Anusha Menon

Creativity in the visual arts has adapted to the continuous evolution of mediums and technology over the years, with artists finding ways to express their ideas in new modalities. Our understanding of creativity is evolving as well, with the introduction of generative AI as a controversial yet formidable entity in the creative industries. Considering the rapidity of the growth of AI as not just a tool for use by human beings, but as a competitive force in and of itself, there exists a dissonance between the kinds of creative output we are beginning to see now and the way they are used in a techno-centric world. My work seeks to reconcile these differences between human and machine creativity by reintroducing the embodied practices of art-making that have been lost in the process of trying to artificially recreate the creative human mind, while still leveraging the opportunities offered by generative AI. Using kinetic sand, a sensory play material, I intend to find a way to facilitate embodied interactions with AI to collaboratively create art, by engaging the body’s senses, movements and instincts. By collecting visual and motion data through a camera, the AI acts as an active collaborator in the making process with the human body, allowing for a higher level of control, creativity and participation in the process by the human.