Full Description
Artificial intelligence is transforming human creativity and the study of art. Yet it is a technology that is difficult to understand from a position outside computer science. This timely volume, Artificial Intelligence and Art History, investigate tensions and opportunities that are arising in human-machine 'dialogues' about visual art. Contributors explore recent developments in machine learning and computer vision and debate whether algorithmic analyses of art open new possibilities for human seeing. Do quantitative methodologies threaten humanistic discourses about cultural artefacts? Alternatively, can working at scale offer fresh perspectives on traditional conceptions of, and approaches to, artistic style, methods, and techniques? The chapters in this volume demonstrate how a range of technologies falling under the umbrella of 'AI' challenge the epistemological ambitions of both humanistic and scientific study while also addressing the consequences of understanding 'vision' as a metaphor for a computational processing. By investigating how AI and computer vision are working - or might work - in partnership with art historical research methods, this volume also interrogates urgent ethical questions that are impacting on research agendas in this interdisciplinary field.
Contents
List of Figures Notes on Contributors
Introduction KATHRYN BROWN
How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare: Computer Vision and the Art Theory of Joseph Beuys AMANDA WASIELEWSKI
A Decade of Bridging Computer Science and Art History EVA CETINIĆ
Computer Vision: A 'Period Eye' for the 21st Century? KATHRYN BROWN
Digital Art History for Datasets: For an Iconology of AI LEONARDO IMPETT
Ekphrasis Reloaded: Text-to-Image Models and Generative AI NURIA RODRÍGUEZ-ORTEGA
Experiments in the Relationship between Art History and Text-to-Image Models AMALIA FOKA
Realism As Style? Leveraging Latent Diffusion Models for Capturing the Style of Realist Images MANAS MEHTA, ZHUOMIN ZHANG, ELIZABETH C. MANSFIELD, JIA LI, JOHN RUSSELL, JAMES Z. WANG
Images of Photography: How Computer Vision Frames the Medium TRACY STUBER
Conclusion: Art and Intelligence KATHRYN BROWN
Index
