02 – September. A workshop on media and digital art. 

A two-year project to work and reflect on the digital in art has begun at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna.

As part of the Cultural Anthropology course, students were invited to design and process around the concept of natural and artificial.

Through a series of urban exploration workshops the students, organized in groups, developed ideas and artistic design to be implemented in the streets and neighborhoods of Ravenna.

The challenge is to accompany the Erasmus Digentart project with a workshop of ideas developed together by students and teachers, artists and cultural experts.

In the next news we will begin to present the projects and proposals of the Digentart workshop. Meanwhile, part of the materials can already be seen on the Digentart website in the “Laboratory tool box” section and on social channels.

You can comment and interact with the designers and artists.

The partners of the Erasmus DigEntArt project met in Marseille from 28 to 29 May for the first in-person meeting of the project. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss the next steps and exchange initial ideas and opinions on the contents and priority initiatives to be undertaken.

The main results of the research conducted by Demetra, with the collaboration of all partners, aimed at analyzing needs and requirements in the cultural and creative sector were illustrated.

Thanks to interviews with stakeholders, experts and companies in the sector, a very varied and interesting picture of the cultural and creative sector emerged. Digital art is transforming thanks to new digital technologies and the impact of virtual reality, 3D models, artificial intelligence will be very strong in this sector.

The meeting was an opportunity to outline a common methodology for the next workshops with stakeholders in the various partner countries of the project and to outline the methodologies and contents of the training courses that will be developed in the coming months in Italy, France and Croatia.

During the meeting, the dissemination plan and the first digital communication tools were presented: the website and the social media pages on Instagram and Facebook. Now digital media is operational and there are already contributions and projects from students, experts, artists and start-ups in the creative artistic sector.

The site will also be a sort of open and dynamic laboratory to develop the teaching toolbox with the pedagogical and training materials provided by the project.

Digent art is an Erasmus project whose led partner is Demetra Formazione, a professional training center active in Emilia Romagna, the State Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna, INSEAMM the Institute for design and the arts of Marseille and the Department of Arts of the University of Dubrovnik.

30 – May 2024
First presential meeting in Inseamm - Marseille with all partners.


6 - May 2024. Charter for AI generative in Art school.
An essay of "Charter for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in an Art School" by Anthony Pillette (INSEAMM - Reso-nance.org)
Published during Te Ataata residency in Auckland University of Technology ( AUT Auckland - NZ) 2023
Link: https://reso-nance.org/charte-ai/    https://reso-nance.org/artefacts-from-a-future-past/ 

This document might be subject to update with DIg.ent.art. programm through the collaboration between the HEI involved.

Charter for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in an Art School

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) represents a major technological advancement in the field of artistic creation. However, its use also raises important ethical and artistic questions. This charter aims to establish guiding principles for the responsible and ethical use of generative AI within art school context.

- Creativity and Human Collaboration

 Generative AI is a powerful tool that can stimulate artists’ creativity. However, we firmly believe that human creativity and artistic expression are essential elements of any creative process. Therefore, we encourage artists to work in collaboration with generative AI rather than replacing themselves entirely. Generative AI should be seen as a creative partner, never as a substitute for the artist themselves.

- Transparency and Attribution

 When using generative AI to create artworks, it is crucial to acknowledge the contribution of the algorithm. Students and teachers should understand how generative AI systems work and their limitations. The use of AI should be transparent and any AI-generated elements in student work should be clearly identified. Artists must clearly indicate that generative AI was used and specify to what extent it contributed to the creative process. Transparency helps preserve artistic integrity and recognizes the role of generative AI as a creative tool.

- Responsibility and Ethics

The use of generative AI must be carried out in a responsible and ethical manner. Artists should consider the consequences of their creations, including issues of representation, algorithmic bias, and societal impact. It is essential to ensure that the use of generative AI does not perpetuate inequalities or harm groups or individuals.

It is important to recognize that generative AI systems are trained on vast amounts of internet data, primarily images and text, which reflect the cultures and viewpoints of their creators and collectors. This data is not neutral and often over-represents Western, white, male, middle-class, abled, heterosexual and other dominant perceptions and aesthetics. Features in the training data like advertising, books, films and art works absorb and propagate cultural biases around issues like race, gender, ability, age and other attributes. As a result, generative AI has the potential to unintentionally reproduce, amplify or fail to represent the full diversity of human experience. Art school students and teachers must be aware that generative tools have built-in blind spots and limitations due to being trained on narrow datasets. When utilizing generative AI, its cultural biases should be understood and mitigated where possible. Diverse, inclusive training data that reflects more fully the richness of human life experiences worldwide would help address these issues over time.

The use of generative AI must not infringe upon the copyrights or intellectual property of other artists. Artists must ensure compliance with applicable laws and obtain necessary permissions when the use of generative AI involves copyrighted elements.

MEMO

  1. Indicate the use of AI in the process.
  2. Preventing biases, and identifying them as much as possible.
  3. Explaining how these software works to non-expert people who look at these images.
  4. Knowing the techniques that would have allowed realizing this image without the help of AI.

9 – November 2023.  The project partners met online and had the opportunity to present their organizations, teaching strategies and innovative design areas of the various educational and training institutions. The lead partner Demetra Formazione presented the main lines of the project, the objectives, the overall activity planning and the initiatives planned in the coming months. The partners started an exchange of ideas on how to organize the work and contribute to the development of the activities. The next event of the partnership is scheduled in May, in Marseille.

"This project has been funded with support from European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."

www.digentart.eu