ASCENTI: Humans Opening to AI

A Book, A Website, a Symposium, An Art Exhibition

Editors: Lorene Shyba MFA PhD and James R. Parker PhD

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“The cultural and artistic roles of AI have received little attention so far. The Ascenti book is a welcome opening in that direction. It deals with AI used in creating visual arts, literature, and computer games, and analyzes both the new opportunities and limitations in these areas.” —Frans Mäyrä, PhD, Researcher of Culture and Society

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“The Ascenti AI Project” explores the question: How might professionals in the creative arts collaborate with AI programs to discover new tools and techniques for their work? The overall project encompasses a book titled Ascenti: Opening to AI, a dedicated website at ascenti-project.com, and a conference symposium.

THE BOOK: Ascenti: Humans Opening to AI features a lineup of “Creatives” -- humans in the cultural industries who specialize in visual art, writing (prose, poetry, and playwriting), photography, audiobook performance, sound design, and videogames. They experiment with AI by making original works within their respective artistic mediums, inspiring an AI program(s) to generate works based on prompts derived from their original creations, and then evaluating and contextualizing the AI-generated output. They demonstrate AI’s potential to enhance their original works, or ways AI helps them overcome visual or other challenges. Alternatively, participants may express the downsides of AI.

THE ASCENTI SYMPOSIUM: The First Canadian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in the Arts

Read Quill & Quire magazine's review of the event

This free event held on April 5 and 6, 2024 featured in-depth presentations, panels, and discussions by the book authors.  On Friday, April 5, 2024 there was a book launch along with a keynote and Creatives showcasing their work. On Saturday, April 6 the symposium featured more presentations, along with moderated discussions and panels on topics of interest that emerge from the presentations.  
Go to ascenti-project.com for more information about this first Canadian symposium of AI and creative arts.

Also at the symposium: "The Ascenti Exhibition of Original Human and AI Art"

Banner graphics above: Left, Rich Théroux, Right, Julian Hobson

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