This exhibition explores the changing face of photography in the age of AI

When discussing the disruptive potential of AI in the art world, people often evoke the dawn of photography, a technology that threw art forms like painting into disarray when it came along in the early half of the 1800s and ultimately changed them forever. The comparison is apt, says Katy Hundertmark, managing editor of Foam magazine and co-curator – alongside Foam senior curator Claartje van Dijk – of the new exhibition Photography Through the Lens of AI.

“Both AI and photography represent significant technological advancements that have transformed the artistic landscape,” notes Hundertmark. Both, for example, raise important questions about “authorship, originality, and the role of the artist” in the creative act. This might sound ominous, if you’ve been following recent developments in AI, but both technologies also “expand the boundaries of what is possible in art” and spark debate about what “art” even means in the first place. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

As suggested by the title, the latest exhibition at Amsterdam’s Foam explores this connection between AI and photography, painting a picture of an art form on the verge of entering a new era. In part, this is achieved through a “multidimensional” project, Missing Mirror, consisting of four separate sections or ‘chapters’. In chapter one, Missing Body, artists speculate on the physical appearance of AI. In the second, Missing Person, they come to terms with its capacity to develop distinct identities. The third, Missing Camera, sees the technology ‘capture’ scenes that never took place, or couldn’t have been photographed. And the fourth, Missing Viewer, sees artists reflect on the most contentious aspect of all: the obsolescence of the human artist in the age of creative machines.

This multifaceted exploration of AI’s relationship to photography features a diverse array of artists from across the world as well, including Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, Alexey Chernikov, Louisa Clement, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Christopher Meerdo, Maria Mavropoulou, Milo Poelman, Miti Ruangkritya, Philip Schütte, Brea Souders, and Alexey Yurenev. Alongside the collective part of the exhibition, Paolo Cirio also presents a suggestively-titled solo show, AI Attacks, as part of the gallery's recurring Next Level series, featuring uncanny clones and deepfake disinformation. 

“Paolo Cirio is unique in addressing the use and misuse not only of AI, but of technological innovations in our society today,” says van Dijk. “His artistic practice goes beyond artmaking.” In this exhibition, he premieres the new work Resurrect, which questions the ethics of ‘bringing back’ the dead via AI and reshaping their legacies. “Where Missing Mirror explores AI as a tool and its interdependent relationship with humans,” van Dijk adds, “Paolo Cirio addresses the immediate technological dangers in today’s society, trying to make a change with his art and actions.”

Read more from the curators of Photography Through the Lens of AI below.

The show explores the contemporary link between photography and AI, but is it fair to say that photography has always been extricable from new technological advancements?

Katy Hundertmark: Photography itself was born out of technological innovation, specifically the development of the camera obscura and the subsequent advancements in chemical processes that allowed for image capture on light-sensitive surfaces. [Its] dependence on technological advancements is evident in its history and ongoing evolution. Each technological leap has opened new possibilities and transformed the medium. Photography and technological progress are deeply interconnected. However, at the bottom of technological advancement lies human curiosity and creativity.

How have you seen AI impact photography since its emergence as a significant creative force in the last few years?

Katy Hundertmark: The ability of machines to ‘see’ has improved tremendously over the past decades, meaning that computers have been trained, by humans, to recognise and generate images that come shockingly close to photorealistic. Not only does this affect our understanding of what authorship means, but more importantly, it threatens to ultimately shatter the very foundation of the photographic image: its claim to truth. This means that we can no longer trust images and will ultimately need to re-assess their role within society.

Why do you think it’s important to present a multifaceted view of AI, that shows all these different sides of the technology?

Claartje van Dijk: As a photography museum, the premise of the exhibition [is] how AI... simulates photography in its quest to mirror humans and their surroundings, as a reflection of reality. One of the important aspects of how AI came into existence and how it continues to take shape, is the role and influence of humans. The different chapters [of the exhibition] give insight into how humans have created AI and vice versa: how people use AI to achieve and implement new technological advancements. The different chapters provide different angles as to how AI can be perceived [and] used, and give shape to the dangers it can pose as its ability to act autonomously continues to develop.

The first chapter in Missing Mirror aims to physically embody AI – how can thinking of the tech in physical terms help to understand its implications?

Claartje van Dijk: In Milo Poelman’s Synthesize Me, the artist is in dialogue with AI, and asks: “What do you miss in life?” Its answer, “The ability to experience physical sensations,” is the basis for an installation where the artist and AI together explore the sensation and meaning of sensory experiences.

By materialising a non-physical being into a visible entity, two things happen: on one hand it takes on a shape that is recognisable to the (human) viewer, and as such it becomes easier to navigate or understand how to interact or communicate with it, how to proceed with its technological advancements. On the other hand, by having AI create its own physical form, we can better understand its advancements and, as such, consider the implications these may have.

On the other hand, Missing Viewer focuses on obsolescence of human beings in the age of AI. What do you make of these fears?

Claartje van Dijk: The final chapter addresses how AI is developing to an extent where it can function autonomously. Despite this apparent independence, it is important to point out that AI is ultimately shaped and influenced by human input, by us. In a sense, AI becomes a mirror of human influence.

Lynn Hershmann Leeson addresses the dangers of AI-fuelled technologies [in two video works] and invites the viewer to reflect on what it means to live in a world that is constantly monitored. Artists are the explorers of innovations. Where scientific research is bound by particular guidelines and restrictions, artists can freely explore and address dangers of the technology and achieve new insights. Artists can work across different media and sciences, which gives them the freedom to provide different ways of looking.

How do you think humanity’s relationship with images (and image-making) might change in a world of AI hallucinations?

Katy Hundertmark: I think the lines between truth and adaptation will continue to blur to an extent that makes you doubt your own ability to recognise human traits in images. You will need to look twice, and search more diligently for recognisable traces of humanness – a skill I think we will need to hone in the future.

Photography Through the Lens of AI opens at Foam on May 31 and runs until September 11.