[PROPOSAL] Crypto Art, Aesthetics and Artificial intelligence

Creatives Creatives DAO
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Proponent: jsc2022.near
Near account for payment: jsc2022.near

Project timeline: May, 2022.

History:
This project aims to explore the effects of the advancement of artificial intelligence in the field of artistic creation, as well as the algorithmic-statistical analysis of images in the history of art and digital culture. It seeks strategies of appropriation of these technologies as means for creating arts and ways of apprehending all the change that operates from these technologies. Currently, artificial intelligence enhances the research of images in the visual arts and presents new tools and modes of production, both in creation and in art history research. Its presence is ubiquitous in theoretical-critical thinking in the field of digital culture and art. Crypto Art emerges as an element that, on the one hand, imposes a radical change in the system and in artistic production, causes a fissure in the current system allowing greater freedom for the market allowing instant access for artists ā€“ an ultra contemporary form linked to the past production modes. In another sense, it resumes ways of thinking and producing art that, in terms of advances made in the 20th century, are anachronistic and leave something to be desired, such as the number of copies, possession, authorship and ownership of works and the repositioning of the human at the center of creation ā€“ eliminating creations assisted by or made by artificial intelligence.

Justification:
The issue of technologies in art and, more specifically, artificial intelligence has always attracted many artists and artistic movements. The experiments, with the use of artificial intelligence in the visual arts, began in the second half of the 20th century and involved participatory-interactive works with two ways, where individuals and computer systems of artificial intelligence interact. In the field of art, as a whole, it seems to have started a greater opening to these questions from the personal computer, the internet, the graphic visualization ā€˜interfacesā€™ and with the image editing programs that are beginning to be part of everyday life. Crypto art begins to seek a confluence of art elements such as, for example, marking print runs of digital images giving them an original/authorial character and, concomitantly, proposing these digital works, both formally and conceptually, in the logic of the base of data from encryption, ā€˜blockchainā€™ and cryptocurrencies. Thus, we could distinguish three moments with their characteristics and specificity of the use of artificial intelligence in art. At first, the pioneering use of artificial intelligence seeking human/machine interaction in works of art. Second, the use of algorithmic images as a formal theme for the production of art using conventional means, such as painting. And, in the third moment, to seek a rupture in the arts system, eliminate some stages of this system acting directly in the artist/consumer market through blockchains and resume art historical issues in a kind of remediation. Crypto art is one of the few artistic movements of this millennium that speaks the language of its time, as it allows new languages of digital expression to have a fast, pulsating and tailor-made market for the new generation of collectors. If until some time ago an artist who created digital artworks had very little chance of putting them on the market, for the obvious reason of their infinite reproducibility, today, thanks to blockchain technology, these digital artworks are created in a certified number of small editions and therefore acquire an exchange value. Formally, crypto art comes to align itself with technologies and their creative possibilities and marks an implosion in the art system already in place, but this does not guarantee aesthetic quality. Our objective, therefore, is to create crypto art (NFTs) through the NEAR Protocol (within its ecosystem) with aesthetic quality (combining new trends with traditional techniques and concepts). We believe that this type of initiative is extremely important to increase the interest of artists in the blockchain and in the NFT community in Brazil (especially for NEAR), since the viability of this type of product would be a counter-argument to the conceptual artists still very attached to doing traditional artistic.

Budget:
USD 200 in NEAR for PhD. Juliano do Carmo (Department of Philosophy at Federal University of Pelotas) for organizing the project and select artists and undergraduate students.
USD 200 in NEAR for PhD. Alberto Semeler (Arts Center at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) to produce three NFTs (artistic objects in Crypto Art together with the project team).
USD 50 in NEAR for each of the two students/artists guests who will collaborate with the PhD. Alberto Semeler.
Total: USD 500 in NEAR.

Products:
03 Crypto Arts (that will have NEAR sponsoring in the description) with splits for the DAO at DAOĀ“s Store: philosophart.mintbase1.near-Minter

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Hello =) Nice topic.

Can you help me to understand more about it? I really find this interesting.

