Predictable Artwork: From Modernity to the Age of AI

The Frankfurt School (Frankfurter Schule), a scientific and philosophical movement, emerged from the Institute for Social Research (Institut für Sozialforschung) at the University of Frankfurt, founded 100 years ago. Led by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, the thinkers of the Frankfurt School were the first to attempt to develop theories that examined the impact of modern mass media on society. The term 'culture industry' was coined by Horkheimer and Adorno in their analysis of the collective functioning of mass media, with which they criticized the social influence of media mediated by technology in modern mass culture. Walter Benjamin also thought similarly about the impact of technological change. He argued that the technological impact on art also affects human perception, resulting in new creative processes, changing modes of reception, attitudes, and cultural changes. Benjamin was one of the first to examine the impact of technology on art and the ways in which art was created at the turn of the century. His essay, which builds on this issue, was published in 1936 under the title 'Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit' (The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility). Benjamin's critical thinking in the 20th century, and its impact on art and culture, defined the thinking about the nature of art, which still contributes to the examination of modern aesthetic, art theoretical, and literary theoretical questions. Concepts such as authenticity and 'aura' (Benjamin) in the age of digital, data-based works serve as starting points for the issues of the role, nature, and impact of contemporary art. The purpose of my research is to demonstrate, based on the Benjaminian theory, how technological reproducibility has become an integral part of artistic practice, and to analyze its cultural effects, which can serve as a basis for understanding the phenomena taking place in the art scene and cultural industry today, the impact of automated artistic processes in the 21st century, the relationship between the artist and the recipient, the change in the meaning of the concept of art, and the application of artificial intelligence in art.