Six Years: The Generativization of the Arts, 2018 - 2024

Between 2018 and 2024, generative Al evolved from the earliest language models and image and video generators into powerful multimodal systems and Al agents. The volume Six Years: The Generativization of the Arts, 2018–2024 studies the interrelation between art and Al. Generative Al denotes systems with novel cognitive and agential capabilities. It changes whose knowledge and experiences count and dislocates labor relations and authors' rights. It enables new forms of control and surveillance and drives an enormous consumption of energy and raw materials. 

Artistic and literary practices respond in a range of ways: appropriative, critical, abolitionist. With a nod to Lucy R. Lippard's Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, the book gathers essays, a curated Al art dataset, and a chronology of the years from 2018 to 2024. Writings by Nora Al-Badri, Jenni Bohn, Jonny-Bix Bongers, Violaine Boutet de Monvel, A.A. Cavia, Daniel Falb, Susanne Grabenhorst, Orit Halpern, Christian Heck, Eva Jaeger, Charlotte Kent, Joan Kinyua, Egor Kraft, Anna Kraher, Mattis Kuhn, Christoph Marischka, Emily Martinez, Lars Pinkwart, Rainer Rehak, and others shed light on the aesthetic and political dimensions of generativization.