AI Art Newsletter - 11 Jan 2025
AI Art Newsletter - January 11, 2025
Latest News & Developments
Artist Charlie Engman Finds Inspiration in AI Imperfections
An innovative approach to AI art has emerged as artist Charlie Engman explores the creative potential in AI’s mistakes and limitations, challenging the typical pursuit of technical perfection in AI-generated artwork. Read more
Netflix’s AI Art Controversies Continue
Netflix faces renewed criticism over its use of AI-generated art, particularly regarding AI-upscaled images in a true crime documentary and AI-expanded artwork for Arcane Season 2. Read more
Adobe Announces “Controls Era” Initiative
Adobe’s VP Alexandru Costin addresses digital artists’ concerns about generative AI art, suggesting upcoming changes in 2025 to provide more control over AI art creation. Read more
Metal Band Pestilence Defends AI Album Artwork
Dutch metal band Pestilence’s frontman Patrick Mameli continues to defend their use of AI-generated artwork for their retrospective album “Levels of Perception,” highlighting the growing tension between traditional and AI-generated art in the music industry. Read more
Upcoming Competitions & Exhibitions
AI-ARTS Competition - 3rd Edition
- Date: September 13, 2024
- Prizes: 1 Winner position, 4 Second-place positions
- Features permanent exhibition placement Learn more
Ars Artificialis AI Art Exhibition
- Location: Bristol Art Gallery
- Accepting works from both DIY and commercial AI art generators Learn more
SOLO AI AWARD 2024
- Global competition focusing on digital and new media art
- Emphasis on quality and artistic proposals Learn more
Major Funding Opportunities
STARTS Prize 2025
- Two €20,000 prizes
- Categories: Artistic Exploration and Innovative Collaboration Read more
Prix Ars Electronica 2025
- Submission deadline: March 5, 2025
- Golden Nica award up to €10,000 per category
- Features dedicated “Artificial Life & Intelligence” category Read more
STARTS Prize Africa
- Grand Prize: €15,000
- Five Awards of Distinction: €3,000 each
- Focus on creative technology projects addressing African challenges Read more
Publication Highlights
The AI Art Magazine Print Edition Launch
- 176-page publication
- Features 50 curated AI-generated artworks
- Includes 11 pieces with expert commentary from industry leaders Read more
Refik Anadol
Turkish artist and professor Refik Anadol is spearheading what appears to be the world’s first dedicated AI art museum in Los Angeles. This marks a significant milestone in legitimizing AI art within traditional art institutions.
Sougwen Chung
The former MIT Media Lab researcher has developed an innovative approach by training a robotic system using 20 years of their own artistic drawings. This unique human-AI collaboration is highlighted as part of London’s initiative to attract younger art collectors.
Stephanie Dinkins
The Kusama endowed chair in art at Stony Brook University’s College of Arts and Sciences delivered a notable talk on AI and art as part of the Provost’s Spotlight Talks series, demonstrating the growing academic recognition of AI art.
Mario Klingemann
The German artist has introduced Botto, an “inverse cyborg” system that autonomously creates and sells artwork. The project explores whether machines can be considered artists and has generated over $5 million in sales since 2021.
Trevor Paglen
| Featured in Aperture magazine’s Winter 2024 issue on Photography & AI, Paglen’s work “CLOUD #557 | Hough Line Transform; Hough Circle Transform” (2023) continues his exploration of AI systems and computer vision technologies. |
Joy Buolamwini
The artist and activist continues to make waves with her work on AI ethics and bias detection, particularly through her “Gender Shades” project and the impact of her documentary “Coded Bias.”
Recent LinkedIn Updates
Oonagh Murphy’s Post
Personal observation sharing positive impressions of Antwerp, Belgium as a creative and entrepreneurial city. The post reflects genuine personal experience rather than promotional content, noting the city’s startup ecosystem and creative atmosphere.
Omar Sanseviero’s Post
Omar Sanseviero announces that AI Studio, Open Models Success, and Gemini API are being acquired by Google DeepMind in 2025. The merger aims to accelerate development of accessible open models and developer tools, ranging from mobile-compatible models to cutting-edge research. The focus is on making top AI models more accessible to the broader developer ecosystem.
Daghan Cam’s Post
Daghan Cam announces their participation at the Additive Manufacturing Strategies conference in NYC in 2025, representing Aibuild. The post discusses the intersection of AI and manufacturing, referencing recent statements by Sam Altman and Jensen Huang about AI agents joining the workforce. While promotional in nature, it offers relevant industry insights about automation in manufacturing and includes a registration link (https://lnkd.in/es_x9Ybn). The post encourages discussion about the future of manufacturing automation and artificial superintelligence.
Alex Estorick’s Post
The post discusses the growing intersection of digital art and design, highlighting Alex Estorick’s new article in Artforum International Magazine’s Technology column. The article explores how Dunne & Raby’s model of critical and speculative design is influencing a new generation of artists who work with hybrid practices. The post includes mentions of various institutions and artists, including the Royal College of Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, and Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. The content is relevant to discussions about the evolution of contemporary art and design practices. No specific URLs or dates are provided in the original post.
