Gabriella Manzenreiter

The Frankfurt School (Frankfurter Schule), a scientific and philosophical movement, emerged from the Institute for Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung) at the University of Frankfurt, founded 100 years ago. Led by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, the thinkers of the Frankfurt School were the first to attempt to develop theories that examined the impact of modern mass media on society. The term 'culture industry' was coined by Horkheimer and Adorno in their analysis of the collective functioning of mass media, with which they criticized the social influence of media mediated by technology in modern mass culture. Walter Benjamin also thought similarly about the impact of technological change. He argued that the technological impact on art also affects human perception, resulting in new creative processes, changing modes of reception, attitudes, and cultural changes. Benjamin was one of the first to examine the impact of technology on art and the ways in which art was created at the turn of the century. His essay, which builds on this issue, was published in 1936 under the title 'Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit' (The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility). Benjamin's critical thinking in the 20th century, and its impact on art and culture, defined the thinking about the nature of art, which still contributes to the examination of modern aesthetic, art theoretical, and literary theoretical questions. Concepts such as authenticity and 'aura' (Benjamin) in the age of digital, data-based works serve as starting points for the issues of the role, nature, and impact of contemporary art. The purpose of my research is to demonstrate, based on the Benjaminian theory, how technological reproducibility has become an integral part of artistic practice, and to analyze its cultural effects, which can serve as a basis for understanding the phenomena taking place in the art scene and cultural industry today, the impact of automated artistic processes in the 21st century, the relationship between the artist and the recipient, the change in the meaning of the concept of art, and the application of artificial intelligence in art.

The aim of my writing is to explore how, amidst our cultural changes and the impact of technological advancements, emerging artistic forms are reshaping the fields of art and our cultural heritage. I examine the inseparable role of humans in art focusing on how creators and audiences adapt to this evolving environment, as well as the transformation of cultural transmission methods. My objective is to highlight the critical approaches, meanings and potential purposes of digital, data-driven and automated art creations within the human-nature relationship.

Digital technologies, including the increasingly prevalent artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, offer opportunities in creative and art mediation practices while also raising questions regarding their application. The application of artificial intelligence presents challenges for cultural professionals, particularly in light of the ethical and social issues surrounding AI-generated art. When shaping institutional practices, decision-makers must consider societal processes that influence audience preferences. Alongside the evolution of art mediation methods, digital technologies also play a crucial role in cultural heritage preservation and conservation. In terms of application goals, AI tools enable the reconstruction or reinterpretation of cultural assets more accurately and rapidly than ever before. The aim of my research is to highlight current practices in art projects at both international and national levels, as well as to explore problems that shape artistic and cultural discourses in the context of AI implementation.

Is AI a genius, or is it rather a creative agent? The British artist Harold Cohen thought that a computer program might represent knowledge that leads to the act of making art. In 1973, he began developing AARON, a computer program designed to autonomously produce paintings and drawings. This project represents an early experiment in computational creativity. The emergence of such an autonomous generative system raised fundamental questions about the nature of art. The creative process resulted in tangible outcomes, suggesting that machines are capable of generating and representing in ways that appear analogous to artistic practice. But what do these creations represent? Furthermore, what constitutes creativity and artistic creation? In this paper, I explore the dimensions of human and machine creativity and the relationship between them, with the aim of creating a philosophical and conceptual framework that highlights their similarities, differences, and possible intersections, as well as the socio-cultural implications of machine creativity in the age of human-machine co-creativity.

The aim of this paper is to examine the question of whether a machine ‘genius’ can exist alongside human genius by analysing Immanuel Kant’s concept of genius. I explore the origin of genius and what we understand as fine art in the Kantian sense. In this paper I define how these two concepts are interconnected, and whether genius can be learned or produced in the form of machines. Furthermore, I discuss Kant’s view on science and how the process of creating art and science can be comparable and distinguishable, analysing how these two categories effect the shaping of the definition of genius, alongside I examine the etymology of the term ‘genius’. Based on Kantian concept of genius and fine art, I explore why the products of machines cannot be considered as fine art, and what are the principles of creating art as a genius. With the help of the Plato’s and Schopenhauer’s view, I also examine the source of genius and how these concepts align with the Kantian view. In my paper, I mention the problem of creativity in the terms of machines, and discuss how machines can simulate these capabilities. As a summary I argue the fundamental differences between the human’s and machine’s sources of knowledge.