AI and Arts Education: How Technology is Transforming Classroom Creativity

Artificial intelligence is everywhere, but how does it fit into the world of art and arts education? On this episode of Speaking Of…College of Charleston, three faculty members discuss how AI is reshaping creative practice and teaching, from sculpture studios to fundraising classes and art history seminars. 

Guests include:

• Bex Ferrell, assistant professor in Arts Management 
• Jarod Charzewski, studio art professor in sculpture
• Marian Mazzone, professor in Art History 

They share candid insights on the opportunities and tensions AI brings to the arts, why the creative process still matters and how educators are helping students balance efficiency with authenticity.

From fundraising and marketing to sculpture and art history, this conversation dives into the opportunities and tensions AI brings to the arts. 

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Real classroom examples of students experimenting with AI tools
• How arts managers gamify AI for fundraising and marketing
• Why the creative process is messy and why that matters
• Insights on the future of AI art, including major museums collecting AI-generated works

Resources and links:

• Learn more about the College of Charleston’s Arts Management, Studio Art and Art and Architectural History programs
• Explore contemporary AI artists like Refik Anadol
• Los Angeles’ AI Museum Dataland, opening spring 2026
• Full transcript and additional resources in the episode show notes

Or, visit  today.charleston.edu/cofc-podcast for more episodes.

Transcript

AI and School of the Arts Faculty

Amy: On this episode of speaking of College of Charleston, we're diving into a topic that's reshaping the creative world, artificial intelligence, and the art.

From how art is made and managed to how it's studied, AI is changing the game, and that means big shifts for students preparing for careers in the arts. Joining me in the studio today are three faculty members who are bringing unique perspectives from across the college. The first is Bex Farrell, who's assistant professor in Arts Management.

next is Jared Charzewski, studio art professor in sculpture. And then finally, Marian Mazzoni, professor in art history. Thank you all for being here. Um, let's go around the table and have each of you introduce yourselves and tell listeners about your areas of expertise.

Bex: everyone. I’m Bex Ferrell, um, assistant professor in arts Management. In my areas of expertise are policy in the arts. Um, I teach fundraising and grant [00:01:00] writing, and also our Art of Creativity class. 

Jarod Charzewski: Hi. Thanks for having me. Uh, this is great. I'm so excited to be here. Um, my name’s Jared Charzewski.

I'm an associate professor in the studio, art, and I teach in the sculpture department, and I have been focusing on bringing in technology into our studio program and. 

Marian: And I am Marian Mazzoni. I'm a professor in art history. My specialty is modern and contemporary art, and sort of what drew me into working with technology and AI are contemporary artists using those tools.

And so I began interested for that reason. 

Amy: Well, thank you all. I know that we'll have a great discussion. So, um, to start us off and any, this could go to any one of you, how is ai and then this is a huge question, but, but how is AI changing the way students are engaging with the arts, whether they're creating, um, managing or or studying?

What kind of shifts are you seeing in the classroom or in student projects that reflect this transformation?

Who's gonna take it and jump in? 

Jarod: I mean, I'll, I'll start. This is Jared in Studio Art. I mean the, uh, we have seen with our students, uh, the integration of, of AI in, in positive and negative ways, I think. Right. And, um, there have been, um. Sort of inclusion, uh, uh, with AI tools in, in the, in the curriculum. And students are bringing it in on their own, uh, uh, sort of finding ways to, to, to create work and to, uh, to further their own process with AI tools, uh, you know, in positive ways.

Um. Uh, right. If the, if you're handing in a digital image, uh, or you're working in a digital file in some way, you can use a, uh, uh, create, uh, a 3D scan of a, of a clay sculpture, of a, of a bust, of a person, and, and then you can use AI tools to sort of push that and refine those edges and, and, and do things that would essentially take.

That would cut the, the work time, uh, uh, down to a fraction of what it would be. Uh, I mean, the, the, the downside to that is that of course is that those final steps are, are what, are, what's critical, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, should, should we be relying on those tools to eliminate those last steps, uh, is where, is where we start to really ask those deep questions.