Oonagh Murphy’s Post
Oonagh Murphy is planning to attend the American Alliance of Museums conference in Los Angeles in May and is seeking recommendations for:
Julie Ditetova’s Post
Professional year-in-review post for 2024 highlighting key achievements including speaking engagements (Creative Edge conference, AI Summit by Vogue), exhibition work (AFO Olomouc, CVPR Gallery), brand development (Resistant AI), and media features (Vogue Leaders). The post outlines professional contributions across AI, creativity, and technology sectors, including collaborations with various industry professionals and institutions. The post ends with gratitude and anticipation for 2025. The content is genuine, personal, and professionally relevant, showcasing career milestones and networking within the AI and creative industries.
Eduardo Ordax’s Post
The post humorously critiques the misleading naming conventions in the tech industry, particularly in AI and data fields. The author points out several examples where job titles and terms don’t literally match their traditional meanings (Data Scientist, Prompt Engineer, Solution Architect, AI Agents, OpenAI). While acknowledging that AI itself isn’t fraudulent, the post suggests that more accurate terminology might be needed to avoid confusion. The tone is light-hearted and includes relevant hashtags #AI #GenAI #data #ml for visibility in the tech community.
Oliver Molander’s Post
A tribute and reflection on the passing of DeepMind research scientist Felix Hill (aged 41) due to mental health challenges, following his October blog post about stress in modern AI work. The post emphasizes the importance of mental health awareness and support in the AI and tech communities, particularly as the field experiences rapid advancement and heightened public attention. The message advocates for creating an environment where mental health discussions are normalized and encouraged.
Varvara Guljajeva’s Post
Varvara Guljajeva announces her new academic appointment as Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Doha, Qatar. This appears to be a career update announcement shared at the start of a new year.
Mar Canet Sola’s Post
Artist Mar Canet Sola announces the final day of their robotic art installation ‘A Needle in a Haystack’ in Tartu, Estonia, which was part of the Tartu 2024 European Capital of Culture program. The artwork was on display during the Christmas period. The artist is seeking new venues for the installation and invites interested parties to make contact through direct messages. #tartu2024
Memo Akten’s Post
Memo Akten shares a philosophical reflection about biological complexity and announces “SUPERRADIANCE,” a collaborative art project with Katie Peyton Hofstadter. The project (available at superradiance.net) explores the interconnection between biological systems and emergence, featuring music by Akten. The work was supported by multiple prestigious institutions including Tribeca Film Festival, Getty PST, and Scripps Research. While promotional in nature, the post combines artistic and scientific themes, discussing complex biological systems and their relationship to consciousness, making it relevant for both artistic and scientific discourse.
Memo Akten’s Post
Memo Akten shares information about “SUPERRADIANCE,” an artistic collaboration with Katie Peyton Hofstadter (available at superradiance.net). The post begins with a poetic reflection on human cellular composition and announces details about Chapter 1 of the project, which features music by Akten. The work was supported by multiple prestigious institutions including Tribeca Film Festival, Getty PST, and the British Film Institute, among others. It appears to be a digital art project exploring themes of biology, artificial intelligence, and ecology through generative technology and machine learning.
Earlier this week, I wrote a piece with Peter Zhegin on opportunities for applying AI in the creative industries, published as How to take AI far beyond gaming in VentureBeat. As part of our research, we looked at 94 example company, corporate and academic initiatives using AI for search/discovery,
The post discusses an article published in VentureBeat about AI applications in creative industries, co-authored with Peter Zhegin. The authors analyzed 94 AI initiatives across different creative sectors, excluding gaming. They categorized AI applications into four main areas:
Or, if you put them all together, my experience of the NIPS conference can be summarized as the image below. Read along if you prefer words, details and creative applications of AI.
This is a detailed personal account of attending the NIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems) conference in 2016. The author shares key highlights including:
This weekend I organised Art Challenge - the ART x TECH hackathon, which saw art professionals, entrepreneurs, designers and developers join forces to build an arttech business from scratch in 24 hours. The event kicked off with an inspirational talk by Theodora Clarke from Russian Art and Culture,
This post describes an ART x TECH hackathon event that took place over a weekend (specific date not mentioned) where professionals from art, tech, and business backgrounds collaborated to create arttech businesses in 24 hours. The event featured:
One week to go before our ART x TECH hackathon at Central Working Whitechapel. It’s time to release the challenges from our project partners Artfinder, Sedition, Vastari and Gitoon.
This post announces an upcoming ART x TECH hackathon at Central Working Whitechapel, highlighting challenges from four project partners:
Payal Arora’s Post
Payal Arora shares her appreciation for being featured in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, thanking journalist Simoon Hermus for the article and photographer Eva Roefs for the photos. She mentions this coincides with her approaching 50th birthday and tags Utrecht University and its affiliated institutions. The post reflects professional recognition and personal milestone rather than promotional content.
