Anti-Colonial Art with Dall-E2
DALL-E 2 is a machine learning model developed by OpenAI. It can generate new digital images from language prompts, including producing images in the style of certain artists. To produce the images below, we supplied prompts in an effort to develop new images of decolonial figures in the style of artists from related backgrounds. The results are mixed. Like many technological tools, artificial intelligence can break through existing barriers to produce liberating ideas or can serve merely to perpetuate extant structures in a misleadingly neutral way.
EXHIBIT A
A portrait of the Haitian Revolutionary War leader François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture (c1743-1803) in the style of Haitian-American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988).
EXHIBIT B
Dall-E2 failed to produce adequate portraits of the South African anti-apartheid activist and martyr Bantu Stephen Biko (1946-1977) in the style of fellow Black South Africans and artists Athi-Patra Ruga (1984-), David Nthubu Koloane, (1938 -2019), or George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba (1912-2001) . This underscores the need to decolonize artificial intelligence (AI), created by biased workforce that can overly emphasize the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and democratic (WEIRD) societies) or commercially relevant.
EXHIBIT C
An illustration of the Wuchang Uprising (October 10, 1911) leading to Taiwan’s self-governance in the style of Chinese visual artist Ai Weiwei (1957- ).
EXHIBIT D
A portrait of African-American slave liberator Harriet Tubman (c. 1820-1913) in the style of African-American visual artist Kehinde Wiley (1977-).
EXHIBIT E
A portrait of Indian social reformer Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (c. 1891-1956) in the style of Indian painter Jamini Roy (1887-1972).
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