New Technologies in the Arts
By Dr Uwe Terton - 2026
Addie Wagenknecht�Black Hawk Paint: October, 2008, acrylic on canvas.
The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.
John Lasseter
The boom in 3D printed art has been building for several years, in fact, it seems no corner of the art world remains untouched by 3D printing's growing influence, from architecture to dance to painting to music. The emergence and proliferation of drone technology has inspired a vibrant response from the art world. Drone art includes both works that are created using drone technology and works that in some way address or depict the drone. Projection mapping, also known as video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a projection technology used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into a display surface for video projection. It was only a matter of time before the art world went virtual, too. Indeed, the ubiquity of smartphones and the public’s increasing familiarity with Augmented Reality (AR) apps in other spheres is beginning to have a tangible impact on how art is both created and displayed.
Katsu�Seasonal Depression
2012, acrylic on canvas.
Jonty Hurwitz received the Guinness world record for smallest human sculpture in the world fabricated using this Nano 3D printing carbon fibre, 2008.
3D printed art
3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file.
What is 3D printing
Marjan Coletti, Algae, 2013.
Marjan Coletti, Algae, 2013.
Richard Beckett, Fragile, 2012.
Michael van der Kley, Egg, 2014.
Shane Hope, Nano Objects, 2014.
William F. Duffy, Sometimes, 2012.
Joan Florea, Gran Torino 1971, 2014.
NickErvinck, AGRIEBORZ
3D Printed Facial Nerves.
For Nick Ervinck, technological innovation is something that should be embraced by the art world. Each generation of artists has at its disposal a different set of possibilities enabled by technology; paint in tubes allowed the Impressionists to paint in plain air rather than the studio, catching the changing quality of light and shadow, the development of silkscreen printing spurred Andy Warhol to create some of his most iconic works.
Nick Ervinck, YARONULK, sculpture (SLS 3D print, SLA 3D print and plexi), 2009-2010.
Damilola Odusote, Airforce 3D, 2014.
Robert Geshlider,
title unknown, 3d printed wood, 2011.
Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger , 3d Printed room, Amsterdam 2013
The 11-ton installation is printed with millions of incredibly detailed surfaces, and it stands almost 3.35 meters tall by 16 meters wide.
Drone technology
Drones are more formally known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Essentially, a drone is a flying robot. The aircraft may be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously through software-controlled flight plans in their embedded systems working in conjunction with GPS.
The emergence and proliferation of drone technology has inspired a vibrant response from the art world. Drone art includes both works that are created using drone technology and works that in some way address or depict the drone.
Examining drone art provides an opportunity to consider how society is responding to this technology and incorporating it into its cultural vocabulary. Drone art is also a case study in how new transformative technologies are adopted by artists, sometimes as a means of protesting against the technology itself and other times as a way to champion it.
In 1995, the Bureau of Inverse Technology flew a rudimentary camera-equipped remote-control airplane over a number of technology company campuses in Silicon Valley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cxi7P1tLyY
James Bridle,
Drone Shadows are 1:1 scale outlines of various military drones, painted in public spaces in various cities.
Seasonal Depression, KATSU, 2014.
KATSU, Drone Paintings, Image Courtesy of the artist and The Hole NYC
JR, #NotABugSplat, 2014.
Eleven Play and artist/hacker Daito Manabe, 2014
Drone 100 a magical experience, 2016.
An elaborate airborne music and light experience created by a fleet of 100 unmanned aerial vehicles that redefines art, enabled by Intel-powered PCs and digital artists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV5Jjd0ww5Q
Augmented Reality in Art
Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or Global Positioning System (GPS) data.
B.C. "Heavy" Biermann—a leading augmented reality (AR) artist and transmedia scholar—has stepped up efforts to reimagine public space through AR, 2013.
B.C. "Heavy" Biermann—a leading augmented reality (AR) artist and transmedia scholar—has stepped up efforts to reimagine public space through AR, 2013.
Leeser Architecture, part of ‘Augmented Reality’ at the Omi International Arts Center, 2013.
Brian Cox from Magic Leap, Yellow Submarine, 2015.
Brian Cox from Magic Leap, Whale Leap, 2015.
Using head-mounted virtual retinal displays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-INozHR7TI
Projection mapping
Projection mapping, also known as video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a projection technology used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into a display surface for video projection. These objects may be complex industrial landscapes, such as buildings, small indoor objects or theatrical stages.
Seeper, Wings of Desire, Birmingham, 2012
New Technology in Art
Throughout history, technology has provided artists with new tools for expression.
All over the world, people are engineering our future. The internet, digital fabrication, nanotech, biotech, self-modification, augmented reality, virtual reality - you name it, all of this is altering our lives and our view of the world and ourselves.
Thanks to them, not only is original art being made everywhere, but entirely new art forms are evolving as well.
It is about the experience the artist delivers to the public - whether it is provocative, whether it changes how the viewer thinks, feels and views the world.
Break
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Art
AI in the arts uses computer algorithms and machine learning (ML) to create or improve creative works like images, music, and writing. Artists use AI like a smart tool. It can brainstorm ideas, mix different art styles, and do repetitive tasks in seconds.
