From instructions to intelligent synthesis: conceptual art, distributed creativity, and the posthuman turn in AI-powered artistic practices

Abstract

In recent years, the groundbreaking development of AI technologies such as text-to-image generation has revealed the unprecedented potential of machines in the realm of artistic creation. This has reignited and intensified widespread reflections on historical issues in artistic practice, including ontological questions, the identity of the author, the configuration of human–machine relationships, and the positioning of creativity. To address these concerns, this paper mainly seeks to draw inspiration from the important artistic thoughts of two conceptual artists who were active in the 1960s: Yoko Ono and Sol LeWitt. It also explores the interconnectedness and continuity between generative AI art practices and the legacy of conceptual art, tracing the historical trajectory of the relationship between conceptual art and digital art. Beyond the pivotal artistic practices of these two pioneering conceptual artists, the comparative analysis also encompasses the examination of additional associated artistic endeavors in relation to text-guided image synthesis. This broader scope of artists aims to more comprehensively support the argument on the impact of artificial intelligence on participatory frameworks and the concept of authorship within future creative practices. By delving into a discussion on dematerialization with conceptual art’s focus on concepts over material objects, the authors explore the potential for a posthumanist paradigm in AI art practices, to consider the reconfiguration of creativity in human–machine collaborations. Through speculative explorations of AI visualizations of Ono's and LeWitt's instructions and evaluating the role of "prompt engineering" in collaborative creation, new forms of distributed creativity that respond to posthumanist provocations are discovered. Leveraging the posthumanist emphasis on the “biological and microbiological entanglement with nonhumans”, this approach aids in dislodging the centrality of the individual or the artist within the creative process (Herbrechter 2023, p. 8). This critical examination highlights the disruptive potential of conceptual art in reshaping the notion of authorship within its symbiotic relationship with technological culture. It reveals the dynamic and co-evolutionary relationship between the conceptual art discourse and its reinterpretation within the emerging computational participatory structures of the artistic frontier. By drawing on the legacy of conceptual art, this study attempts to reconcile the tensions between conceptual completion, technological participation, artistic ontology, and distributed creativity, providing theoretical support for current AI art practices and driving the ongoing reconsideration of posthuman creative partnerships in technology mediated artistic production.