This book offers six critical, interdisciplinary approaches to AI-generated images. It invites the reader to (re-)imagine relationships between artefacts and media, authorship and agency, creativity and commodification, representation, and visual style. Across the chapters, the book examines three realities of AI images, from sociotechnical fabrics, through semiotic interfaces, to representations and aesthetics.
Drawing on media studies, philosophy of technology, multimodality studies, critical AI studies, and visual communication studies, the book pursues the following interconnected topics: (1) addressing pataphysical and sociomaterial engagements with AI image making, (2) theorizing distributed and probabilistic forms of agency through the concept of vector agency, (3) analysing interfaces and affordances of visual generative AI via multimodal walkthroughs, (4) conceptualising prompting as a cultural practice that reshapes agency, (5) mapping representational patterns and emerging visual genres in AI-generated imagery, and (6) interrogating how visual AI styles are co-produced by machines, users, and generative platform politics. These six critical lenses offer complementary perspectives to understanding the complex ecosystem surrounding AI image production.
Six Critical Lenses on AI-Generated Images is intended for scholars, graduate students, and practitioners working with visual generative AI in both analytical and creative contexts. Ultimately, the book calls for a reflexive and responsible engagement with increasingly AI-mediated visual culture.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction: Making Sense of AI-Generated Images by Nataliia Laba and Catherine Bouko
Chapter 1. On Pataphysical Engagements with GenAI Image Making and Sociomaterial Trade-offs by Suneel Jethani
Chapter 2. On Vector Agency by Emanuele Arielli
Chapter 3. On Exploring the Visual Grounds and Affordances of AI-generated Images through Multimodal Walkthroughs by Daniel Pfurtscheller & Katharina Christ
Chapter 4. On Prompting as a Cultural Practice in Visual Generative AI by Craig Johnson & Rowan Tulloch
Chapter 5. On Representations and Emerging Genres of AI-Generated Images by Katharina Lobinger
Chapter 6. On Machines, Users, and the Politics of Visual Style in AI-Generated Images by T.J. Thomson, Catherine Bouko, Nataliia Laba, & Janina Wildfeuer
