Art & technology (tools of the era) have been paired together since time immemorial: stone & chisels, canvas & brushes, premixed paint and pre-stretched canvas, cameras & film, Photoshop, Cinema4D... the list is extensive and never-ending. Artists are often the first of an age to experiment with tools and technology, embracing new expressiveness, capabilities, or media in the pursuit of new visions or insights. So, is it surprising that AI systems – the latest evolution of technology – are a new playground for art?
Art and AI have a beautifully convoluted history AND future. Generative AI systems have been trained on datasets containing images that may or may not have been approved by the authors. AI systems generate images that replicate or mimic artist’s individual styles, without credit or compensation. State-of-the-art AI platforms are owned by private corporations building for private bottom-lines, after ingesting the near-entirety of human-created written & visual content on the Internet. And AI systems can generate more artworks in less time than the entirety of the human artist population.
At the same time, AI systems unlock creative potential in aspiring and established artists alike. These systems may reveal new permutations or creative combinations that inspire artists in new directions. AI systems can preserve and interpret massive amounts of human culture, possibly helping to identify new trends, shared traditions or commonalities, or new insights that human brains simply can’t process. Finally, AI systems can reduce the time to completion for a work and can accelerate the learning and output of hobbyists or new artists.
For the time being, the US Copyright Office, and potentially other copyright regimes, have ruled that AI art is not copyrightable to the extent that the work was generated by a system instead of by human “hands” or input. But the full process of using generative systems - creating a unique and compelling prompt to fire up the system, refining the prompts to refine the outputs, processing the results with additional edits or layers - all point to the depth of the human creative impulses at play.
The Town of Superior's public art committee (Cultural Arts & Public Spaces - "CAPS") is interested in promoting cutting edge digital arts locally and regionally, as well as building the local talent base of artists competent in creating digital arts of all types. AI art tools are both incredibly novel and approachable for artists of all skill levels. We recognize that many of the commercially available AI generative systems have not yet adequately addressed the copyright and cultural issues around consent, credit & compensation for the artist content used in training data or appearing in derivative outputs. But what these systems have accomplished in making sophisticated art-making tools available to the average artist should not be dismissed out of hand. Because Superior endeavors to promote digital arts of all types, and AI generative tools can allow artists - from novice to professional alike - to create new and compelling content that can be celebrated for its uniqueness, innovation of artistic process, and high quality, we are launching this Colorado statewide competition to bring attention to this emerging space - while at the same time using this opportunity to inform our residents about the legal, ethical, and technical issues that AI systems of all types create. This is both a creative exercise and an exercise in future-proofing the skillsets and awareness levels of our friends & neighbors.
The theme for this year’s competition is Technology & Emotion.
This competition is open to full-time residents of the state of Colorado. No member of the Jury Panel or Superior CAPS is eligible.
The Jury Panel will consist of the following individuals:
All submissions will require a $5 submission fee per completed submission. Submissions must meet these minimum requirements:
Unfortunately for this first competition, we cannot accept live-running generative code.
The non-juried members of the Superior CAPS committee will assess all received entries for completeness and an initial pre-selection review. This review will select all works that qualify for the Accepted List. The Accepted shortlist will be made public on the Superior CAPS website on or before July 12, 2024. These Accepted projects will be presented to the final jury who will select three winners according to the rules of this Competition. Any works that are Not Accepted will be returned to the author(s).
Jury members will have access to all the documentation submitted by entrants. Each Jury member will have a voice and vote. A member of Superior CAPS will act as a non-voting secretary of the Jury. The jury reserves the right to declare the competition null and void if the entries are not considered to be of sufficient quality or do not conform to the specifications stipulated here.
The jury can take any initiatives it considers necessary to check the information presented by entrants. The jury can withdraw the status of winner from the selected artists and declare new winners in the case that participants do not accept the prize or are determined later to be ineligible per the Acceptance Criteria.
Decisions of the jury panel and the organizing team are final, and no discussions with regards to the selection of finalists, winners or the showcasing of the work will be entertained.
The judging panel will assess the Accepted entries with regard to the following criteria and total possible criteria points:
Under the subjective and sole determination of the Initial Evaluation panel, no entry will be Accepted if that entry:
In the event that the Initial Evaluation process approves a submission as Accepted, and any work is later determined to violate any prohibition, the fact that the work was previously Accepted shall not be dispositive in favor of the submission.
First, Second and Third place purchase prizes (one of each) will be awarded by the jury. The jury may also decide to award (any amount of) Honorable Mentions. All winners will be announced on the SuperiorColorado.gov website, social media, and press releases. In exchange for the prize monies, the three winning art pieces (and any Honorable Mentions) will be acquired by the Town of Superior and will become part of the Town’s public art collection. In addition to networking and visibility opportunities, the pieces may be exhibited at various events or on Town platforms.
CAPS reserves the right to increase (but not decrease) the prizes and/or prize categories.
Upon close of the competition and selection of the winners, CAPS will announce an opening reception where all Accepted entries will be shown and the prize winners highlighted. Pending timing and availability, CAPS may host an optional artist & juror dinner with the Prize Winners to celebrate the successful conclusion of the competition.
By submitting an artwork through the CaFÉ portal, the submitting artist agrees to the following grants of rights to the Town of Superior with respect to each submission:
By accepting a purchase award as a finalist or honoree of the competition, the submitting artist agrees to the following additional grant of rights to the Town of Superior with respect to the winning submission(s):
The Town of Superior reserves the right to amend these rules, and shall provide ten (10) business days notice to all participants of any pending changes, which will be reflected in this document on an ongoing basis, with notated timestamps for any changes.
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