Mohamed Elhoseiny, Divyansh Jha & Hanna H Chang
Emotions Constructed Through AI Art, (2020)
One of the most important meanings of art comes from emotions and feelings constructed by the artist and the audience. Our art pieces Complacency: Dream (2021), Fear: Abandoned Ship (2021), Excitement: Waves of Emotions (2021), and Discomfort: Skeleton (2021), developed by our creative AI model, demonstrate how the audience can emotionally relate to AI art in diverse ways. Based on 3000+ survey responses, we selected these artworks from our AI art collection, which contains paintings that construct emotions like awe, fear, contentment, excitement, disgust, amusement, and anger in the audience who engaged with our AI artworks. These AI artworks symbolize AI-generated artworks' emotional potential and how they can construct timeless emotions people experience with art. The emergence of AI creativity may alter the art creation process, but the audience’s diverse emotions are unaltered.
Complacency: Dream (2021): Complacency: Dream (2021) constructed emotions of awe and contentment as directly quoted by the audience: 1) “distinct, bright, clean and clear picture has a strong emotion to it”, 2)“The shades of red and light golden with black background gives the picture a perfect modern art look”. Reminding the audience of Salvador’s Dali’s Persistence of Memory, Complacency: Dream (2021) offers a dreamy and surreal effect, accentuated by the wavy, soft lines and abstract figures. The mystical color scheme with complementary hues leads to the aesthetic satisfaction of the artwork. The deep color of the background enhances a sense of mystery and serenity experienced in dreams.
Fear: Abandoned Ship (2021): Fear: Abandoned Ship (2021) constructed emotions of disgust and fear as directly quoted by the audience: 1) “…it is kind of irritating to look at this painting where one can’t really know if this is a machine or not.” 2) “The water looks turbulent and rough in the background.” The figure on the left corner resembles an abandoned ship on the shoreline. The ghostly appearance of the ship heightens a sense of discomfort and fear. The foggy background formed by the dark, gloomy color scheme and feathery brushstrokes further creates a sense of melancholy and unease.
Excitement: Waves of Emotions (2021): Excitement: Waves of Emotions (2021) constructed emotions of excitement and amusement as directly quoted by the audience: 1) “The green and pink tones remind me of the teletubbies” 2) “The bright colors blend together”. The curvy line portrays a shape that looks like a wave with a rapid high tide, offering a sense of intensity and energy. The neon color scheme further adds to the energetic feel of the artwork.
Discomfort: Skeleton (2021): Discomfort: Skeleton (2021) constructed emotions of anger and fear as directly quoted by the audience: 1) “The image contains a spider-like structure which makes me scared” 2) “The right figure almost spread towering above and bullying the small rock below”. The skeleton-like, spidery shape complemented by the intense color scheme creates discomfort. The disorderly composition, along with the overpowering dominance of the central figure, further adds to the sense of discomforting imbalance and restlessness.