Art versus artificial intelligence. Attitudes, strategies, aesthetics | debate

The development of artificial intelligence technology and related industry and infrastructure is one of the most important challenges of today.

The influence of AI is observed in all fields of culture — science, communication, politics, industry, entertainment... also in art. How does her understanding change? What transformations are artistic practices subject to? How do we perceive the position of the artist? What does creativity become in the face of “creative” machines? What are the challenges facing aesthetics today? These are key questions for understanding art in the age of AI. Starting from the problematization of the status of art, the participants of the panel try to indicate how art can problematize, examine, critically analyze, but also intervene, and can also actively shape the new form of technoculture emerging before our eyes due to the expansion of AI.

Debate participants

Prof. Piotr Zawojski

Professor of Humanities — works at the Institute of Cultural Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Silesia in Katowice, where he lectures on the theory and history of cinema, contemporary film, new audiovisual media, media archaeology, new media art, cyberculture and technoculture. Lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow at the Faculty of Intermediums. He also lectured at the Faculty of Radio and Television of the University of Warsaw, the Higher School of Mechatronics in Katowice and at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

In total, he is the author of more than 370 scientific publications, critical texts, essays, reviews, including books: Electronic Imagery. Between art and technology (2000); The great films of the turn of the century. Subjective Guide (2007); Cyberculture. Syntopia of art, science and technology (2010, 2nd edition revised 2018); The art of image and imaging in the era of new media (2012); Technoculture and its artistic manifestations. The Media World of Hybrids and Hybridization (2016) (nomination for the Polish Society for Film and Media Research Award for Best Book of 2016); Moving Images Retained in Memory. Theoretical and critical reminiscences (2017); Writing and reading (about) photography. Explorers, classics, iconoclastics (2023) (award of the Polish Society for Film and Media Research for the best book of 2023); Four essays on culture and art in the age of AI (2025).

Sylwia Szykowna, PhD

Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. In his research work, he focuses on issues related to new technologies and culture, with a particular focus on the socio-cultural dimension of the development of artificial intelligence. Co-editor of the thematic issue of the quarterly “Kultura Contemporánea” devoted to artificial intelligence as a cultural phenomenon. Co-curator of the contemporary art exhibition “AI — Algorithms of Illusion” at the Zamek Cultural Center in Poznań (21.03 - 12.07.2026).

Marcin Skladanek, PhD, Prof. UŁ

Head of the Department of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Lodz. His research interests focus on interaction and user experience design, design theory, generative art, creative coding, data visualization, and artificial intelligence. Author of the book Generative Art. Method and practices (2017). He also works as an application designer and programmer.

Maciej Ożóg, PhD

Employee of the Department of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Lodz.

His research interests include interactive art, tactical media, bio art, network society, surveillance studies and posthumanism. He has published dozens of articles on the aesthetics of new media art, the history and theory of avant-garde film, video art and experimental music. His book “Life in a Silicon Cage. The Art of New Media as a Critical Analysis of Digital Surveillance Practices” was published in 2018 by Wydawnictwo UŁ.

Since the early nineties, he has been involved in the development of experimental music in Poland. Founder and co-creator of many bands and projects (Spear, Ben Zen, Nonstate, Aural Treat, Sub Spa, Quantum Vacuum Oscillator, Moist Hardware). He currently conducts solo activities creating multimedia performances, audiovisual interactive installations and videos. It uses unique, prototype electronic devices, analog and digital instruments.

As a curator, he organized and co-organized numerous concerts and exhibitions, including: the “Perform_Tech” 2017 program at the Łódź Art Factory, the Festival of Electronic Music and New Media Art “l'Tronica” in Łódź, the program “Art_Search” in Gliwice, the program “Karkowski re:mix” 2018 (including Berlin, Tokyo, Nantes, New York, Dresden), the program “Beyond the Horizon” devoted to experimental music and audio-visual arts (about 40 events between 2004 and 2009), 4 editions of the multimedia art exhibition “Die Kunst Ist Toth”, as well as concerts including: Coil, Noise Makers Fifes, Column One, Troum, Xaviere Charles, Z'ev, Zbigniew Karkowski, Aube, Tetsuo Furudate, Asmus Tietchens, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Marco Donnarumma, Thomas Ankersmit, Julien Ottavi, Ryan Jordan, Gil Kuno and many others.

The debate will take place on 9 October at 7 pm at the Fabryka Sztuki at 3 Tymienieckiego Street.