This project explores questions of authorship and exhibiting: Can an image generated online be art? Who is the author of an artwork? Do artworks need authorship? How does a digital exhibition differ from an analog one? What makes an exhibition an exhibition?

As a collective, the class realizes a digital exhibition of their own images and AI-generated artworks (https://thisartworkdoesnotexist.com). It serves as a starting point not only to discuss questions of the exhibits’ authorship, but also to talk about the various organizational layers of exhibiting, both online or offline:
In a group discussion the individual aspects of curating/exhibiting such as – finding an original concept, artist support, questions in regard to the exhibition space and production, text work, ideas for an opening event, media reception and follow-up etc. – are collected and revalued. To follow up, the various tasks are then used to organize the online exhibition. The class can be divided into smaller groups, each taking responsibility for certain stages of the process (e.g. labeling, texts, documentation, opening speech, communication etc.), thus gathering experience in collective exhibiting.

• Discussion: What does authorship mean?

• Everyone generates 3–5 artworks on thisartworkdoesntexist.com

• The students choose artistic works for an online exhibition with ART.SPACES by Kunstmatrix: a selection of AI-generated artworks on the one hand, works created by students on the other. Interesting questions that arise here: How can the students’ works be digitalized? What could be chosen as the exhibition’s subject?

• Discussion: What is exhibiting? Identifying various work steps of curating and exhibiting

• The collected knowledge is applied: AI-generated images and the students’ own artistic works are exhibited together; the exhibition is “opened”

• „When artificial intelligence creates art. A study asks who deserves the most recognition in the process of creating AI art and examines what role the humanization of AI plays in this“, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  https://www.mpg.de/15455301/0929-bild-134137-artificial-intelligence-in-art-a-simple-tool-or-creative-genius1

Annabelle Strahl, studies at the Department Art and Education, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Author’s Encouragement
Both the web app ART.SPACES by Kunstmatrix and the website https://thisartworkdoesntexist.com are very hands-on to use. Engaging with them can be a starting point for discussing issues such as authorship and exhibiting as art practice in class. Everything that is discussed can then be applied practically, divided into different tasks.