So, this will be AI art generation? Maybe similar to Genorati:

@mayur @uxmatt

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Hello, thank you very much for the comment and for your interest in our proposal!

Our perspective is that artificial intelligence is already largely naturalized, as it has already passed from initial speculation to everyday reality. This means that when we observe that a machine does something intelligent, it is no longer perceived as something intelligent and becomes inherent in our daily relationship with digital technologies. That is, after artificial intelligence solves a problem and the solution is implemented by the industry, it becomes incorporated into our daily lives without any surprises. In another sense, we have a tendency to see only the challenging and still unsolved problems as belonging to artificial intelligence and that it should only solve the still unanswered human demands. Of course, while algorithms can often be used to write music, they still donā€™t really understand the human world of understanding, human sensoriality and its meanings. Currently, systems equipped with intelligence artificial get the ability to accumulate information to leave as a legacy to future generations, influences our everyday choices, imagination and behaviors. For example, it recommends choosing photos and videos, music, media or even people we should follow on social networks, or how to choose affective partners. It permeates all digital technologies available today and enables encryption and other processes that drive crypto art. Hence our interest in creating works of art on the blockchain.
@FritzWorm @thephilosopher

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Thanks for explaining it further. So, you are adding ā€œhumanā€ sense to the AI component in a way if I get what you say here. Is that right or did I misinterpreted it?

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Hey, @FritzWorm @uxmatt, the main idea of this project is to get the Professor, PhD, and artist Alberto Semeler to produce 3 NFTs published in the DAOā€™s store on Mintbase. These NFTs will be videos from the performatic and conceptual art he deals with, by testing instagram algorithm and deriving some conceptual implications of the consequences. So it seems the NFTs will be produced with the help with some students that work with artificial intelligence, and @jsc2022.near will help to write the conceptual text necessary to understand the work in the description, and he will also help to onboard the professor and the students on NEAR (with my help). I think this project is pretty interesting because it is bringing academic Art to the Creatives in a very creative way together with the philosophical implications, showing thus that art and philosophy goes hand by hand.

Juliano do Carmo, the proposer, is also a very known professor here in Brazilian Philosophy. http://lattes.cnpq.br/7477981517627461

Maybe it would be interesting, Juliano, if you could add here a talk between you and Prof. Alberto Semeler about his art as another deliverable.

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@FritzWorm @uxmatt @thephilosopher

Hello guys, here is the Albertoā€™s message:

ā€œMy name is Alberto Marinho Ribas Semeler, Iā€™ve been an artist since the 80s. I went through several moments in my work, I worked with video performances, morbid (abject) painting to displease the viewer, and more recently with art and technology. Iā€™m Professor at the Visual Arts Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and I work in the masterā€™s and doctorate courses (in the area of art and technology and new media, both in art theory and in artistic creation). I have a private Instagram account (on which I need to accept those who want to follow my works) and where I usually test and try to produce errors in the Instagram algorithm. For example, I follow a person and enjoy absolutely everything they post as quickly as possible. When I get close to two hundred likes, the algorithm starts to identify me as a machine (itā€™s another way to trick the algorithm). I also produce videos and animations with practically no time (made possible by an iPhone software bug that produces zero-seconds videos but happens in the time). I try to post the zero-seconds video on Instagram, but the algorithm doesnā€™t allow it, because it doesnā€™t recognize the video and it sends me an error message (all this Iā€™m documenting with screenshots of the messages). Iā€™ve also used images and performances with melee weapons (knives, for example) and the algorithm drops the video immediately. My idea is to discover the errors or flaws in the algorithms through what I call the aesthetics of error (both in the sense of challenging the algorithm and highlighting the absence of uniqueness in artificial intelligence, and in the sense of improving the algorithm). In addition, I am starting a series of works (which includes the project we are submitting at NEAR), for which I am researching the devices that will be used, which will explore the brain-computer interface. This interface already exists, but it is one-way, because when we are biometrized (in facial biometrics) we are already within the algorithmic logic, but we cannot establish a direct connection with the artificial intelligence module. He reads us, predicts if we have any health problems, etc. Currently, on this account I use on Instagram I have about 1,300 followers (even though itā€™s a private account with a false name - TĆ¢ntulo de LĆ”zaro and Zeus Marinho). The NFTs that will be created will be based on the search for errors in algorithms and also on research on neuro art that addresses issues related to the brain-computer interface. Of course, they will have the NEARā€™s name (as a funder) and will be available at Philosophers DAO Store. I look forward to getting started!ā€

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Thank you for the questions!!!

