What Is the Role of Art in the AI Era? National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art to Host ‘Handmade AI’ International Symposium

[Financial News] An international symposium exploring the possibilities of art created jointly by artificial intelligence (AI) and humans will be held. Participants will discuss the significance of human sensibility in the creative process and the role of art museums in the AI era.
According to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art on the 3rd, ‘Handmade AI’ will be held at the MMCA Multipurpose Hall at the museum’s Seoul branch from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the 13th. Five experts from Korea and abroad in the fields of art, culture and media will take part in presentations and discussions. The event will revisit the meaning of ‘handmade’—making and creating by hand—in an era when AI generates outputs on its own.
The keynote address will be delivered by N. Katherine Hayles, a theorist of digital culture and posthumanism. Focusing on the cognitive processes of humans and AI and the relationship between them, she will present a perspective that views AI as an artistic collaborator.
Shin Hye-rin, an associate professor at Korea University College of Media & Communication, will analyze cultural phenomena generated by AI and the relationship between technology and humans through the question, ‘Whose hand is it?’ Innovation design expert Ryan Ho will explore the possibilities of technology and art through a case of collaboration with the National Gallery Singapore.
Artist Trevor Paglen will examine the nature of images and their relationship to human perception, drawing on his recent book, ‘How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI.’
Paglen previously exposed biases in AI training data through the project ‘ImageNet Roulette.’ The work showed how data used to classify people could contain discrimination related to race and gender.
Artist Kim Heecheon will share his process of creating artworks using AI under the theme of ‘Pointless Acts.’ He will address the fractures and questions of perception that arise when AI intervenes in creative work rooted in intuition and sensibility. A general discussion moderated by Leeji Hong, a curator-researcher at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, will follow the presentations.
Admission is free, and advance reservations are available on the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s website on a first-come, first-served basis for 250 people.
Yoon Tae-wook, acting director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, said, “This is an opportunity to explore together the role and direction of art and art museums in the age of artificial intelligence.”

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