Week 2

For week 2's class we discussed Leonard, N. (2019). Entanglement Art Education: factoring ARTifical Intelligence and nonhumans into future art curricula and C.P. Snow (1959) Rede Lecture. This week's discussion points are as follows:

1. P. Snow - Do you see the problem that C.P. Snow posed as being solved today? Are the Arts & Sciences in good collaboration with one another or does a big chasm still exist? 

2. Leonard - What happens when computers start making their own decisions and start making art? How do we design curricula around this?

Snow poses the overall claim that the technical and scientific problem of how to produce enough food and industrial growth is solved. Where the problem is actually unresolved, he explains, is in how society is unorganized and cultural divides need to be bridged so that the knowledge that is already acquired can be used to reduce global inequities. Overall I think that there's still a large gap between the arts and sciences, however I would argue that the gap is closing as fields are continuing to reach out to each other, learn, and collaborate. 

Leonard poses the stance that when computers and AI start making their own decisions and start making art, they disrupt the traditional human-centered ideas of creativity, authorship, and aesthetics. He raises the question of: Can a computer be creative? In short, no, the computer is programmed to be creative by taking the work of others and making it "original". It gets away with being original or "creative" because it borrows from so many artworks that what it creates is unrecognizable, or new. When creating curriculum around this i think it's important how have the discussion about both creativity and plagiarism with students. I think maybe it would also be helpful to have a lesson or two that include experimenting (healthily) with AI and artwork so that students can learn for themselves the advantages and dangers of relying on a computer to do things that humans have been doing for centuries: make art!