Committee on Legal Affairs voted in favour of drafting regulations to govern the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Within this proposal was guidance on ‘electronic personhood’, which would ensure rights and obligations for the most developed AI. As technology becomes more autonomous in the creation of art, this begs the question of whether these rights will include creative ownership, and how such ownership will be regulated online. firm Shakespeare Martineau, Mauro Paiano, says: “Although the current regime can protect copyright in digital artwork, the problem for copyright owners is the ease with which digital artwork can be replicated. “For the time being, it is hard to envisage a scenario where a self-aware robot would be recognised as the owner of copyright unless it is recognised as a legal person. This subject has been highlighted in the Civil Law Rules on Robotics report, which challenges the EU parliament to deal with such issues.” While such concepts are still on blueprints, they leave us with a host of unanswered Partner and intellectual property specialist at law
transcending the pages of books.
We can also now teleport art into our homes using the Art Beamer app, which allows viewers to visualise art on their own walls. After pointing a mobile device at their selected space, the screen reveals the artwork in the same space – hovering curiously between real and unreal. In the process, technology is invited into our most private sanctum, becoming part of our everyday life and the fabric of our home. No longer reserved for the privileged, art can be accessed by anyone with a computer or mobile device. While Vincent Van Gogh once showcased his artworks in the cafés of Paris, artists now display their creations on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Word of mouth has been replaced by the strokes of a keyboard, as art is dissected and critiqued by virtual strangers. Technology has opened up opportunities of which artists could previously only have dreamed. The world’s largest online community for artists and art enthusiasts, DeviantArt, enables people from across the globe to connect through the creation and sharing of work. And the formerly Instagram-based gallery Unit London was born in 2013 from the desire of artists Joe Kennedy and Jonny Burt to “break down the barriers of elitism” and make contemporary art accessible to all. But with this accessibility comes an inevitable anxiety. Tales of intelligent robots and technology superior to humans, that once seemed so fantastical, are now
In 2016, the first-ever International Robotic Art Competition saw 26 robots competing for the $100,000 prize in two categories: telerobotics (robots controlled by humans via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), and fully-automated painting robots. The same year, the IK Prize – which is awarded by Tate Britain for a concept that uses digital technology to transform the way we explore art – was briefed in partnership with Microsoft to create a form of artificial intelligence that understands art. Awareness, once thought of as a human trait, can now be programmed into an inanimate object. Whole brain emulation – also known as mind uploading – enables the transfer of brain processes such as long-term memory and ‘self’ to a computer. Man and machine are no longer two neatly-defined entities, but interchangeable. Artist Simon Wilkinson explores this concept through his fusion of art and 3D animation. His robotic pieces analyse, dissect and reassemble the emotions and experiences that make personalising features render them unidentifiable; they are an everyman figure that is both intimate and unobtainable. This synthesis of technology and humanity was illustrated in January 2017, when the European Parliament’s us human. Their generic body shape and lack of
questions. We are left to wonder whether we will continue to live in a world
where technology and art exist in tenuously separate spheres, and if we will face the same jarring illogicality: how can something supposedly without feeling make us feel so much?
FINE ART COLLECTOR AUTUMN 2017 71
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