The Future of Art / Avant-Garde as Software – keynoteat ISEA2025

1. Introduction

• Lev Manovich is a theorist and author in digital culture, associated with CUNY, NYC.

• His work focuses on generative media, data analytics, cultural software, and AI aesthetics

2. Title Slide

• Artificial Aesthetics: Generative AI, Art and Visual Media

3. Core Question

• Is art making still meaningful or necessary when AI can do it as well or better than humans?

4. Historical Context

• Art transformed in 1860, 1913, 1960s, and 2010s; AI might mark the next transformation, possibly rendering human art-making obsolete.

5. Contemporary Art’s Shift

• Modern art evolved from representation to abstraction to meta-discourse; AI may now alter the basic premise of human authorship.

6. Avant-Garde as Software (1999)

• Old media avant-garde introduced new ways to see;

• New media avant-garde introduced new methods to access/manipulate information (e.g. databases, simulation, search engines).

7. Post-media / Meta-media

• New media now uses existing media as its primary material.

• Focus is no longer on creating new forms but on recombination and reuse.

8. GenAI Alignment

• GenAI fits this framework by even more directly accessing and reconfiguring existing cultural content.

9. GenAI as Evolution

• Represents a continuation of the cultural shift from creation to transformation of existing materials.

10. Website/Instagram Overview

• Displays Manovich’s public talks, publications, Instagram archives (e.g. “AI Aesthetics?” “Ethics and Aesthetics of Artificial Images”).