Ai-Da the robot artist: creating work and constructing identity

Ashton, Daniel and Patel, Karen (2024) Ai-Da the robot artist: creating work and constructing identity. AI in the Creative Industries, , Salford, United Kingdom. 07 Jun 2024.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the construction of the artistic identity and career of Ai-Da, ‘the world’s first ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist’. Engaging with scholarship on posthumanism and creative assemblages, and creative work, identity and expertise, we focus on the practices used by Ai-Da's creators to construct a creative worker identity and career. Through an analysis of journalistic coverage, promotional and presentation activities, exhibitions and performances, and social media postings over a four-year period, we discuss Ai-Da's positioning as a high-profile artist with celebrity collaborators, reaching such a status in a relatively short period of time. We consider the creative assemblage of Ai-Da as a humanoid robot artist, the creator Aidan Meller and the team working with him, and the wider contextual factors of aesthetic expertise, networks and knowledge of art worlds which have shaped Ai-Da’s artistic identity and career trajectory. To conclude we discuss the implications of connecting critical perspectives on creative work with developments in art, AI and robot artists. Firstly, for understanding how the practices for constructing an artistic identity shape the development of robot artists; secondly, for understanding how developments in art and AI can frame reflections on artistic identity and careers.

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