The pun was too easy – and waiting until reaching issue 2001 did not seem viable. 201: An odyssey. Twenty-three years of issues discussing multimedia, technology and, in short, creativity. A long journey that began when our relationship with digital technology was another. Through many articles, we have followed how these changes have affected the world of multimedia creation, art and design. An odyssey, certainly, that we do not want to see the end of.
Issue 201 is, well, one more step in that journey. But it is, at the same time, a very special issue, with texts that perfectly combine the analytical capacity of these days – so marked by the emergence of generative artificial intelligence – and also of creative practices. Combining a selection of internationally renowned authors and an excellent editorial team makes this possible.
Lev Manovich, Joan Rosés and Cory Doctorow offer us three deep and fascinating views into the world of creation and AI. In“‘Make it New’: AI, modernism and database art”, Manovich proposes understanding the art created with AI in relation to other artistic practices that have worked with collage and composition from pre-existing works. From this point of view, it is merely the consequence of a new accumulation of cultural artefacts that become accessible on a large scale; with a given artistic purpose and the right tools, it can be a very valid source of artistic creation. In “The wild machines”, Rosés highlights the inherent uncertainty programmed into AI’s heart. That is why he says it is a wild technology and, therefore, questions the uncritical acceptance that is being granted to it as a tool. AI errs not because it is still imperfect but because this error is inevitable. And while this may have an unquestionable artistic inspirational value, in professional environments where precision is imperative, this error creates perplexity. Finally, in “AI art and uncanniness”, Doctorow wonders whether AI’s creations can be considered art in their own right, considering AIs lack real agency – even though they know how to fake it –. In an extensively documented article, which also has the virtue of reminding us that the natural text of the website is hypertext, the author makes an invaluable argument about the right to access to information and the right to creation, both from a philosophical and a more practical labour rights point of view, warning us of the dangers of future legislations which, under the guise of protecting authors, may actually end up restricting them even more, further protecting instead those whom the law always protects.
While keeping up with AI, in “A speculative assemblage”, artist Weidi Zhang presents her digital art projects, where through a series of collaborations with people from other areas of knowledge, she explores several ways to relate to one another through language, memory and our environment. Finally, the artist duo Santi Vilanova and Eloi Maduell, Playmodes, invite us to rethink the writing and musical experience itself in “A Geometry of Time”. Following some of their latest works and the creative process behind them, they accompany us on a creative and intellectual journey through the various aspects of sound, from the roars of a Harley-Davidson to their visual music creations.
Interestingly, both Zhang and Playmodes finish their items by taking us to outer space, discussing audiovisual experiences with the stars at the centre. In Mosaic we do not aim so high. For now, we stay with our feet on the ground but without renouncing the stars we have, sometimes very close and sometimes in the other corner of the world, as is the case with some of the people signing the articles in this new chapter of the odyssey: issue 201.
Recommended citation: SOLER-ADILLON, Joan. 201 – An odyssey. Mosaic [online], October 2024, no. 201. ISSN: 1696-3296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7238/m.n201.2401
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