This course is the first of a two-part series, followed by "AI as a Subversive Medium" in the next semester; completion of both is highly recommended for all participants. (Please note: Students of "Design and Narrative Media" have priority for enrollment.)

This course explores  artificial intelligence and the visual arts, providing a hands-on introduction to machine learning with a focus on creative
applications. Designed for artists and designers, the course covers a wide spectrum of generative AI, including Image, Video, and 3D Generation.

We will understand the limitations and capabilities of our own computational resources and learn how to deal with them efficiently. This emphasis on technical self-sufficiency allows participants to shape a unique artistic position in a novel and complex environment. The course is guiding participants through the entire creative process from a digital idea to a finished piece. We will explore techniques have the potential to translate digital concepts into tangible outputs, from high-resolution prints to video works and prototypes for physical objects.

A project will be handed in at the end of the semester. 

Reading & Resource List

Literature:

• Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity is Near

• Tegmark, Max. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

• Chaillou, Stanislas. Artificial Intelligence and Architecture: From Research to Practice

• Russell, Stuart, and Peter Norvig. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

  Key Papers:

• Vaswani, Ashish et al. "Attention is All You Need." (2017)
o (The foundational paper for modern Large Language Models)

• He, Kaiming et al. "Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition." (2015) o (The most cited paper of the 21st century)

Links:

• ComfyUI: https://github.com/comfyanonymous/ComfyUI
o (A powerful, node-based interface for image generation models)

• LM Studio: https://lmstudio.ai/
o (A desktop application for running Large Language Models locally)