Examining the Innovativeness of Contemporary AI Art from Marxist View of Technology and Art

Abstract

Abstract: Current aesthetic and literary theoretical research on AI art primarily focuses on issues such as originality and subjectivity, which reflects an instrumentalist view of technology that deviates from the trend toward the integration of art and technology. For this reason, this article examines AI creation from the perspective of Marxist art production theory. By identifying various technological concepts in the genealogy of art production theory and sorting out the technological lineage from mechanical reproduction to digital originality, this article further explains the connotation and potentiality of AI art from three aspects: social organization, spiritual production, and the problem of “imbalance”. Accordingly, it argues that scholars in humanities and art should examine the practice of spiritual production in the digital age through the dialectical relationship between art, technology, and society, in order to propel the production turn of contemporary aesthetics and realize the contemporary innovation of Marxist art theory.

Key words: Karl Marx, AI art, digital creation, art production

Wu Weiyi. Examining the Innovativeness of Contemporary AI Art from Marxist View of Technology and Art[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2024, 44(3): 13-22.

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