Title: When Technology Becomes Art

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Tags: Article, 2023

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Download_link: when-technology-becomes-art.pdf

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Text: ###Publication

Lev Manovich. "When Technology Becomes Art," fellowship.xyz, 2023, https://aligndraw.fellowship.xyz/historical-context.

###Abstract

In "When Technology Becomes Art," I explore how technology, especially AI, is redefining what we consider to be art. I've always been fascinated by how objects originally created for scientific or functional purposes—like Da Vinci’s technical sketches or the first photographs—have, over time, become celebrated as art. Today, I see a similar shift happening with AI-generated images.

I focus on the alignDRAW project from 2015, which I believe marks a key moment in this transformation. At the time, it was one of the first examples of using AI to create images from text descriptions, setting the stage for today’s AI tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. For me, these early, low-resolution images are just as important as the first photographs; they hint at a new world of possibilities in image creation, where anyone can bring complex visuals to life with just words.

In this article, I challenge the conventional boundaries between technology and art. I argue that these pioneering AI works deserve to be seen as more than just technological achievements—they are the beginnings of a new artistic era. Just as photography evolved into a dominant visual art form, I believe AI-generated images will follow a similar path, shaping the future of creativity.