Future of digital art embraced with Saudi programme for AI
Calling all generative AI artists – Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture is recruiting for a new development project.
It’s titled the Emerging New Media Artists and the educational programme is set to launch at the Diriyah Art Futures institute. It is open to both Saudi nationals and international talent, provided they work within the world of digital art.
This includes specific areas such as interactive installations, AI art, 3D printing and fabrication, cinema and animation.
The one-year programme aims to give participants access to cutting-edge professional equipment and a production budget, as well as a wide range of multidisciplinary learning opportunities, including personal mentorship from prominent international digital artists.
Details about production budgets or grants offered with the programme are yet to be revealed. The project was designed in collaboration with Le Fresnoy – France’s National Studio of Contemporary Arts.
The government-run programme is accepting participants aged 35 and under who are at the graduate or post-graduate stages of their careers.
Since generative AI art’s rise in popularity over the past year, there has been heated debate in the art world over whether it constitutes artistic creation at all.
Last year, Hollywood was shut down for almost six months following mass strikes by writers’ and actors’ unions. Many of the complaints centred on the increasing use of AI in TV and film production.
British author and illustrator Rob Biddulph also gave an evocative example to illustrate his concerns about AI, pointing out the way that a contemporary artist may be influenced by the work of English painter David Hockney. “If I’m making a painting and decide it should be Hockney-esque, I’m not going to trawl the internet for millions of Hockney-esque images ... then apply them to my picture, systematically and with forensic accuracy,” he said. “I’m going to think: ‘I like the way Hockney juxtaposed blocks of purple, green and ochre in that painting of a field I saw at the National Gallery.’ And then I’ll attempt to add that into my picture. Inevitably, I’ll misremember it, and will probably end up creating something that bears a faint resemblance to something Hockney once painted, but in my own style.” Not all in the art
It is open to both Saudi nationals and international talent working in digital art
world have dismissed the artistry of generative AI, however.
Matt Saunders, a Harvard professor, told Forbes: “Art means what we ascribe to it. It can be a provocation, but it is essentially always part of a conversation.
“The artists are still the ones bringing it into the room. If things change, maybe that will change too.”
The UAE is also focusing on generative AI. In 2019, the Mohamed bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence was established.