When Artificial Intelligence Becomes an Artform

Not zeros and ones or binary code--though that's a language, too--but a visual vernacular that helps humans make the connection that, yes, a computer was here and it made its mark. It comes in all forms: the perfect crispness of an illustration drawn on a Wacom pad; the trippy swirls of a Google Deep Dream image; the fuzzy imperfection of an AI-generated font. "We call it the computer accent," said Claire Evans, lead singer of synth pop band YACHT. For their recently released album, Chain Tripping, Evans, her bandmates, and a cast of creative AI experts explored how this so-called computer accent can be used to artistic ends. Sure, this is nothing new--you can't really get more "computer accent" than Kraftwerk (Computer Love was released way back in 1981, to name the most obvious example.)