<nettime> Conference: AI and the Creative Condition, Aarhus, Denmark, 23-24 March

[Søren Pold via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Conference: AI and the Creative Condition
https://arts.au.dk/en/text/conference-ai-and-the-creative-condition

The conference will take place 23-24 March, 2026 at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS)<https://aias.au.dk/>. It is hosted by Center for Contemporary Cultures of TEXT<https://arts.au.dk/en/text> and Human-AI Collaboration (HAIC-III).<https://darc.au.dk/projects/human-ai-collaboration-haic-iii>

Generative AI is not just a technical breakthrough – it’s reshaping how we create, communicate, and understand our cultural heritage.

By producing vast amounts of text, art, and other expressive forms, these technologies challenge assumptions about authorship, authenticity, expertise, and creativity itself. They also raise urgent questions about the cognitive, emotional, and social mechanisms at play when individuals co-create with AI. These technologies raise urgent questions about transparency and power, while their potential to augment or replace human skills calls for a re‑examination of craft, education, and cultural values.

The propagation of generative AI in literature re-actualizes discussions of authorship from twentieth-century, post-structuralist debates (Barthes 2016; Foucault 2003). The increasing difficulty of distinguishing AI-generated texts from human-written ones casts discussions of authorship in a new light (Bajohr 2023). Consider the rapid decline in the amount of self-published books on Amazon that list ChatGPT as an author (Hongisto 2025). It is likely not the case that the actual use of ChatGPT to produce self-published books is decreasing with the same rate.

Instead, what we are witnessing is a decreased interest in the notion that computers can produce cohesive text that is recognizable as being of a literary kind. It is simply not special or even unexpected that computers have nontrivial impact on processes of writing. However, we still lack robust psychological models to explain how writers adapt cognitively to AI collaboration – including effects on problem-solving, goal-setting, and self-efficacy.

At this conference, we invite scholars and thinkers from a variety of fields such as comparative literature, critical AI studies, critical data studies, cognitive science, psychology, human-computer interaction, and digital and computational humanities to take on the pressing and multi-layered question of how AI is transforming creative practice, cultural transmission, and human experience.

Generative AI troubles the minor but longstanding practice of producing literary text with computers. Since the advent of the digital computer, people have used it to produce poems, prose, and conceptual texts (Hayles 2004; Bertram and Montfort 2024).

However, in a recent call from the literary journal Michigan Quarterly Review, for an issue focusing on computer-generated text, the editors explicitly discouraged submissions based on generative AI without significant conceptual reworking (Michigan Quarterly Review 2025). In this sense, it is not just the case that traditional notions of authorship are being destabilized; so too are the practices and self-perceptions of experimental writers. From a psychological perspective, generative AI may not only influence external outputs but also shape writers' internal states: their motivation, metacognitive strategies, and identity as creators. Integrating theories from creativity research (Amabile, 1996; Csikszentmihalyi, 1996), self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), and social cognition (Markus & Nurius, 1986) can provide deeper insight into how human-AI co-authorship unfolds.

Furthermore, recent empirical work highlights the metacognitive demands of using generative AI systems, suggesting a need to examine how these tools influence planning, reflection, and confidence during the writing process (Tankelevitch et al., 2024). Finally, emerging studies show how writers navigate shifts in identity and ownership when their work is integrated into or influenced by large language models (Gero et al., 2025). It is tempting to assert that generative AI is the latest and perhaps final fulfilment of the technologizing of the word: text has always been technical, and so has the book-bound codex (Ong 2002; Portela 2013). Avant-garde movements such as the OuLiPo established literary manifestations of technical systems already in the second half of the previous century.

Generative AI is, however, not only related to an abstract idea of authorship but is instead a concrete, material, and infrastructural apparatus with nontrivial power dynamics. As such, the question of literature in the context of generative AI often relates to discussions of data ethics (Rowberry 2025), interpretability (Dobson 2023), bias (Gillespie 2024), and environmental impact (Crawford 2021). Such questions fold into discussions of creativity (Doshi and Hauser 2024), critical thinking (Lee et al. 2025), and notions of quality (Porter and Machery 2024).

Ultimately, the destabilization of both traditional and experimental authorship by generative AI may converge to solidify in new literary practices and forms that may then, in turn, significantly impact the future development of AI (Rettberg and Rettberg 2025).

Organized by TEXT<https://arts.au.dk/en/text> (Janet Rafner, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen and Anna Katrine Mathiassen) and HAIC-III<https://darc.au.dk/projects/human-ai-collaboration-haic-iii> (Søren Pold and Malthe Stavning Erslev)

TEXT: Center for Contemporary Cultures of Text is organized to understand the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) on writing cultures at this pivotal moment in history, in which — after more than 6,000 years of handcrafted text production — we see all aspects of text creation and use are being altered. We are convinced that a research-based understanding of the role of text in a new technological environment is a condition for a prevailing human-centered control of the production and usage of text.

TEXT is a centre of excellence funded by Danish National Research Foundation.

HAIC-III offers an analytical, theoretical, and practical interventionist perspective on GenAI as a cultural and creative interface. Through analytical understanding, critical scrutiny, and a series of art and design interventions, HAIC-III develops new and deep understandings of the impact of GenAI to digital culture while also devising an innovative set of practice-based tactics to work with GenAI creatively.

Keynotes:

  *   Roger Beaty, Pennsylvania State University
  *   Nina Begus, University of California, Berkeley
  *   Kyle Booten, University of Connecticut
  *   Katy Gero, University of Sydney
  *   Karin Kukkonen, University of Oslo




Søren Pold, Lektor (Assoc. Prof.), Ph.d.

Information Studies & Digital Design, School of Communication and Culture

Aarhus Universitet

Helsingforsgade 14

DK-8200 Aarhus N

Danmark

Office: Wiener/5347 223

(+45) 871 61994



Research project: Human-AI Collaboration: Imaginaries, Interventions, Interfaces (HAIC-III): https://darc.au.dk/haic

https://pure.au.dk/portal/da/persons/pold@cavi.au.dk

https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/pold@cavi.au.dk

Cultures and Practices of Digital Technologies:

https://cc.au.dk/forskning/forskningsprogrammer/cultures-and-practices-of-digital-technologies

Digital Aesthetics Research Center: http://darc.au.dk/

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