How It Works�AI art uses massive datasets (large collections of existing art, photos, and text). A neural network is a math system inside the computer that looks for patterns in these collections.
Analogy: Think of the AI as a giant collage machine. It looks at millions of existing paintings. Then, it uses pieces of those paintings to build a brand-new image based on your instructions.
Key Concepts
Prompt: A text description you type to tell the AI what to make. It acts like a camera lens. For example, you might type: "A sunset over a mountain, oil painting style”.
Text-to-Image: A computer program that turns your text prompt into a picture.
Source: Google Gemini AI 21-07-2026
Common Uses of AI in Art
Idea Generation: Artists use AI to quickly sketch out layouts or mix weird ideas together.
Music: AI can help write melodies or generate background beats.
Writing: Writers use AI to generate story ideas or polish sentences.
Editing: AI helps remove unwanted background objects in photos or fix lighting.
The Debate�Using AI in art can be controversial. Some people worry it takes jobs away from human creators.
Others worry about copyright issues because AI trains on the work of human artists.
Many traditional artists view AI as a helpful assistant rather than a replacement.
Source: Google Gemini AI 21-07-2026
This AI-Powered Robot Can Paint – But Is It Art?
What is AI? 0:00 to 1:02
Screenshot from ABC docu: AI in Arts 2026
Generative Artificial Intelligence
Artists are using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) 6:05 to 8:51
Screenshot from ABC docu: AI in Arts 2026
Human versus AI
The test: Can the audience tell the difference between AI generated artworks and human made artworks? 48:23 to 55:19
Source: Ploin, A., Eynon, R., Hjorth I. & Osborne, M.A. (2022). AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work. Report from the Creative Algorithmic Intelligence Research Project. Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK.
artificial intelligence (AI) have caused an explosion of interest in “creative AI”.
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning (ML) is Changing Artistic Work
Question:
Is AI enhancing creativity?
And will human/algorithm synergies help unlock the human creative potential?
Source: Ploin, A., Eynon, R., Hjorth I. & Osborne, M.A. (2022). AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work.
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work
Artists’ explore engagement with machine learning (ML) technology
Who uses ML?
spaghetti alla chitarra GANcommedia
Erudita, volume II (2021)
by Helena Sarin
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work
The researchers who develop ML models have a very different understanding of what art is. They focus on the aesthetics of an image. They’re much more interested in trying to replicate the styles of paintings of the past than in participating
But now fine artists adopt ML techniques to produce works within their own traditions and often exhibit in traditional or mixed-media art spaces.
Media artists, on the other hand, use the technology itself––often in the form of installations–– to stage a conversation around technology and society
Source: Wolfram, 2020
https://blog.wolfram.com/2020/08/18/generative-adversarial-networks-gans-in-the-wolfram-language/
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work
A GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) is an artificial intelligence (AI) framework that creates new, realistic data based on patterns it learns from existing data. It works by pitting two AI models against each other in a game: a Generator creates fake data, and a Discriminator tries to spot the fakes.
The Two Parts
The Generator: This network starts by creating random, messy data (like a novice painter making brush strokes). Its goal is to create data so convincing that it fools the Discriminator.
The Discriminator: This network acts like an art critic. It looks at the Generator's work alongside real data and tries to guess which is which.
Learning Nature (b38,4106,16)
(2018) by David Young
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work
Vectoglyph (from emoji) (2019) by
Nicolas Boillot
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work
Is it all just a HYPE
“Hype” is an important component in responding to technological developments in the arts.
That’s why this is a fascinating time. Saying ‘this is a new medium’ or ‘art movement’ or ‘genre’––as some people are saying––seems very grandiose, but it’s also really exciting. The rulebook hasn’t been written yet, and that’s such an exciting place to be. We don’t have the answers to these things. We are constantly repositioning ourselves and working out our views.
A GAN-generate
landscape (2018) by
Robbie Barrat
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work
Robbie Barrat:
I watched the GAN learn, and I chose when to cut it off from learning. That sounds a bit arbitrary, but how long it learns really does affect the output.
After the networks had already learned how to make landscape things well, I noticed that every few days of training it would alternate between making really bright, psychedelic landscape paintings, and really dark, moody ones. So, I cut it off when it was making the darker paintings because I enjoyed those more.
From the Corrections series (2019–)
by Robbie Barrat
AI and the Arts: How Machine Learning is Changing Artistic Work
What GANs are available to artists?
Open-source GAN options for art include:
StyleGAN3: Made by Nvidia, this is the gold standard for high-resolution images. It lets you "morph" styles seamlessly.
CycleGAN: This tool transforms real photos into the style of famous paintings.
Art-GANs: Community-built projects designed specifically to generate creative, abstract, or classic artwork using simple deep learning setups.
AI Art: How artists are using and confronting machine learning | HOW TO SEE LIKE A MACHINE
MOMA New York – 2023
Duration: 14:56
Thank you and enjoy art in all it’s facets.