Inspired by the canonical “Software Studies\a Lexicon” this ongoing project aims to create a ‘Lexicon of Generative AI’ to capture and share experiences of Generative AI as it is understood, applied, critiqued, and incorporated into creative practices.
Generative AI has brought new terms such as ‘Prompt Engineering’, ‘Latent Space’ and ‘Generative Adversarial Networks’. Often with roots in Computer Science and Software Engineering vocabularies, in use they sit between technical and creative languages. They are often as esoteric as they are explanatory. Part marketing jargon and part magical language.
A comprehensive set of definitions would be impossible and far less interesting and useful than understanding the myriad ways in which the emerging terms, concepts and processes of Generative AI are changing the creative landscape. This lexicon is particularly interested in the role of creative practice in critiquing as well as normalising emerging Generative AI technologies.
The speed with which phrases such as ‘text-to-image’ and ‘Neural Network’ have entered everyday use hints at an accelerated normalisation. We hope that this lexicon will provide a space to examine some of these concepts more closely, and for questioning some of the assumptions that underpin them.
Rather than ‘definitions’, this lexicon aims to provide understandings and perspectives on the key concepts of Generative AI practices by gathering reflections, critical responses and contextualisation through practice. Contributions should aim to be concise, providing an essential understanding of the chosen subject, but also present a particular perspective or position in relation to creative practice and the cultural landscape.
Chris Fry is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in London, UK. His practice has included working with mobile devices, code, bots and cross stitch. More recently it has explored drawing as a means of bridging between the analog and the digital.
In 2008 he completed a practice-led PhD at the Wimbledon School of Art entitled: ‘Perceiving Experience: accounting for the role of the audience in the construction of pervasive and locative artworks’.
He is currently the course leader for the BA Contemporary Media Practice and the MA Art and Emerging Technologies at the University of Westminster. He delivers practice and theory modules in areas including physical computing, creative coding, interactive media and new media theory.
Chad Eby creates work, by turns stark and whimsical, that explores humanity’s fraught relationship with made objects and technological processes.
Eby is a Lexington Kentucky-based multidisciplinary artist, designer, and educator working with light, sound, and code to engage with the grain of digital technologies.
Chad’s work has been shown at the Tekniska Museet in Stockholm, Generative Art XXII in Rome, New Media Fest in Valencia, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, TAG at the University of Western Florida, the Columbia College Center for Book and Paper, the Studio 300 Biennale at Transylvania University, and various local venues across the United States.
Contact email: submissions@lexiconia.art