AI art remains hugely controversial but it's attracting more and more attention on the art scene. Botto, a fully autonomous 'AI artist' has been setting new milestones in the history of AI art with its art sales, and now there's a physical magazine dedicated to AI art.
Called simply the AI Art Magazine (perhaps they could have asked an AI to suggest a more creative title), the mag will be published twice a year as a "vital chronicle of this transformative moment in art history". It features art created using AI image generators as chosen by a jury comprising 10 humans and an AI-generated bot called Xiaomi.
The AI Art Magazine aims to adopt a serious approach to AI art, but it's hard not to think that it may be a parody during during the video above, in which Xiaomi, an "experimental AI designed to analyse and evaluate art through data-driven patterns", interviews the artist and designer Jan Wölfel about the creative process behind his seminal work "Girl in a Pizza Dress".
Xiaomi describes the piece as "unique combination of fashion and cuisine" before Jan goes on to explain how he experimented with generating images of women in elaborate edible dresses. It feels uncanny: sometimes amusing and sometimes a creepy. There's an uncomfortable moment when Xiaomi asks Jan if he would rather his work had been selected by a human judge.
As amusing as it is, the interview seems a fitting picture of where AI art is today. We're still not sure about how to treat it, what to say about it or whether to take it seriously at all. And these are questions AI Art Magazine aims to explore
Devised by the Hamburg-based creative studio called Polardots and published by Mike Brauner, the magazine aims to showcase "remarkable works and accompanying essays that set the benchmark for today’s AI-generated art—from surprising visual experiments to conceptually refined pieces that push the boundaries of this rapidly evolving field."
The cover of the debut issue features a piece by the Japanese artist Emi Kusano. Inside there's a curated gallery of 50 works, selected by the jury via an international open call. There are the obligatory images of people wearing unusual steampunk headgear, and jury members have written essays to accompany some of the pieces.
The jury will change for each edition. The first included Boris Eldagsen, who is most famous for having turned down a Sony World Photo Award in 2023 because his entry was made by AI. There's also the graphic designer and '3D generalist' Adriana Mora along with David Carson, the former art director of Ray Gun magazine Grit Wolany, a freelance art director and AI scout at ZHdK.
The first edition of AI Art Magazine is out now and costs €22. For more AI art news, see our roundup of the biggest AI art controversies in 2024.
