AESTHETICS OF THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE CULTUROLOGICAL CONCEPT BY LEV MANOVYCH

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analyzing theory of AI aesthetics as a direction of the culturological studio by Lev Manovych which he began to actively develop since 2018. The article characterizes the approach introduced in the common work with Emanuele Arielli “Artificial Aesthetics: generative AI, art and visual media” (2024), where the authors research how generative AI transforms aesthetics understanding, creativity, design and acceptance of art. At the same time, the authors form an interdisciplinary field of study through the cooperation of six fields – aesthetics, philosophy and psychology of art, media theory, studios in digital culture and computer science, including Lev Manovych’s experience as an artist who works with AI. All these intentions and perspectives are synthesized to analyze what the authors call as a visual so as a cultural AI. Lev Manovych applies the term “visual AI” to refer to computational methods that use machine learning to create and edit visual content based on the vast number of images and videos found on the Internet, i.e. it is short for generative AI used to create and edit images, videos, and animations. Because the images generated by AI exist in a closed system of visual synthesis, we get fragments in a new system of cultural memory, which consists of private idiosyncratic image spaces, discrete and modular visual representations created with the help of CG. In conclusion, it is stated that AI aesthetics is not just a technological innovation, but a transformational shift in visual culture: The fragmentation, selective recombination, and synthesis initiated by generative AI reconfigure meaning, automate creativity, question realism, and actualize ethical and political dilemmas, revealing a deep contradiction in the aesthetic canon, forcing us to rethink established visions of the nature of images, how they function, and what role they play in society.