene* (Open Humanities Press, 2014) – she is also
involved in more experimental and collaborative publishing projects, such
as *Photomediations* (2016). Her own art practice engages with different
kinds of image-based media.


All the best,
Joanna

-- 

Professor Joanna Zylinska

Co-Head of Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Goldsmiths, University of London

http://www.joannazylinska.net