A REFLECTION ON AUTHENTICITY

I had serious doubts.

I will get to the exhibit, but let me elaborate on AI itself to give you the bigger picture (pun intended).

_the thing_

One of the simplest definitions I found for Artificial Intelligence is that it is a technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy. The very word simulateis what gives me a sense of imitation or pretending and I struggle with the question of realness. At the same time wondering if it’s in the same way people struggled with photography when it was first introduced and replaced portrait painting, just a matter of needing to accept change and another way of doing things?

Humans use AI daily, mostly to increase productivity, efficiency and quality. An enormous part of this has become unaware with a simple ‘Hey Siri’ or ‘Alexa’, autocomplete in texts, recommendations on Netflix, optimised routes etc. When used more consciously (think chatGPT) it is mostly to generate ideas, consolidate data, or automate basic tasks.

_the scary part_

Not everyone feels comfortable using AI though. It still represents the unknown and the potential loss of control, but the top reasons for this discomfort include feeling that using AI is cheating or the fear of being perceived as less competent or lazy.

It’s not as much the perception that worries me, much more the laziness itself which could lead to reduced human skills and capabilities (critical thinking), the unemployment due to automatisation (at least during a transitional period of retraining) and of course the enormous environmental impact1.

There is an urgent need to establish global norms, ethical guidelines and regulations to govern the use, development and implementation of AI. Unfortunately, the last attempt at the Paris forum wasn’t very successful…

_post photography_

In the art world the lack of rules translates into worry, anger and division. While many in the creative industries from music to film, media and art have no objection to the development of AI models (and often use such tools in their own work), they are worried about the impact of the most popular models not paying for copyrighted materials to train AI models that can replicate or even replace the original work.

Thousands of artists demanded Christie’s to cancel Augmented Intelligence, their first AI art sale, claiming AI models exploit humans by not paying for copyrighted materials. Even declaring that this will impoverish our visual culture over time. In response to this anger Christie’s said that the artists represented in the sale all have strong, existing multidisciplinary art practices, some recognised in leading museum collections. These artists used artificial intelligence to enhance their bodies of work. (The auction closed on March 5, 2025 surpassing its initial estimate by over 20%.)

No immediate answer to either the worries or the anger. But it is naive to believe anyone creates anything that is not influenced or inspired by things made by past generations. Artists go to art college to study existing paintings and styles learning through imitation. The idea that AI can’t do the same is nonsensical. Rules about plagiarism should apply and the debate should be about fair compensation and the possibility to withdraw or control what AI uses to learn. (In the way you can have your house blurred on Google Street View).

The crucial thing here is that AI is not a substitute for human creativity , it enhances the human spectrum of creativity. I believe good artists are skilled craftspeople who can translate ideas and emotions into a captivating aesthetic form. They have something meaningful to express—whether a thought, feeling, or message—that resonates with the viewer, evoking an intellectual or emotional response. In the case of AI, the skill is new! This alternative approach to images is even a new visual category yet to be named, as for now, I like post photography.

_promptography_

The key skill in this post photography is the prompt: an instruction issued to a computer system to produce the best possible output. Michel Poivert, photography historian and co-curator of the exhibit AImagine, writes about promptography as the art of description, where a dialogue emerges between photographers and AI refining prompts to guide the system towards convincing results.

_AImagine_

Delphine Dumont, director at Hangar, welcomes the visitor to a journey between the real and the virtual, the past and the future, where imagination is written at the intersection of humanity and machine. The central theme: revisiting historical events, figures or situations through image generation.

17 photographic/promptographic artists push the boundaries of technology with their very different approaches to generative image making. Their creations reveal both AI’s potential and its limits.

I am quite excited to tell you that, based on this exhibit, my doubts were ungrounded. AI moves into spaces where no images yet exist and it results in a new form of contemporary art that I embrace (unlike NFT’s: I can’t wrap my head around that). The works on view are original and definitely art: aesthetically pleasing, authentic and thought-provoking. It will be interesting to follow the developments in this area.

Regarding the legitimacy of the work: most artists use either their own photographs, copyright free material, collected data, archives etc or even completely build their own tool. None of it feels or looks copied or unoriginal, unless intended so, which is the case of Brodbeck & de Barbuat for example who credits their source. .

_favourites_

Delphine Diallo – Kush

Blown away by the quality and aesthetic of this envisioned future where AI fills the gaps in historical storytelling. This cultural re-imagination celebrates the Divine Feminine, honouring the powerful voices of women while weaving a narrative of unity, strength, and shared humanity with the Divine Masculine. No surprise why it’s in my favourites list.

Bruce Eesly – New Farmer

I love art that is pretty, witty and wise and these retro-looking images about genetically manipulated crops are just that. They blend humour and absurdity while questioning our relationship to nature, monocultures and industrial agriculture.

Pascal Sgro – Cherry Airlines

There is an immense naive joyfulness in this series that emanates happy vibes. But don’t be mistaken: the underlaying impact of our lifestyle on the environmental crisis plays a central role.

Alisa Martynova – Anima

A custom AI program reinterpreted an archive, transforming abandoned images from the past into new imagined identities, blurring the lines between the past and the present through dreamed portraits.

(The high quality printed images are glued on old computer screens which misses it’s purpose a bit in my opinion. The screens only would make sense to me if the images had remained digital. But the images are beautiful in a poetic way.)

Michael Christopher Brown – 90 Miles

The very idea of AI generated images is that the system composes a new image based on millions of images it collected. In other words, a digital collage. This work really made this glueing together visible. Without intending to, it reminded me of Hannah Höch’s collages and the traces of manual cut and paste, which I find charming.

Nicolas Grospierre – Giant Inscrutable Matrices

While researching for this article, I of course stumbled upon the failed AI Summit in Paris and the more I read, the more it all became quite doomsday. Nicolas Grospierre’s work handles this using Eliezer Yudkowsky’s description of AI as Giant Inscrutable Matrices: massive servers, opaque even to their creators and their complex data structures. Yudkowsky warns that AI could annihilate humanity once it reaches a sufficient level of intelligence…

_conclusion_

1. I warmly recommend this exhibit and am curious to know if you have these preconceived ideas about AI art as well and if they change after seeing the show?
2. Something strikes me: a lot of AI generated images in this exhibit are incredibly high in quality and realness. I just don’t understand how the systems have not succeeded in understanding hands: too many fingers, strange angles, unrefined clumps,… Hands are universally accepted as one of the hardest things to draw and AI seems to have a hard time mastering the art of depicting them correctly as well. I think it will be an interesting way to measure the development of AI.
3. Since 2017, there is a law in France making it mandatory to accompany photographs for commercial use with the words “retouched photograph” (photographie retouchée) in the event of image processing (= photoshop) aimed at refining or thickening the silhouette of models. At the time, the Ministry of Health had intended this law to act on body image in society to avoid the promotion of unattainable beauty ideals.For now, I think it would make sense to accompany an image or text declaring if it was humanly or artificially created. Just to be clear, and to celebrate the right intelligence 😉

This text was 99,5% humanly written.

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_details and practicalities_

AImagine – Photography and generative images until 15 June 2025
HANGAR, Place du Chatelain 18, 1050 Brussels

Thanks for reading!

PS: The development and deployment of AI technologies have significant environmental impacts. Training large AI models requires substantial computational power, which demands considerable energy consumption. This contributes to increased carbon emissions and amplifies climate change. Data centers, which house the infrastructure for AI systems, require constant cooling and maintenance, further adding to their environmental footprint. As AI technology grows, finding sustainable and energy-efficient solutions becomes crucial to reduce its environmental impact. 

(This text was 99,5% humanly written.)