review: Green hour: “Ai and the blockchain in contemporary art: Consequences and opportunities of digital art for climate change discourse” (Amanda Wasielewski)

How does Digital Art deal with ecological issues, and how “ecological” is it, really?

In her talk on “AI and the Blockchain in Contemporary Art” Prof. Dr. Amanda Wasieleski dove deep into the history of art and visual technologies and asked crucial questions about the relationship between ideology, politics, and practice-based-knowledge. Taking the unresolved tensions that occur whenever AI is discussed from an environmental viewpoint and in relation to energy use, she addressed the role of the artist as a figure that can “hack,” or “inhabit” established practices of knowing. One of her examples was Refik Anandol, who uses data and machine intelligence to create public artpieces and sculptures that move beyond traditional purposes of art as either individual expression or a medium with its own, internal logic. While it cannot escape the environmental consequences that come with a massive use of resources like water and electricity, it can nevertheless create a new sense of aesthetic and environmental engagement in a world that is increasingly dependent on artifical intelligence.