Mm-hmm. And, and I really am enjoying those discussions, uh, in our classrooms. Uh. Should we be doing this? Uh, is is a big, is a big thing. Uh, it's undeniably impressive. Uh, but, but should we, right? Mm-hmm. 

Amy: Right. What's lost in the process. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Are you seeing anything different in your areas in art history or in arts management. 

Bex: I think that what I'm seeing is different challenges. Yeah. In arts management is, you know, they're using it a lot to be more concise with their writing. But I'm really seeing it in, um, marketing, right? Where we're thinking about captions, uh, maybe creating content calendars where they're doing these things that are more automated.

They're putting things into chat, GPT where. We really want them to do that brainstorming first. We don't want AI to be the thing that's doing that really essential part, um, of that critical thinking first. So trying to balance that out and like Jared said, having those conversations. How do we start this processes and really thinking about that from a, a marketing perspective.

But then the good side of it is we can tailor messages for different social media platforms in a way that would take a marketing manager hours to do. It can now take five minutes. So that balance, I think we're still trying to figure it out, 

Marian: Yeah. In art history, one of the very clear positives is that you can much more quickly do your research and writing.

Mm-hmm. Um, because the databases that now you can work with in terms of image database. Is with languages and all of those things will severely cut down the amount of time art historians spend doing that kind of background preparation before they can even get to work to talk about a work of art. And so that's, that's a net positive.

Whenever there is a new technology, there are hesitancies, as there should be. Um, and so I think some of the studio art majors that I have encountered in my classes are a little hesitant sometimes to use AI because they perceive it to be, in some ways a threat to more traditional media. And, and there are reasons to be, to be thinking that in some ways.

But I always remind them, you as the artist, as the human being, have the control. Over whether you choose to use this tool or not. Uh, and so there's an intentionality to that, right? Um, it will help you with some things and maybe not help you with other things. Uh, I think what we are all doing, uh, as educators is showing students what's possible and also underscoring for them.

You don't have to use it, right? Use it where it will be helpful to you in your career and your future plans and your own creativity. But in no, by no means are you. Um, is it compulsory to use it? Um, and so I, I do build into my courses small exercises where I teach students how to generate imagery with ai, with the idea being, let me show you how to control it.

Let me show you the tools. So it's not just a matter of trying things randomly mm-hmm. And not knowing exactly why you're getting the output you're getting. And so there are, there are also important ways that we can teach the students to use these tools in a more. Knowledgeable and more 

And so do you do that just to get an idea? Are you doing that like in the classroom, each of you working with them in the classroom where you, you're giving lectures on how to use these tools? Mm-hmm. Are you mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. Just to, to have some oversight on, on how they're actually physically using 'em.

Right. 

Marian: Well, and I can also show them contemporary artists who are using these tools. Right. So you can see what kind of work. These tools are best for, and then conversely, what kind of work these tools are not for, right? So you, you can show those examples and so students can, can understand that there's kind of a choice to be made right.

Jarod: I mean, there is that, that choice, I think. But, uh, for me, I, like, I, I can't sort of escape that, the thought of, of the dangers of exposing like a young person, a young artist, to these kinds of tools because of the time saving aspect. Because of the, uh. Refinement of an idea. Right. Uh, should they be using that in, at such a young time in their career?

Jarod: Right? Uh, where they should be developing the, the old school technique and, and then maybe including it. Uh, this is, this is the thing that is a slippery slope in my mind. 

Amy: And I would think in, in your trade, in sculpture specifically. I mean, like, like so many hands-on arts, it's, it’s not about efficiency sake, you know, which is, it's, it's.

Part of art, making art is the, is the part where you're just daydreaming, you know, or you're, you're experimenting and you're playing, and it's not necessarily an efficient process, but that's, there's a reason for that. Yeah. 

Jarod: That, that is, it's not about efficiency. It's a, it's about that, that journey. You have to take those steps.

You have to fumble, right? You have to make mistakes. It has to look awkward and and bad and whatever, but, uh, uh, those are the, the important steps that that can be, um, that can be threatened by it. I think so. 

