Call for Papers

Art, Aesthetics, and Artificial Intelligence

Volume 71 (4/2023)

Submission deadline: October 1, 2023


In the winter of 2022, with the launch of ChatGPT and the pursuit of advancing Large Language Models, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning quickly appeared in the mainstream of the social, scientific, and artistic debate. While the use of AI in social and scientific development is widely accepted and advanced in art and creative work, the presence of AI is not so obvious and undisputed. Many artists reach for AI as a tool enabling them to accomplish their artistic intentions. At the same time, AI is not original and has already raised plagiarism and copyright problems within the context of the arts, including visual art. Still, the output generated by AI in the role of a non-human automatic agent significantly impacts an audience’s imagination. For many recipients of art, this is proof that also, in this sphere, human, technical skills can be replaced by machines. More and more often, there are voices that the artist’s profession will soon share the fate of such non-existent professions as carriage makers, slubber doffers, pin setters, or knocker-uppers. In a more moderate version, there is a widespread opinion that an artist’s work will be fully automated and – to quote the words of José Ortega y Gasset – dehumanized. On the other hand, AI technology enthusiasts argue it may be time to humanize the algorithm, recognizing its ability to produce artifacts and independently create new art, which in its aesthetic values and impact is equal to the achievements of non-computational human artists.
Discussions about art created by AI and algorithms usually center around what is known as generative art. New media researcher Philip Galanter writes that “Generative art refers to any art practice where the artist uses a system, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, machine, or other procedural invention, which is set into motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a completed work of art.” Generative art defines unique and unpredictable events and entails new artistic processes and challenges. Artistic creation does not serve so much to create artifacts as a program constituting a new natural and artificial environment. Undoubtedly, art created with the help of a special program and AI technology recontextualizes our understanding of skills and art. It does not exactly reproduce existing forms but gains the potential to create new phenomena based on existing artistic practices. This probably implies developing art as a creative practice within all existing fields. Still, at the same time, it brings numerous challenges and questions of a philosophical and aesthetic nature, such as the art of “prompt engineering,” which may be compared to an emergent genre of text, such as poetry and prose.
In this forthcoming volume of The Polish Journal of Aesthetics, we invite researchers to submit articles that explore the relationship between art, aesthetics, and artificial intelligence. We propose to consider the following (and related) problems:

What is AI creation? Is it a work of art?
How is the status and understanding of works of art changing in the age of AI?
How is the status and importance of artists changing in the age of AI?
Is AI an artist?
To what extent can AI-generated art be considered original or creative?
Who is responsible for AI-generated art, and who owns it?
Will AI art reflect the biases of its creators and perpetuate existing inequalities?
How is the understanding of traditional artistic and aesthetic values changing with AI?
Does the aesthetic experience of works create by AI change, and how?
Does the awareness that AI created a given work affect its reception, and how?

Author Guidelines:

We ask Authors to read our guidelines posted under the tab For Authors and to double-check the completeness of each submission (please remember to submit collectively: the abstract, keywords, bibliography, and a biographical note about the author) before submitting.

Only complete submissions sent through the submissions page will be accepted—submission page: https://submissions.pjaesthetics.uj.edu.pl/index.php/PJA.

All submitted articles are subject to double-anonymized reviews. Articles published in The Polish Journal of Aesthetics are assigned DOI numbers.

Please do not hesitate to contact us via email: pjaesthetics@uj.edu.pl

About the Journal:

The Polish Journal of Aesthetics is highly regarded as an international forum for debate in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. The journal is published to promote the study and discuss philosophical questions about aesthetic experience and creative work. The Journal is open to different intellectual and artistic orientations. It publishes lively and thoughtful articles on various topics, from art, aesthetics, the philosophy of art, popular culture, and new technologies. The journal is a quarterly periodical published by the Institute of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

Please visit our website at https://pjaesthetics.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/

The journal is indexed by: SCOPUS; Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (CEJSH); EBSCO; Index Copernicus International; e-Publikacje Nauki Polskiej; PhilPapers. Online research in Philosophy; The European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS) ; Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL); The Philosopher’s Index; Polska Baza Cytowań POL-index; ICI Journals Master List.