2023
ARTificial: Art in the Age of AI
With Eva Cetinic, Friendred Peng, Florian Schmidt and moderated by Lucas Evers
As we move forward into the digital age, AI systems are emerging at a rapid rate, blurring the lines between human creativity and artificial intelligence. In the world of art, AI-generated works are becoming increasingly common, challenging our understanding of what it means to create, appreciate, and value art.
“Please indicate whether artificial intelligence tools were used for the creation of submitted art piece.” we added a requirement to this year’s Art of Neuroscience competition.
You may ask why we did not request to indicate whether neuroscience data was in any form transformed using AI tools? We (as humans) are admittedly biased when it comes to accepting how human-like AI can be. We accept AI to make intelligent decisions, analyze patterns in the data, help to solve or anticipate problems, but we are reluctant to attribute AI human-only qualities like understanding, emotion and consciousness. And we are convinced that emotions need to fuel the creation of art which AI is lacking. The theme of this year’s Art of Neuroscience Seminar, “ARTifical,” explores the intersection of art and AI, and the changing view of what the value and creation of art is in this emerging world.
There are many popular AI websites and tools that artists can use to create their works. For example, Midjourney, an online tool that uses neural networks to transform photos into (sur)realistic images, has gained popularity among artists. Another tool, “The Next Rembrandt,” is an AI-generated portrait that mimics the style of the Dutch master, and “Portrait of Edmond de Belamy” is an AI-generated painting that was sold at Christie’s auction house for $432,500.
While the competition is now closed, we can reflect on the theme of this year’s “ARTifical,” discussing the intersection of art and AI and the changing view of what the value and creation of art is in this emerging world. The competition provided a platform for artists to showcase their works, whether they were created by humans, AI, or a combination of both, in response to this theme. All the submitted artworks represented a diverse range of perspectives and creative approaches, providing a thought-provoking reflection on the impact of AI on the art world.
Seminar and Award Ceremony in the Singelkerk Amsterdam, the Netherlands on the 22nd of June.

Eva Cetinic

Friendred Peng

Florian Schmidt

Lucas Evers
2012
The History of Neuroscience in Pictures, Installations Inspired by Computational Neuroscience Models
Sarah de Rijcke, Joost Rekveld
2013
Is Art an Endeavor Unique to Humans?, The NeuroImage, Pop-up Book of the Brain, What is Beauty?
Dick Swaab, Patricia Pisters, Moon Brouwer, Semir Zeki
2014
Intelligence of the hand, Seeing with Sound, Memory and Borges
Monika Auch, Peter Meijer, and Rodrigo Quian Quiroga.
2015
Mapping the Brain with Games, Neural Feeback Games, Brain Waves and Documentaries, Virtual Prosthetic Limbs
Amy Robinson Sterling, Isabela Granic, Caspar Sonnen, Robin de Lange, Rianne Blom & Collin Turbyne.
2016
Could Ballet Be a Contemplative Practice? Why Do We Dance Better than Robots? Dance, Cognition & Technology. Neuroscience Inspired Dance. The Effects of Dance on the Diseased Brain.
Marieke van Vugt, Chris de Zeeuw, Maaike Bleeker, Arno Schuitemaker, Hanneke Hulst
Together w/ Worlding the Brain
Winner announcement at FENS 2016 in Copenhagen
2019-2022
Winner announcement at the Dutch Neuroscience Meeting
Tiel, the Netherlands