Bex: Right. And I think we want that efficiency in arts management, it's so much, it's so different.

Mm-hmm. Um, even in my fundraising class, we kind of gamify using ai, which I think is really fun. So they have appeal letters that they need to write. And instead of a director of development taking hours and hours of changing the tone for every single donor, we put it in there and I say, okay, cool. Take your appeal letter.

And now. Say that you wanna send it to more rose from Schitt's Creek. 

Bex: And they'll see how the tone changes or who's your favorite athlete and see how the tone changes. And something that will take 10 seconds would've maybe taken them an hour to do. So thinking about it in that way, where they're not spending all that time doing that labor of changing the language, maybe that's the time they could be spending doing face-to-face meetings with a donor that can.

Help solidify major gifts for them instead. So the efficiency is important for us in 

Amy: your 

field. That's a great point. Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say to, to kind of the next question, um, for specifically in arts management. Yeah. how is AI changing the way arts organizations mm-hmm. With marketing and fundraising mm-hmm.

And audience engagement and so. I mean, you have to prepare your students Oh yeah. To enter that. And if they're not prepared, you know, they might not 

Bex: get the job. So fundraising, grant writing is like my wheelhouse in this summer. I was really excited. I, uh, received a AI and action grant from cil. Wow. So I spent the whole summer interviewing different directors of development and asking them, how are you using ai?

Or are you using ai? 'cause what I really want out of that class is to make sure that those students are going into the sector. Knowing exactly what the professionals are doing, right? They wanna be doing the exact same skills. So some of the things that I found out was that they were really using it for editing.

Mm-hmm. They're using it for formatting, using it for efficiency, and rather than original writing. Right. So they're still doing that first draft. Um, character limits was a really big one. I always tell a horror story in grant writing where I was working on this grant forever. Was about to send it in and I thought it was a word count and it was a character count.

Oh no. You know, I tell the good stories too, but that's one of the horror stories. And now, so now we're seeing deeper directors really checking those kinds of things. Um, another one was tone adjustment, and this is why we do it with the appeal letter, making sure they're outlining their grant to their fundraising plan in an efficient way.

Um, so it's more about strengthening the messaging and narratives and not actually writing the grant. Or the fundraising plan for them. So that's the practice, um, that I have in there. I did interview one Devo director who doesn't use it at all. 

Amy: Oh wow. 

Bex: She said she had a real ethical issue with it, um, and until there was something that would offset the environmental impact, um, that she would not use it.

And this is for a very big arch organization here in South Carolina. So that was really. Surprised by that. Um, and I asked, I think a lot of 

Amy: people don't know about that, that there is an environmental impact. 

Bex: Yes. And that's when, and I, the students in grant writing will actually come up to me and say, Hey, I know that we're, we can use this tool in here, but I don't feel comfortable.

Abs, that's fine. Totally fine with me. And, and then now I can say there are development directors that do not use it because they don't feel, um, that it aligns with their own ethical. Values. That was really interesting. Um, yeah. But we just want them to know that it's available to them. Mm-hmm. But it's not a must.

Um, yeah. But these real life, real life experiences, I make sure that they're built into the curriculum and I'm really excited that I got to do that. Grant. This summer to know what are people, how are they really using this? Right? Yeah. Yeah. 

Jarod: Let, let me ask you a, a question on that. Uh, thanks. I mean, like what happens to the industry when, when the, the standard is going to change, like in, in your industry?

Yeah. I mean, is it expected now that, that, that there, that these grants applications mm-hmm. And, and what are going to be flawless? Mm-hmm. It is going to be completely mm-hmm. Uh. Like a home run and every single time. Yeah. And the thing is, is is those are those mistakes, not this sort of human voice. Yeah.

That, that sort of passion that comes through. Yeah. That doesn't Like what happens to that? Well, 

Bex: that's something I asked the development directors and they said that they did not feel that Devo jobs were threatened because humanity is the center of that work. And that even like when I say they're doing their first pass and maybe AI is.

Kind of adjusting again, maybe with tone a little bit and making the word count more concise. Um, that it's still very specific to their org. I mean, what makes a grant so compelling is the storytelling right. About that organization. Mm-hmm. And a robot can't do that for you, right? 

