At a time when AI is generally seen as negative for artists, Latitude 53 is hosting a virtual exhibit that explores artificial intelligence as a source of inspiration and collaboration.
The artist-run contemporary art gallery is hosting AI.Craft as part of The Next 50 Years, a trio of exhibits that explore the past and future of art as Latitude 53 prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
"I think it's just interesting to hear how artists are processing what's happening right now," said program manager Adam Waldron-Blain. "This Next 50 Years project is a great way to mark an anniversary by trying to think about futurity and the ways that our practices might change in the next 50 years, as well as look back a little bit."
The most future-focused part of The Next 50 Years, AI.Craft is led by Mohamed Somani and Blaine Campbell of Mobil Art School, who have been researching the ways in which AI can work alongside or with human collaborators to create art. They use a collaborative app called Arpp, which is based on the Dadaist art game Exquisite Corpse.
"With Exquisite Corpse, you draw something and then somebody takes on a hint and draws the next piece," said Campbell. "Could we have the AI be the one that draws the next piece, and then it'd be back and forth between people and AI? So that's the way we've gone."
AI.Craft is also hosting workshops with artists who use AI in their work. The next one, which takes place on July 8, will be led by artists Ben Bogart and Fatima Travassos.
Travassos uses generative AI programs like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion alongside her experience as a fashion designer to take her physical art pieces and transform them digitally with AI tools. Bogart is an artist, researcher, and teacher at Emily Carr University who has been exploring the use of generative computational processes since long before the emergence of current tools like Dall-E.
Their workshop is online, as has been the case for much of AI.Craft so far, as Latitude 53 is in the middle of setting up in its new home in the McLeod Building after leaving its previous location on 106 Street.
"We have a new space that we are setting up, but we're not open yet," said Waldron-Blain. "A big part of figuring out how to operate this year has been to find projects that could work in alternate spaces, could work online, could work in different ways."
Zombie Formalist Compositions by Ben Bogart, one of the artists giving an AI.Craft workshop through Latitude 53 on July 8, 2023. (Ben Bogart)
While the July 8 workshop will be conducted online, Somani and Campbell hope to have some in-person events later this summer as Latitude 53 continues the transition into its new space.
Their work is funded by a Canada Council Digital Research grant, which has allowed them to explore various implications and applications of AI in art over the past two years. Using generative AI as a collaborative tool has had the most promise.
"When you're sitting around a table, and you're doing an Exquisite Corpse drawing, that's a very specific mood that people have around that table," said Somani, explaining that the emphasis is not on the AI, but rather on the social experience. The AI simply helps create patterns based on the contributions of the human artists.
"That's why we call it AI.Craft, it's really about the craft and the people sitting around the table, putting down pieces and patterning things."
In previous workshops, attendees have been tasked with placing and arranging geometric tiles to create shapes and patterns on a table. Afterward, photos are taken of the art. The background is digitally removed, and the images are then fed into the AI model, which "fills in" the gaps between the patterns.
"So we're creating a collaborative piece where the data that's in between is all of our work, kind of a continuous pattern," said Somani. "I think AI is very good at filling in the gap between me and you — like you have your own style, I have my own style, and AI can do that gradation of styles to help us meet in the middle."
Somani and Campbell hope to overcome the ethical implications of art generation tools like Dall-E, which "scrapes" its data from art across the internet without the permission of artists. Arpp currently uses Dall-E, but work is underway to switch to a custom model that uses open-source visual material and requires artist consent before integrating existing art into its model. This effort is being spearheaded by University of Alberta PhD student Dagmar Loftsdóttir.
"So there's no process of scraping without attribution," Campbell said. "People actually will opt into those models."
Big changes at Latitude 53
In addition to finding a new space and celebrating its 50th anniversary this October, Latitude 53 has also welcomed two new co-executive directors, replacing Michelle Schultz, who served as executive director for four years before departing late last year.
The role will now be shared by Michelle Campos Castillo and Hannah Quimper-Swiderski.
Campos Castillo is a Salvadoran artist, administrator, and designer, with previous experience as the project coordinator and community coordinator at the Ociciwan Contemporary Arts Centre. She has been commissioned by the City of Edmonton in the past to create public art pieces such as Platanos, displayed at the Belvedere Transit Centre, and she is also working on a piece that will be featured in the LRT Valley Line.
Quimper-Swiderski is an artist, administrator, and curator, having previously worked as co-curator for THE MALL at the Mitchell Art Gallery, as well as taking on the roles of digital program coordinator and digital program manager at Latitude 53. Their work has been featured at the Edmonton International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Alberta, Latitude 53, and Mile Zero Dance.
"They're just getting rolling, but I think are going to bring some vital energy," said Waldron-Blain. "I'm really looking forward to sitting down with them and planning out the next year or the next two years."
The Next 50 Years summer series includes two other exhibits. Ghosts of the Gallery, led by Joni Cheung and Luke Johnson using textual material from Latitude 53's past, is holding an event at The New Gallery in Calgary on July 7. And Pockets of Eden: Practices in Earth Stewardship, is a nature-focused series led by Merlin Uwalaka and Breanna Barrington.