Rigorous creativity: AI, art and electronic life
Rigorous creativity: AI, art and electronic life
This article introduces and elaborates the concept of rigorous creativity as an approach to working with artificial intelligence (AI) in artistic and cultural practice. Emerging from the collaborative initiative Electronic Life – a year-long, public-facing programme at Tate Britain – our approach positions AI not merely as a tool but as an encounter, a partner in thought and co-creation. Drawing on historical precedents (such as the New Tendencies movement and Harold Cohen’s AARON) and theoretical reflections (with reference to cognitive assemblages, extended mind theory, and the pharmakon), we argue for a situated, process-based mode of inquiry that is open-ended, critically alert, and participatory. As such, we critique prevailing modes of AI spectacle and techno-solutionism, calling instead for an interdisciplinary practice attuned to lifeworlds, institutional contexts, and emergent human – machine ecologies. Overall, we argue rigorous creativity allows for a renewed negotiation of authorship, aesthetic value, and collective agency vis-à-vis generative AI.
artificial intelligence, co-creation, cognitive assemblages, electronic life, lifeworld, new tendencies
427-449
Manghani, Sunil
75650a9a-458d-4e1a-9480-94491300e385
Savage, Tom
b8511c0d-bc80-49ca-99ad-9afb0732e2e5
Manghani, Sunil
75650a9a-458d-4e1a-9480-94491300e385
Savage, Tom
b8511c0d-bc80-49ca-99ad-9afb0732e2e5
Manghani, Sunil and Savage, Tom
(2025)
Rigorous creativity: AI, art and electronic life.
Journal of Visual Arts Practice, 24 (4), .
(doi:10.1080/14702029.2025.2577021).
(In Press)
Abstract
This article introduces and elaborates the concept of rigorous creativity as an approach to working with artificial intelligence (AI) in artistic and cultural practice. Emerging from the collaborative initiative Electronic Life – a year-long, public-facing programme at Tate Britain – our approach positions AI not merely as a tool but as an encounter, a partner in thought and co-creation. Drawing on historical precedents (such as the New Tendencies movement and Harold Cohen’s AARON) and theoretical reflections (with reference to cognitive assemblages, extended mind theory, and the pharmakon), we argue for a situated, process-based mode of inquiry that is open-ended, critically alert, and participatory. As such, we critique prevailing modes of AI spectacle and techno-solutionism, calling instead for an interdisciplinary practice attuned to lifeworlds, institutional contexts, and emergent human – machine ecologies. Overall, we argue rigorous creativity allows for a renewed negotiation of authorship, aesthetic value, and collective agency vis-à-vis generative AI.
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Rigorous creativity AI art and electronic life
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Accepted/In Press date: 15 October 2025
Keywords:
artificial intelligence, co-creation, cognitive assemblages, electronic life, lifeworld, new tendencies
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Local EPrints ID: 511389
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/511389
ISSN: 1470-2029
PURE UUID: cd208c46-8adb-4a45-bcf1-205a64c682f8
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Date deposited: 13 May 2026 16:49
Last modified: 14 May 2026 01:45
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Author:
Tom Savage
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