AI and Aesthetic Alienation: The Image and Creativity in Contemporary Culture
Naomi Smith, Clare Southerton
Abstract
In this comment piece, we argue that mass-produced generative AI (GenAI) images, commonly referred to as “AI slop” should be considered a form of aesthetic alienation. Specifically, we focus on GenAI images of fall, arguing that GenAI images alienate not only artists from their art, but produces an alienating aesthetic in and of itself. Closely attending to the aesthetic registers of GenAI images opens up important sociological questions about the role of the image in contemporary society, and the affective logics of late capitalism. Finally, we highlight how GenAI images are profoundly implicated in the extractive and destructive materialities of late capitalism.
Topics & Concepts
AestheticsCreativityFocus (optics)SociologyAesthetic experienceGenerative grammarImage (mathematics)EpistemologyPhotographyVisual artsMateriality (auditing)Image manipulationPsychologyPopular cultureArtDigital Education and SocietyDigital Media and PhilosophyCultural Studies and Postmodernism