Jarod: It's not, it, it can't generate a good idea.

Bex: it. So that's why they say they'll maybe put it in at the end, and they're really specific about what they're prompting it. Mm-hmm. They're not saying. Change the content of this. They're saying, look for grammatical errors. Make sure that the word count is intact. So the prompting is really important, and that's what when we shift into grant writing, the first part of that class is fundraising.

We shift into grant writing after midterms. That's a big part of it. So yeah, you cannot lose that human voice. Right. Yeah. 'cause I was really nervous. I was like, uhoh, am I gonna interview all these Devo directors and maybe I won't have a job either. And Devo just for, just for listeners 

Amy: means development?

Development? Yeah. Just 

Bex: for, um, so that's your fundraising, you're grant, right. Anyone that's helping to raise money, um, for an organization, but they, they felt very firm in that too. Mm-hmm. Um, one thing that was pretty interesting, I got to talk to, um, someone that, like a commission for the arts and ask them if they were using AI to kind of skim through and they said, no.

Bex: would rather hire someone else if the grant applications became too much than to use AI because of how nuanced arts funding was. And I like clapped on Zoom. I was so happy to hear that. Mm-hmm. And I said, even if you got 10 times more grants, I was like, really trying to push them. They said, no.

No, that it won't, like peer review panels will not be replaced by ai. So that gave me a lot of hope also. Mm-hmm. 

Marian: Yeah. But what AI will do is be able to take your, all of your applications and cut it by a third. Yes. Right. And then you start reading those. Yep. Right. So there, there's a point at which it's not a zero sum game where you must use ai Right.

Or you must not, right? Mm-hmm. It isn't that, it's, it's sort of. I think of people who might have said, you know, 30 years ago, I don't wanna use the internet. Okay, go ahead. But your life is going to become nearly impossible. Right? Yeah. Um, and, and it's, I think we're in, we're going that direction with ai.

Yeah. So you can say, well, I don't wish to use it for X, Y, or Z. Okay. But you're also, you know, you're going to really hobble yourself in a whole lot of ways. Perfect. Personally, professionally? Yeah. Your daily life. Everything. It's going to be so pervasive. I mean, some people talk about it, it's like a change from no electricity to electricity.

Mm-hmm. Internet. Right. Fundamental changes and so we can't. We, we shouldn't be in a position of saying, I'm not gonna use that. Mm-hmm. Because that, that kind of closes the i the idea off to you. Uh, and, and for those folks who have ecological worries, please keep up with the news because they're always working on these models and they're using far, far, far, far less energy all the time.

Mm-hmm. Um, and in fact, they're going to, they're turning to creating nuclear plans. Huh. And then the, the energy consumption will be nothing, uh, in comparison to what some of the other things that we spend energy on. Mm-hmm. So it, it, it's necessary to keep up with the latest because, 'cause it's changing so fast, it's changing every three weeks.

Mm-hmm. Um, and, and so you can't take that kind of stand, uh, and then not keep up. Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Uh, and say, well, okay, but what's happening now? Mm-hmm. Uh, check it before you make those kind of declarative statements. 

Bex: Which is why I think our campus committees on AI are so important. Mm-hmm. Right? 'cause we get to read so many articles and then go back to our schools and say, Hey, this is what we found out, so maybe not say, no, you can't use this in by class, so why not make sure that the faculty know, and also your students know instead of just saying, this is not allowed in these courses.

I mean, my AI descriptions in my, in every syllabus is different for all my classes, but they're pretty lengthy, like making sure they know. The, the requirements and what's expected and what's not, and the information behind that. Right. 

Marian: And, and students are only frustrated with us when we're not clear.

Absolutely. Um, so it's not that students, um, don't wanna use it or want to use it or, or are all cheaters, it's not that. It's, they really don't fundamentally get good direction from all their faculty members about what its role in any particular class. And so that's something all of us as faculty members mm-hmm.

Can get better at. 

