Artistic authorship in the age of generative AI

Can a machine be an author? How is the increasing use of generative AI in the arts changing artistic creation and our view of the figure of the human authorship? Let's discuss!

The concept of authorship has been constantly shifting in art practice, reflection and theory. Examples of this can be found in art movements such as Appropriate Arts and Ready-made, but also in various formats of artists' collectives and diverse artistic approaches that include interactive works with machines, computers and automated production processes, as well as in the debates on authorship initiated by Barthes and Foucault in the late 1960s.
In recent years, the use of generative AI in artistic practice has reignited the debate about the concept of authorship. Not only are economic and legal issues of copyright and ownership being discussed, but also the question of aesthetic responsibility. Traditional categories of value derived from the aesthetics of genius, such as autonomy, individuality, originality are repeatedly invoked to ascribe or deny artistic authorship to AI. Others emphasize human-machine co-creation and see agency and authorship as distributed.
Building on this discourse, we examine the question of artistic authorship from four perspectives: music, literature, visual arts, and media law. Keynote speeches will present and discuss discipline-specific positions on the use of AI in the arts, and how this challenges and renegotiates the concept of authorship. This will be followed by a moderated panel discussion.