Mark Jeremy Narag, a researcher from National Institute of Physics, in his talk titled Brushstrokes and Bytes: AI in Art Conservation, on Oct 16, closes with the line that I usually use when prompting a conversation about artificial intelligence (AI)—"AI is a tool”.
The exhibit features sample of processes or tasks taken by the team in using AI as tool for digital restoration of architectural drawings, maps, and paintings. The exhibit also features collaborative collections management between the project team and the College of Fine Arts, including artworks from the Parola collection, and modeling of study collection of the College.
As a documentation the exhibit proved to be an efficient device in retelling the process and progress of the project. What is lacking is the excitement in the exploration that Narag so beautifully described in his talk. This is what interests me—how can a project like this be exhibited that will capture not only the depth, but also the joy in conducting the labor? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that the exhibit is insufficient. As a matter of fact, I am almost sure that this is exactly how I will exhibit it if I was the curator. This is perhaps a proposal to go a little extra.
This is an afterthought from attending Narag’s very informative talk. He was able to unpack the process, in a language that a non-programmer/ non-tech/ art person would understand. The exhibit has this same quality. But Narag’s manner of delivering the lecture also highlighted the human in the process—that in this AI conservation or restoration project, the humans are deciding, AI and other machines are doing the computing and following the command they were trained to perform.
Over and above everything else, I am extra excited about this exhibit because it is one of those exhibits where technology, science and math are as beautiful as art.