Technology and Art Legitimation: Photography and AI-generated Images Compared

• In Event: Science, Knowledge & Technology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Knowledge Production in the Age of AI

Abstract

In a tech-saturated era, art legitimation is increasingly techno-mediated. However, classical theories, rooted in pre-digital societies, often reduce technology to a secondary tool or a static context, while emerging theories treat technology as a core agent but overlook how the heterogeneity of technological affordance exerts diversified agency in creative practices. To address such gaps, this study proposes a Techno-Social Legitimation Framework (TSLF) to investigate how technology contributes to the social legitimation of new art forms. Through a comparative study on photography and AI-generated images, this study analyzes how technology, camera and AI, serve both as a disruptor and an enabler, interacting with social institutions to negotiate legitimation of novel artistic forms. The study further demonstrates that technology’s duality: as an agent and a structure in the techno-social interactive pathways.

Authors

• Fen Jennifer Lin, City University of Hong Kong

• Zhiqi LI, City University of Hong Kong