THOMPSON LECTURE

Time to Meet the Maker? Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Art

October 10 | 6p | FIA Theater | FIA Members Only Event

Dr. Aaron Rosen & Michael Takeo Magruder, Guest Lecturers

This year’s lecture is a discussion between writer, curator, and scholar Dr. Aaron Rosen and renowned new media artist Michael Takeo Magruder. 

Is artificial intelligence (AI) the latest horizon of conceptual art, or something fundamentally new? If someone instructs an AI system to produce a work of art, does that make them an artist? Will traditional ideas of creativity and inspiration change or indeed survive in an AI-saturated world? How might AI impact the art market, from production to authentication to sales? These are just some of the thought-provoking art historical, philosophical, and economic issues, which Rosen and Magruder will touch upon in their public discussion. Aiming to inform and excite even those with limited technological knowledge, Rosen and Magruder offer an accessible discussion punctuated by various visual examples, including never-before-seen works by Magruder himself.

Aaron Rosen, is a writer, curator, and non-profit leader. He is the Executive Director of the Clemente Course in the Humanities and Visiting Professor at King’s College London. He served as Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary and began his career as a fellow at Yale, Oxford, and Columbia Universities. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge. His many books include What Would Jesus See? and Art and Religion in the 21st Century.  

Michael Takeo Magruder is a visual artist and researcher based in the UK whose work uses Information Age technologies and systems to examine our networked, media-rich world. His projects have been showcased in over 300 exhibitions in 35 countries, and he has served as artist in residence at major international institutions like the British Library and The National Archives (UK). He has been funded by bodies including Arts Council England, the Andy Warhol Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (US). He graduated with a BSc in biology from the University of Virginia and is represented by Gazelli Art House in London.

The Thompson Lecture was established in 1991 by Dr. and Mrs. Jack W. Thompson to enable the Flint Institute of Arts to present a distinguished speaker in the arts or humanities each year. The Thompson Lecture is one of the Institute’s few members only events and was established, in part, to attract new members to the FIA.