Conflictual Creativity in Art Education in the Generative AI Era: Reclaiming Resistance and Student Agency

Abstract

This study proposes ‘conflictual creativity’ a new concept in generative AI art education that emerges in micro-moments when students critically evaluate AI-generated images and consciously reject them with “this is not what I want”—moments characterized by subjective judgment, active resistance, and creative transformation. Conflictual creativity manifests in the process where students reject, modify, and recreate AI-generated outputs when they do not align with their intentions. It represents subjective practice that realizes individual intention through active intervention and resistance toward automation. This represents a fundamental shift in the subject of creativity: from the creator-centric paradigm to an intervener-centric one, where autonomous judgment emerges through interaction with automated outputs. To verify this concept, a pilot project with elementary students at a Seoul art education center analyzed four stages—judgment, resistance, transformation, and responsibility. The results revealed high levels of technical and aesthetic responsibility (86.7–93.3%), while ethical responsibility remained notably low (20–27%). This gap demonstrates that students need to develop a deeper understanding of the responsibility that accompanies their choices in AI art education. This means that in AI-based art education, systematic teacher intervention helps students move beyond simple technical fixes to build ethical and independent judgments. This support helps maintain ‘conflictual creativity’ in art education during the age of AI.