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Wow this is really unique, and please tell thanks to Alberto for the knowledge. I didnā€™t know that algorithms were going down due to ā€œaesthetics errorā€. This may be a little off for this topic yet relevant in some way, how can he know the algorithm provided by Instagram like when he likes 200 posts rapidly - he is defined as machine etc. Are these written somewhere or assumptions or known in public etc?

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Hello thank for your feedback. This is an working I progress, certainly soon as possible I write an make public this research. Now, the apps for share and investigate the social networks is a literally dangerous
totalitarist thought is ā€œan espectre that hunt the freedom in our worldā€. This research occurs in academic placeā€™s

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As some thinkers often say, we live the fourth narcissistic wound: we are no longer the only thinking beings under the earth. What remains is to establish a dialogue strategy with our little sister(AI). Will she be in a control system still dominated by large corporations? Who will be behind this? What is a corporation in a world dominated by super cognition in digital culture?
Is this cyber warfare with sticks and stones?I think our only strategy is to go back to our animal origins. Using visual interfaces to try to establish a dialogue with the AI.

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Instagram is just a ā€œguinea pigā€ or ā€œCobaiaā€ in Portuguese App. We must use and seek the error in everyone. It will probably be an error indicator and a way to bring the system down. Every system is programmable and therefore full of flaws.

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Itā€™s deep! I love what you are saying and itā€™s so great to hear that you guys are working towards that. In couple words can you explain how NEAR can make this possible? Iā€™m still trying to comprehend.

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Hello @uxmatt and @FritzWorm!
Thank you very much for your messages (they help us a lot to qualify our proposal). From a strategic point of view for NEAR, our idea is to make a wide exhibition of the works originated from this project and at the same time make a presentation about the blockchain in the universities where we operate (UFPel and UFRGS). The exhibitions will be held in physical environments of the universities and also in a 3XR gallery (maybe along with other works from Dr. Alberto Semelerā€™s portfolio). We believe that this will enable the expansion of the community using NEAR and also the registration of products on the blockchain, because in addition to the physical and virtual exhibitions, the links of the works will also be publicized through official pages of UFPel and UFRGS and shared with others Brazilian public universities (it is worth remembering that today we have 69 federal universities in the country with thousands of students and professors). From an academic point of view, our idea is to promote reflection on the profound implications/potential of cryptoart in Philosophy and Art (something relatively new and little studied in the academic environment) through the works that will be created in this project and also other products that will arise (such as papers, interviews, lectures, virtual events, etc.). This will certainly catch the attention of many academics who, in addition to honoring the works, will help to promote the debate on the impact of cryptoart on contemporary aesthetics. The funding that we are requesting will also be used for the production of the wallet NEAR for the artist and the students who will participate in the project, in the printing of the works (for the exhibition in the physical spaces of the universities) and in construction of the 3XR gallery. My role will be the production of concepts (from the Experimental Philosophy) and the curatorship of the works, in the creation of the 3XR gallery, in the exhibition of printed works at the Federal University of Pelotas (with about 18 thousand students) and also in the dissemination in other universities. Dr. Alberto Semeler will produce the works with the help of some students linked to his research project in art and artificial intelligence and, also, promote the physical exhibition in the spaces of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (about 47 thousand students). Our goal is to create many other NFTs to exhibit at the 3XR Gallery (always emphasizing the support of NEAR) having as a starting point the project that we submit for your appreciation.

Here are links to our CVs:
Dr. Alberto Semeler - http://lattes.cnpq.br/2897459119711239
Dr. Juliano do Carmo - http://lattes.cnpq.br/7477981517627461