The objectives of this introductory lecture are to enable participants to:
Explore the role of aesthetics in shaping daily experiences and understand its significance in personal and professional choices.
Trace the historical development of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline, from Baumgarten's initial concept to Kant's redefinition in the 18th century.
Investigate the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and aesthetics in the 21st century, examining how AI influences cultural choices and automates aesthetic creation.
Examine AI's impact on various creative endeavors, including music recommendation systems, image and video editing, and the generation of new synthetic artifacts.
Evaluate debates surrounding the true creative capacity of AI, considering recent developments such as the completion of symphonies and the generation of AI art.
Analyze the nature of creativity in the context of AI-generated art, exploring questions of authorship, collaboration between humans and machines, and the boundaries between human and machine creativity.
Discuss perspectives on AI art, ranging from non-human-centred views to exploring autonomy in the post-digital age, and understand AI as a source of systematic creativity.
Examine the challenges AI faces in dealing with complexity beyond well-defined problems, particularly in unconventional art forms exemplified by innovative artists like Duchamp.
Investigate the potential for AI to deceive experts and produce aesthetically superior artworks, raising questions about the future of artistic creation and the evolving role of AI.
Reflect on the ongoing encounter between AI and aesthetics, considering how it pushes the boundaries of human creativity and challenges traditional perspectives on art and authorship.