Amy: Do you think, is that, um. Do you think that's because the faculty, a many of them don't know exactly how to be clear because it is self evolving. Well, and 

Marian: some, and some faculty are in the position we've talked about where I don't wanna know about it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or I don't wanna change what I'm doing in my classes, so therefore I'm going to avoid it.

Mm-hmm. You know? So you get everything from one end of the spectrum to the other. And so students are kind of caught in the middle because we have one faculty member who says, you may never, ever, ever use it. And then you have someone who doesn't give you any direction at all. Right? Right. So then you're completely confused.

Right. And you don't know which is proper. And then you get hauled up in front of the outer board and you're like, why, why? You know, I had no clear direction. Mm-hmm. It's not fair. It's, it's fundamentally not fair. I think's something all faculty need to work on. 

Jarod: I think a lot of the skepticism is, is, is just about the, the new thing.

Right. I mean, I think that, uh. Uh, photography was seen as a threat to painting, like, this is gonna, this is gonna annihilate that, that whole. That whole, uh, medium. But, uh, you know, I think, uh, once it's integrated and then it's, uh, accepted and the thing is we're it's being used in ways now, you don't even know it's being used.

I didn't realize that was a, I got a bird house in my backyard. It has a, has an AI recognition of birds and bird. I was like, what? How does it know that was a bird bone? That was crazy. Right? It's like a That's wild. Yeah. So, uh, and that's a good thing, right? 

Jarod: It is hilarious that it knows this. 

Amy: it could probably send you an alert from inside the house to be like, get out here. There's a bird. There's a bird, or there's a squirrel. Trash in. The more like there's a squirrel trash in the thing. Get, get out there. 

Bex: But isn't that different ways of engagement? I mean, that's what I keep when thinking about audience engagement and things like that.

I mean, you know, we have Netflix and it says, oh, this is for you. No, you're picks. I mean, I think that's how we're gonna start getting with performing arts centers or galleries and museums. Like maybe you'll have something automated. Unfortunately looking at your cookies or something like that, and then we'll get an email and saying, these are picked just for you, and they'll be really specific to your taste and your aesthetics.

I don't know if that's good or bad, but Right. I think that that might be the direction we're going into in terms of audience engagement as well. 

Amy: Can you guys give us, um, just for listeners to get some concrete e examples? 

I mean like, like the idea of the birdhouse. Give us an idea of what it looks like in your classroom. What are students making and, and creating. How much does AI get in there? 

Jarod: Well, anytime you have a, uh, any kind of assignment that is digital or you could hand it in in a digital way, uh, uh, emailing two dimensional imagery, uh, drawings or photography or, or anything, or even 3D scans of something specifically in, in the sculpture studio.

I was speaking to another colleague of mine where there was a, a drawing that was handed in. And it had been touched up by ai, which was like, regardless of what the intention was or what was legal like, uh, like academically legal in the class, which is assigned by the instructor.

but again, what I was saying about that the value of that original is, is more value to this artistic journey versus like if that was a b plus and then suddenly it was an a. Uh, because of the ai, uh, intervention mm-hmm. Uh, I mean, it's not necessarily as valuable to the artist. That artistic journey, again, is the thing that, uh.

That is more valuable. Again, this doesn't necessarily translate to academia, right? It is. Is this thing that is unquantifiable, we say it all the time. There is no numbers to put to that, right? Uh uh, certainly the students get in a better grade. But, you know, and that's, that's a good conversation 

Marian: actually to have with the student is why would you, why did you do that?

Mm-hmm. Because you understand that really what you're trying to do is learn how to draw with your hand. So why would you go back over it mm-hmm. And, and correct it, or whatever you thought you were doing by using an AI that kind of, you know, as you say, kind of subverts the whole point of the exercise.

And, and to move students away from this idea, the, i the point is the grade, right? Mm-hmm. No, no. Really, the point is you're learning how to draw. Yeah. Right? Right. Yeah. And so if you're using AI, then you are only hurting yourself. Mm-hmm. Because you're not learning something really important. You didn't struggle or you didn't fail, or you didn't, you didn't fail to reach your vision, but that was really important for you to figure out how you didn't.

