Rigorous creativity: AI, art and electronic life

Abstract

This article introduces and elaborates the concept of rigorous creativity as an approach to working with artificial intelligence (AI) in artistic and cultural practice. Emerging from the collaborative initiative Electronic Life – a year-long, public-facing programme at Tate Britain – our approach positions AI not merely as a tool but as an encounter, a partner in thought and co-creation. Drawing on historical precedents (such as the New Tendencies movement and Harold Cohen’s AARON) and theoretical reflections (with reference to cognitive assemblages, extended mind theory, and the pharmakon), we argue for a situated, process-based mode of inquiry that is open-ended, critically alert, and participatory. As such, we critique prevailing modes of AI spectacle and techno-solutionism, calling instead for an interdisciplinary practice attuned to lifeworlds, institutional contexts, and emergent human – machine ecologies. Overall, we argue rigorous creativity allows for a renewed negotiation of authorship, aesthetic value, and collective agency vis-à-vis generative AI.

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