Emergence: The Advent of AI Art, Joe Nalven and Jill Rowe at the Escondido Arts Partnership

By Joe Nalven

Jill Rowe, Selfie evokes a sense of lost identity in an age dominated by technology by placing a QR code over an organic human face, suggesting a reduction of the individual to a machine-readable digital profile. It is meant to elicit a reaction from the viewer regarding the effects of technology on human existence.

For their exhibition Emergence at the Escondido Arts Partnership (EAP), Joe Nalven and Jill Rowe decided to explore generative AI image tools, both as assisting their workflow as well as working from text to imagined imagery. Nalven and Rowe have been exhibiting their art for several decades. For both, AI is a way to explore traditional visual art boundaries.

Joe Nalven, Go ahead, ask represents the portrait that confronts the viewer. There is a challenge; it is aggressive, yet calm. The artist is as much surprised as the viewer.

Several local arts institutions are open to experimenting with new media, including AI. In 2024, EAP hosted Nalven’s overview of I Am AI, Are You? with other San Diego digital artists and photographers: Greg Klamt, Kaz Maslanka, Larry Vogel, Jill Rowe, Stephen Burns, Eric Johnson and Jack Quintero.

Nalven and Rowe decided to continue this exploration of generative AI, giving the title of Emergence to their new work that builds on several decades of exhibiting their visual art. Rowe doesn’t see AI technology as a replacement for human creativity, but rather as a useful aid to augment and enhance the creative process. “New technologies always stir controversy when they are first introduced and AI is no exception, especially with the increasingly complex relationship between humanity and technology.”

Joe Nalven, Portraiture in the 21^st century takes the time-honored practice of portraiture and reconceptualizes what it might look like with AI. Clearly eclectic. And strange. And normal, too. The collage screams, “All things are possible. All at once.”

For Nalven, working with AI is an extension of using the digital medium. He co-authored Going Digital: The Practice and Vision of Digital Artists (2005) and has published numerous articles on AI, including the use and resistance to AI in art, whether AI has consciousness, using AI as a personal tutor, analyzing its biases, crafting policy and whether a campus art gallery can help transcend academic silos.

The U.S. Copyright Office offers a legal perspective to this medium. It will award copyright to images that have AI, but will exclude parts of it:  “Copyright law has long adapted to new technology and can enable case-by-case determinations as to whether AI-generated outputs reflect sufficient human contribution to warrant copyright protection. [I]n many circumstances these outputs will be copyrightable in whole or in part—where AI is used as a tool, and where a human has been able to determine the expressive elements they contain. Prompts alone, however, at this stage are unlikely to satisfy those requirements.”

Jill  Rowe, Emergence is a visual metaphor highlighting the question of artistic authorship. The two hands, one human one robotic,  capture a core theme of the Al art debate-the collaboration and tension between human creativity and the growing role of AI tools in the artistic process.

However, questions about authenticity, originality and resistance to AI art are more about attitude. Emergence asks the viewer to think about where the human is in AI images? If there is originality in AI art, how much of it trades on the millions of images made by others as part of this technology’s training? Simply put, how do we figure out what the “goodness” is in AI art and that belongs to the artist using it?

Joe Nalven, Semblance of mind intimates a shared understanding that only the viewer can sense, but cannot describe.

Sometimes there are no good answers. At such points, it might be just as interesting to turn to an AI avatar, such as we might find in the witty voice Dorothy Parker as suggested by Patricia Frischer from the San Diego Visual Arts Network. Here are some of the answers we might encounter from ChatGPT’s personification of Dorothy Parker.

‘Dorothy Parker’ on resistance to AI art:  Because, my dear, resistance is half the fun. If everyone agreed it was art, we’d have to find a new scandal. Besides, the whole affair is rather thrilling — machines dreaming, artists prompting, critics fainting. We’re not just showing pretty pictures; we’re poking at civilization’s soft underbelly, asking whether imagination is still ours alone. Exhibiting AI art is less about decoration and more about provocation — and who could resist that?

‘Dorothy Parker’ on the authenticity of AI art:  Ah, authenticity — the eternal cocktail-party topic. In truth, the originality of AI art lies in the hand that wields the code, not the code itself. Anyone can press a button, but it takes a human to press it meaningfully — perhaps even dramatically. The artist becomes part magician, part therapist, coaxing the machine into confessing something that feels, well, alive. So yes, the pixels may be artificial, but the yearning behind them? Entirely human, darling — and just as messy.

‘Dorothy Parker’ on the novelty and originality of AI art:  Novelty is lovely for a first date, but for a long-term affair, we need substance. We judge AI art as we judge all art — by its wit, its nerve, and its ability to make us feel slightly uncomfortable in the best possible way. The best pieces aren’t about machines showing off their tricks; they’re about artists showing us our reflection in the circuitry. In short, if it makes you laugh, gasp, or question your Wi-Fi password — it’s probably doing something right.

 

Jill Rowe, Solar Eclipse is a surreal fusion of natural and fantastical elements, highly detailed and subtly strange, conveying a variation of a tradational theme.  Technological tools function in much the same way and can be used to inspire new ways of exploring ideas.

Emergence 
Escondido Arts Partnership Expressions Gallery 
Dec. 13 to Jan. 2.
Opening reception Dec 13, 4 to 6 pm
Hours (holidays excepted): Tuesday: 11am – 4pm, Thursday, Friday and Saturday: 11 am – 5pm,
For more information, joe.nalven2@gmail.com 760-480-4101.