Joanna Zylinska's guest appearances

Joanna Zylinska

Cultures of Energy

Arts, Culture & Media

CRASSH

australasian posthumanities

Amitav Ghosh

Michael Puett

John Locke

John Keats

Gail Simmons

David Spiegelhalter

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Timothy Morton

Jeff VanderMeer

Rosalind Fredericks

Katharine Hayhoe

Shannon Lee

Graeme MacDonald

John Broome

Robert Macfarlane

OwlTail

Can computers be creative? Is algorithmic art just a form of Candy Crush? Cutting through the smoke and mirrors surrounding computation, robotics and artificial intelligence, in this Q&amp;A Joanna Zylinska argues that, to understand the promise of AI for the creative fields, we must not confine ourselves solely to the realm of aesthetics. Instead, we need to address the role and position of the human in the current technical setup – including the associated issues of labour, robotisation and, last but not least, extinction. Offering a critique of the socio-political underpinnings of AI, AI Art: Machine Visions and Warped Dreams raises poignant questions about the conditions of art making and creativity today.

Can computers be creative? Is algorithmic art just a form of Candy Crush? Cutting through the smoke and mirrors surrounding computation, robotics and artificial intelligence, in this Q&amp;A Joanna Zylinska argues that, to understand the promise of AI for the creative fields, we must not confine ourselves solely to the realm of aesthetics. Instead, we need to address the role and position of the human in the current technical setup – including the associated issues of labour, robotisation and, last but not least, extinction. Offering a critique of the socio-political underpinnings of AI, AI Art: Machine Visions and Warped Dreams raises poignant questions about the conditions of art making and creativity today.

S2E5: Joanna Zylinska: 'AI Art: Machine Visions and Warped Dreams'

Cymene talks about her exciting new life as a contractor on this week’s podcast. Then (10:14) we welcome the brilliant theorist, artist and curator, Joanna Zylinska (http://www.joannazylinska.net) to the podcast to discuss her excellent new book, The End of Man: A Feminist Counterapocalypse (U Minnesota Press, 2018). We start with the central argument of the book that there is an intimate relationship between Silicon Valley technicism on the one hand and alt-right white supremacist populism on the other. We talk through genealogies of apocalyptic thinking and how they are interwoven with masculinist promises of salvation and Joanna explains why she thinks it is important to take seriously the sociopolitical precarity that is the norm for the vast majority of the world’s human population. We turn from there to her thoughts on breaking the “apocalypse habit,” why Isabelle Stengers’s Gaia concept might be a helpful alternative, and the importance of minimal ethics for her approach to the Anthropocene. We discover whether there is a place for play and laughter in the Counterapocalypse and then talk about the difficulties of representing the Anthropocene in art and her own short film  “Exit Man” (https://vimeo.com/203887003) which serves as a companion to The End of Man. Finally, we talk about the links she sees between Anthropocene stupidity and Artificial Intelligence.  PS Your co-hosts duograph on wind power in Southern Mexico is now available with Duke University Press. To receive a 30% discount on each volume use the code E19BOYER for “Energopolitics” (https://www.dukeupress.edu/energopolitics) and E19HOWE for “Ecologics” (https://www.dukeupress.edu/ecologics) at checkout. 

Cymene talks about her exciting new life as a contractor on this week’s podcast. Then (10:14) we welcome the brilliant theorist, artist and curator, Joanna Zylinska (<a href="http://www.joannazylinska.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.joannazylinska.net</a>) to the podcast to discuss her excellent new book, The End of Man: A Feminist Counterapocalypse (U Minnesota Press, 2018). We start with the central argument of the book that there is an intimate relationship between Silicon Valley technicism on the one hand and alt-right white supremacist populism on the other. We talk through genealogies of apocalyptic thinking and how they are interwoven with masculinist promises of salvation and Joanna explains why she thinks it is important to take seriously the sociopolitical precarity that is the norm for the vast majority of the world’s human population. We turn from there to her thoughts on breaking the “apocalypse habit,” why Isabelle Stengers’s Gaia concept might be a helpful alternative, and the importance of minimal ethics for her approach to the Anthropocene. We discover whether there is a place for play and laughter in the Counterapocalypse and then talk about the difficulties of representing the Anthropocene in art and her own short film  “Exit Man” (<a href="https://vimeo.com/203887003" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/203887003</a>) which serves as a companion to The End of Man. Finally, we talk about the links she sees between Anthropocene stupidity and Artificial Intelligence.  PS Your co-hosts duograph on wind power in Southern Mexico is now available with Duke University Press. To receive a 30% discount on each volume use the code E19BOYER for “Energopolitics” (<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/energopolitics" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.dukeupress.edu/energopolitics</a>) and E19HOWE for “Ecologics” (<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/ecologics" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.dukeupress.edu/ecologics</a>) at checkout.

186 - Joanna Zylinska

Sarah Kember

Dr Sarah Kember and Dr Joanna Zylinska (Goldsmiths, University of London) address the question of 'creativity' and its application under the umbrella of 'creative industries'; they consider the links often made with originality, genius or chance and offer an alternative reading that draws on work by Henri Bergson and Jacques Derrida (CRASSH, 17 May 2010. Part of the Intermedia Research Group.)

Dr Sarah Kember and Dr Joanna Zylinska: Creative Mediation