Make your vision so that the next time you're better. Mm-hmm. Uh, and, and so you kind of, you kind of hurt yourself in the end. You miss out. 

I mean, the creative 

Marian: process is messy. 

Bex: You're right. Like it's full of mistakes. Right. You have to fail. Yes. And that's, that's the important part. And I AI's not allowed in my Art of Creativity class just for this reason.

Mm-hmm. So it's funny to be, okay. My other classes, yes, we do all this in fundraising, but an article, no. Because of that. Because they're supposed to be experimental. Try things out. What's your aesthetic? Like, let's get dirty. Let's try to figure this out together. And Yeah. No AI allowed in that. 

Jarod: But I like, I, I keep coming back to the idea that that unquantifiable, right?

Yeah. That, that being free to fail Yeah. Is not conducive with academia. You cannot, it's, you can experiment and you can try. But if it doesn't look, doesn't answer perfect. Check the boxes at at the crit. I mean, you get a bad grade, that's it. Right? Although the artistic journey went through the roof. [00:23:00] Uh, it, it, it, what is, it has to be fair with everybody.

Marian: Uh, does this mean we kind of start changing how we teach? Okay. I mean, really, do we, do we stop pegging everything to ACR and A grade? 

Marian: Right? So how good can you do on, you know, September 12th at 4:00 PM. Mm-hmm. And instead hand in a portfolio of showing me your five steps through that drawing. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. That would be a whole different thing. Yeah, absolutely. 

Jarod: Yes. 

Marian: So maybe we just start thinking differently. Mm-hmm. Because the students are only doing this because they've been trained to do it this way. Mm-hmm. Because we've been giving them grades, right? Mm-hmm. And so we've trained them that this is what the point of all of this exercise ishmm.

So maybe we start changing that. Maybe that's a good thing. I think that's 

So, um, we need to keep going because we all are on the clock and got a late start. But Marian, you've been studying this topic for many years. Um, I wanted to give you a chance to talk about the changes that you've seen. 

How you, in your classrooms are, um, helping students critically engage with AI generated art, teaching them to ask the right questions and, as our future art historians, some of them, right? 

Marian: Yeah. It's, it's important to know. What a contemporary artist's choices are, right? What are, what are the, the avenues and the choices they have to make to do their work?

And, and so when you're talking about an artist who does use AI at a high level, there's a point at which you kind of have to also understand how the tool works. And this is something a lot of people do not know, um, how LLMs actually work, how AI actually functions, you know, from a kind of computer science point of view.

And so part of my journey over the last. Several years has been learning enough of that computer science to be dangerous in the sense that I know something about how this imagery is generated. And that's important also so that you, you learn how to control it or how to make it do what you want to do.

It's the same thing. If you're learning to paint, you've got a, you know, a tube of oil paint and a brush. You've gotta learn how to do that, right. You know, spend a lot of time working with those materials to learn how they work. And to get the result you want. Um, and so those artists who are really good at this are not ones who are just randomly punching things into an AI image generator.

They're ones who really understand the technology and are able to make choices and control it. So part of it is explaining to students there's that difference, right? We can all sit down and generate an image. That doesn't mean it's good, right? And so in order to work to make AI art, and there are artists who do some really high level stuff.

It's important to know how that tool functions. Mm-hmm. Just like it's with, with carving marble or anything else, you have to know how the tool functions. Um, and then you may decide that that tool is what you want or need for your creativity, or you may not. Right. And so again, it's always. This is a choice on the part of the artist.

And it's interesting to think about why this artist chooses this particular method. You know, why does Rafik anadol want to work with ai? Right? Um, and, and then asking those questions will lead you to why they're making the medium choices. We call it a medium choice, right? The medium choice that they're making.

Um, and so that kind of. Uh, making students kind of conscious of that process that an artist uses to choose their tool and their media. Uh, and then if you can, to know enough about how they create what they create, how do they create that end product? It's a same reason we teach, you know, we have art history.

