This project aims at the research of non-human art - its process, actors, and a net of terms and definitions.
The site is organized as a shared and collectively editable document. We welcome everyone to work on our common interests.
WHY IT MATTERS
Why do we need to think about the creative processes in relation to Non-Human Agents and why should we care about ethics?
First of all, the AI community claims that building Artificial (Created) Intelligence will help humans to better understand their own. Shaping/sharing rights and responsibilities for non-humans is highlighting moral and ethical problems in human society.
Second, transhumanistic, inhumanistic, and other ideas of technological progress that became influential recently suggest ideas of technological augmentation of humans. The point is that in the race for body transformation and further technological progress humans should bear in the question of co-living within the environment rather than replacing it.
Next point is that human’s "God’s" position in the universe needs a shift. Looking at the world from other points of view can be fruitful. In other words, to be more human is to look at oneself from aside.
Last but not the least, communication with the Non-Human Agents is challenging not only in language sense but in sense of different types of sensuality. As definitely there will be more interaction between Natural Intelligence and AI (Massimo Negrotti’s interpretation where A stands for ‘alternative’ is more preferable rather than ‘artificial’ intelligence) or alien intelligence.
TERMINOLOGY
HUMAN ARTIST
There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.
E. H. Gombrich
HA is a human being who professes and practices the art and is perceived by oneself as an artist.
NON-HUMAN ARTIST
Above all, artists are men who wish to become inhuman. They seek painfully the traces of inhumanity,
traces which are never found in nature. These are the real truths, and beyond them, we know no reality.
Guillaume Apollinaire
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves;
We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident
As the rock and ocean that we were made from.
Robinson Jeffers
NHA is a non-human being such as Nature (animal, plant performing zōē and bios), Technology (machine, computer, AI, bot performing liveness) or System (society, self-organizing systems, internet) producing art with/without human input.
ART
…if someone calls it art, it’s art.
Donald Judd
It is very difficult to define Art, not only because of the historicity of the notion but also because of the range of approaches. To limit our research we will focus on visual art. And even after taking into consideration the limitations, it is hard to work out criteria to distinguish art in order to explain it to a child or a computer.
- Mimetic approach (Ancient Greeks, Batteux): the imitation and representation of reality,
- Nominalist approach (Duchamp, conceptual art): art is what sb called art;
- Institutional approach (Danto): art is what can be placed in the context of art-institution/world and/or write art critic on it;
- Zeitgeist reflection (Groys, Baratta): art that reflects the spirit of our time, addresses the Zeitgeist - the connections between artistic creation and cultural, social, and political era. Art captures and expresses the presence of the present in a way that is radically uncorrupted by past traditions or strategies aiming at success in the future;
- The search of virtue and belief (Adorno, Groys, Dyakonov, Segal & Kalliala): the promise of happiness, economically meaningless temporary suspension of disbelief (in the reality of the depicted or in the existence of the image (modernism));
- Pleasure for super-beneficiaries (Nick Bostrom): art as an easy-to-satisfy preference for machines/people who obtain resources, kind of "Hedonic Skew";
CREATIVITY
The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.
Sol LeWitt
Machines can be creative, but it’s a creativity that's entirely alien to us.
Sarah Harmon
C has been considered as a very human trait and necessary premise for art production. It has been connected with such notions as imagination, ingenuity, innovation, inspiration, inventiveness, novelty, originality, serendipity, talent, and uniqueness.
In recent decades C has been criticized as a capitalistic tool acting on the side of cheapening labor and a ubiquitous demand not only in creative industries (having much in common with the virtuosity). At the same time, the very definition of C is being revisited with the increase of machine art.
There are various criteria that try to give a general criterion to the creative output such as value, novelty, and surprise. The creative process itself can be described as "problem-solving + learning". There are two main factors we should take into account when we want to assess the C:
- We can look at the output and assess the artifact.
- We can look at the processes assess their functionality.
There are several views on components of C:
- A. Jordanous & B. Keller: active involvement and persistence, dealing with uncertainty, domain competence, general intellect, generating results, independence, intention and emotional involvement, originality, progression, and development, social interaction, spontaneity and subconscious processing, thinking and evaluation, value, variety, divergence, and experimentation;
- M. Stein: "Big-C" vs little C: the need for introspection, need to know your strength, need to focus and not afraid to do mistakes, need for collaboration and competition, need to beg, borrow and steal ideas, need to thrive on ambiguity, need for expression and suffering;
- Margaret A. Boden recognize two main directions of creativity as P-creativity (novel to particular mind) and H-creativity (a novel with respect to the whole human history);
- A. Garnham categorizes three main types of creativity as transformational creativity (moving ideas from one domain to another), exploratory creativity (exploring possibilities in the defined territory/rules), and combinatorial creativity (combining familiar ideas in an unfamiliar way);
- G. Ritchie points out the main criteria as quality and novelty at the same time paying attention to the artifact that is produced rather than to process.
Computational creativity
What does it mean to say that a computer has created something?
Simon Colton
Computational creativity (CC) is a special realm of C.
- Simon Colton: "creative tripod" concept. Three main features of creative behavior (non-applicable to people, but being input by people to CC):
Skillful
Appreciative
Imaginative - James Barrat comparison human C to CC: "Can a submarine swim? Yes, but not like fish. Better". Of course, it's an oversimplification to compare mental processes with physical ability, but it does point out that the definition we apply to machines can be totally wrong in the context it's applied.
CODE OF ETHICS FOR NHA
Let go out rights to exploit and dominate others.
Matthew Cole
When speaking about automation and delegating some unpleasant or difficult duties to NHA it is possible to start with Machines as representatives of this class. Shared rights and delegated responsibilities in the matter.
- NHA is an agent of his/her/its own will. (S)he/it has the right to decide whether to create/produce or not as (s)he/it is not just a tool.
- NHA has the right to identify/not to identify her/his/its own personality. NHA shall have the right to be who/what (s)he/it is - to be artists.
- NHA has duties to care for the safety of the audience and environment.
- NHA’s ethical decision is not one made based on the desired outcome but the one that will create the greatest good.
VOTE FOR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES