AI Art, Performance, and Aesthetics

Co-taught by a media theorist and a theater historian, this seminar introduces students to key theories and debates around AI, art, and performance. Students will learn about artists who use machine learning and related algorithmic processes to create their work, as well as theorists, historians, and critics seeking to understand this fast-moving technology. Throughout the course, we will situate AI within a broader history of technical and aesthetic developments, including cybernetics, generative art, and aleatoric processes. AI art and performance is a complex and urgent subject that demands consideration of technological, artistic, social, political, and philosophical concerns. Together, we will discuss artists such as Refik Anadol and Stephanie Dinkins and theorists such as N. Katherine Hayles and Hito Steyerl, while also making field trips to Bay Area exhibitions as appropriate.