April 15, 2025
For CalDay 2025, Art Practice Professor Greg Niemeyer will address a major concern for contemporary artists: How does generative AI change art practice?
This free an dopen lecture will take place on April 19, 2 pm, at Room 120 of the Anthropology and Art Building.
It seems, at first sight, that visualizations of many subjects in many artistic styles can easily be generated by machines with simple text prompts. Niemeyer explains how generative AI works, what it can do, what it cannot do, and why, except for very specific cases, it does not make art. At the same time, AI can be a very helpful tool in art production, in creative research, and in communications about art.
In any case, Niemeyer argues how, in contemporary art practice, the declaration of creative methods and sources is increasingly more important. After a brief lecture and demonstration of various production methods involving AI as a tool, Niemeyer will host a discussion about the impact of AI on creative studies and careers. This lecture is based on his paper "Experience beyond Measure" (forthcoming).
Greg Niemeyer is a data artist and Professor of Media Innovation in the Department of Art Practice at UC Berkeley. He's the former director and co-founder of the Berkeley Center for New Media. He started out with studies in Classics and Photography in Switzerland and switched to new media when he moved to the Bay Area in 1992.
He received his MFA from Stanford University in New Genres in 1997. Since childhood, Niemeyer was fascinated with making mirrors, and he still makes mirrors: media which allow us to see things from a new point of view, a point of view that is not our own, revealing both things we want to see and things we don't want to see. We need such mirrors, he maintains, to make better decisions about our lives in context with other humans and with the fragile environments we depend on. For more information, visit www.gregniemeyer.com.