[Air-L] CfP: 4S Open panel on Creativity and AI

[Pranjali Mann]

Dear all,

Alberto Lusoli and Pranjali Mann are pleased to share the CfP for their open
panel at the upcoming *4S conference* in Seattle (September 3 – 7 2025).

The deadline to submit a 250-word abstract is January 31.



*Artificial creativity? Examining values and conceptualizations of
creativity as embedded in Generative Artificial Intelligence models*



Innovation and creativity have been used as levers to govern human labor,
structure workplaces, and implement production technologies in what has
been variously labelled as post-Fordist, disordered, and aesthetic
capitalism.

The history of the creative class has become intertwined with the
development of information and communication technologies, which opened
(seemingly) new possibilities for creative experimentation. From desktop
publishing to the rise of commercial internet, the emancipatory potential
of digital means of production and communication furthered such imaginaries
and visions of autonomous, non-alienated creative labor. This seems to have
been reiterated in recent years with the affirmation of social media, and
the commercial success of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI).
Although the current GenAI tools can only produce derivative works by
mining large datasets of multimedia content, their creative potential—real
or imagined—raises critical questions about conceptualization of
creativity, which is ever-changing to better fit its (technologically)
modelled and bounded nature. We ask, how does understanding of creativity
fit within the current development of GenAI technologies? Further, to what
extent do cultural and creative commodities generated by AI reflect or
depart from predominant styles and trends that are found in the datasets on
which these tools are trained? What would automation of creative labor mean
in such contexts?

We welcome papers dealing with questions and theories at the intersection
of creativity, labor, and computation. The panel discusses shifts,
including but not limited to, the workplace, creative industry, technology
and AI. Exploring historical dimensions and underpinning assumptions about
technologically mediated creativity, it poses questions about the influence
of AI on creative expression and cultural production.


*Organizers*: Pranjali J Mann (*pjm13 at sfu.ca <pjm13 at sfu.ca>*), Alberto
Lusoli (*alusoli at sfu.ca <alusoli at sfu.ca>*), Digital Democracies Institute,
Simon Fraser University


*Submission deadline*: January 31


*Submission platform*:
*https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_seattle.php
<https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_seattle.php>*


*Panel ID*: 127