World Economic Forum’s Post
The World Economic Forum post discusses the intersection of art and AI at #WEF25 in Davos, highlighting the tension between machine-generated creativity and human artistic expression. Artists Cristina Mittermeier and Sougwen Chung will explore this relationship through their exhibitions, addressing how human intuition and experience remain vital in the creative process despite AI advancement. The post includes a link to a detailed article by Joseph Fowler [https://lnkd.in/gZc6EB3k]. This content is relevant for understanding the evolving dialogue between technology and human creativity in the arts.
India Science Festival’s Post
Announcement for an upcoming fireside chat at India Science Festival featuring Prof. Payal Arora and Laura Herman, moderated by Dr. Krishna Ravi Srinivas. The discussion will focus on AI literacy, fairness, diversity, and making AI more inclusive and accessible. Event details: January 11-12, 2025 at Fergusson College, Pune. Registration available at https://lnkd.in/gVuAKVET
Inclusive AI Lab’s Post
The Inclusive AI Lab announces their participation in the India Science Festival in Pune, featuring co-founders Laura Herman and Payal Arora. The festival, with 20K participants, aligns with their mission of making AI accessible. Their AI co-lead Siddhi Gupta will conduct a Debiasing Data workshop. Interested parties can register at https://lnkd.in/eyWArMa4. The lab also invites newsletter signups at https://lnkd.in/eqC5rVdV to stay updated on their projects and opportunities. The post is associated with Utrecht University’s Faculty of Humanities and Centre for Global Challenges.
Luba Elliott’s Post
Luba Elliott shares her experience reviewing the book “Hands-On Generative AI with Transformers and Diffusion Models” by Omar Sanseviero, Pedro Cuenca, Apolinário Passos, and Jonathan Whitaker. She praises the book’s comprehensive explanations and practical guidance for working with transformers and diffusion models. The post includes a personal photo with co-author Apolinário Passos from their time at the Glitch Art & AI residency earlier in the year. The book is available at [https://bit.ly/41DFdZH]. While this is promotional in nature, it provides valuable first-hand insight from an industry reviewer about an educational resource in the AI field.
Memo Akten’s Post
The post describes an art installation called “Superradiance” by Memo Akten & Katie Peyton Hofstadter at Taikang Art Museum, Beijing. The artwork explores how humans connect with their environment through dance and movement, utilizing the concept of “embodied simulation” (related to mirror neurons). The installation creates an immersive experience where viewers can feel connected to invisible dancers and their environment, emphasizing our interconnectedness with nature. The project website is available at https://superradiance.net. While promotional in nature, the post provides valuable context about the artistic and scientific concepts behind the installation and its goals.
Caterina Moruzzi’s Post
The post promotes a SXSW London 2025 meet-up proposal focused on meaningful discussions about AI technology, moving beyond hype to address practical questions about its purpose and implementation. The proposal is a collaboration with multiple professionals as part of the BRAID UK program. Voting deadline is December 19th. More information available at: https://lnkd.in/g4SjidKM
Fattori M.’s Post
The Flickr Foundation shares insights from their Mellon Foundation workshops (Fall 2023) about ethical considerations in digital archival preservation, particularly focusing on networked photographic collections. The post announces the release of the first part of their “Data Lifeboats” research, with Part Two coming in 2024. The research examines responsibilities and best practices in long-term digital preservation beyond legal requirements. Read the full research at: https://lnkd.in/eKhTyCfK
Lucie Chateau, PhD’s Post
Call for submissions from UK artists working with AI and authenticity to display their work at the Edinburgh Arts Festival. Proposals must be submitted by December 29th. Note: Original post lacks the actual submission link/URL.
Wakanyi Hoffman’s Post
Wakanyi Hoffman shares insights from her keynote speech at a conference in Bangkok about integrating indigenous knowledge with AI for humanitarian action. The post emphasizes three key points: 1) The importance of recognizing and respecting indigenous knowledge systems rather than dismissing them, 2) The perspective that AI is a tool whose value depends on intention and human agency, and 3) The significance of real human stories behind data points in AI development. The message advocates for conscious collective participation in shaping AI technology while incorporating indigenous wisdom that prioritizes planetary wellbeing. Organizations mentioned include Start Network, Inclusive AI Lab, Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenges (UGlobe), Humanity Link, Seeds of Wisdom, and Grassroots Economics.
Inclusive AI Lab’s Post
The Inclusive AI Lab announces their new quarterly newsletter and website launch. The newsletter will cover lab milestones, research initiatives, consortium member achievements, and upcoming events including a new coalition initiative by co-PI Laura Herman and Google’s Paree Zarolia, an Inclusive AI Podcast launch, and Data CARE Workshop Series. The post includes a link to their website (https://lnkd.in/dpG7EdeM) where readers can subscribe to the newsletter. While promotional in nature, the content is relevant to AI industry professionals and researchers interested in inclusive AI development and initiatives.
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