Students take a course in painting or a course in drawings that you have some feeling for what it's actually like to work with those tools and to create an end product. Um, and, and same thing with ai. You, you have to kind of have to know something about what's going on under the hood in order to create something that's gonna match your vision and in order to, to 

Marian: what you've done or why it works for you, or what you're trying to achieve, and that this was the way, best way for you to do it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Jarod: No, I, I, I totally agree. I'm, I'm seeing changes in the studio as well. I mean. Again, I was talking about sort of digital files that, and I, and I'm trying to instill in the students that the file, the file is the work.

Mm-hmm. Like this is the valuable thing that you cannot touch. It's, it's there on your jump driver or in your email. Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, that is the thing that you have to protect. Uh, before it was like, you know, put the, the sculpture in your locker or on the shelf, put your name on it. Mm-hmm. But it, it is that digital file and what it is you, you, what direction you choose to go with that.

You want to go to a, uh, a 3D printer or, or a CNC router. Uh, uh, like we're building this kind of tech all the time in the studio. Uh, so there's, uh, all kinds of routes for a student to be going down for those, for the, for the, for that final product. Right. Again, it's, it's about making those choices and, uh, and, and I'm always embracing those imperfections, right?

Uh, I like those kinds of things, uh, and I like those happy accidents. Mm-hmm. Again, this is a thing that is, is not, if you can see it beforehand, that accident, you might edit it out. You might, uh, you might choose to. Mm-hmm. To, to not do that, even though it could be this like miraculous thing, uh, uh, this really beautiful thing that happens again totally by an accident.

Amy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, I fear, we'll, we'll definitely lose something if we are overcorrecting for mistakes. Mm-hmm. Just. Yeah. All of us in, in our different individual day to day. Um, I know that we need to wrap this up. I could keep talking or listening to you guys all afternoon, but is there one thing that each of you wanna say as we wrap it up about, um, maybe is something to look forward to, something, the, to be excited about with AI and, and the arts.

Something that's gonna help people fear less, maybe be more open to, I 

Marian: dunno. Fear is a, fear is so powerful and uncontrollable version, I dunno that we can fix that. No, no. I, I would say, um. For people to look forward to or to to look out for. Uh, Rafik Anol, the artist, uh, A-N-A-D-O-L is how you spell his last name, who I mentioned a few moments ago.

He just had a major work bought by the Museum of Modern Art. Mm. Um, and so this is a kind of institutional recognition that this AI art is, is a serious thing that's now going to be collected. And secondly, he is creating an AI art museum on, in Los Angeles. Huh, which should be opening fairly soon. And so we're beginning to build up the kind of institutional framework to show this material as art, right?

Uh, rather than it being just that thing you make individually on your computer.

Jarod: I had something, uh, I, I, um. As an artist, I think you always have to embrace the new, you always have to, to find that new thing, and you have to expose and you have to learn it and, and you have to develop an opinion about it. I think, uh, it doesn't have to change your life and it doesn't have to, uh, be making big decisions, uh, for you or anything, but, uh, to, to always embrace the new, mm-hmm.

A new idea, a new thought, a new approach. Yeah, it has to get in, I think. Mm-hmm. Uh, to, to be an artist. 

Bex: I, my whole thing was be open, be curious. Mm-hmm. Um, the thing I'm most excited about, especially my students this semester, is they have a lot of AI literacy and they're critical thinkers about it too.

And I like that, that they don't just take it for what it is that they're thinking about societal consequences. Um, of those things as well, and they have a lot of agency in the way that they're using that. I think that's really powerful. 

Amy: Yeah. Those are all positive notes to end on. And, and to our listeners, I'll include.

Um, resources in the show notes, the, the artists that were mentioned and the, um, and all different resources will be in our show notes. So you can look for more information there. So thank you all for coming into the studio today. Um, Beck's, Jared, and Marian, it was a great conversation. We really appreciate you sharing your wisdom with us on this constantly evolving topic.

Yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you. 

Jarod: Thank you. Happy to be here.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Speaking of College of Charleston.

Amy: For show notes and more episodes. Visit the College of Charleston's official news site, the college today. At today.charleston.edu. You can find episodes on all major podcast platforms and if you're curious about how the College of Charleston is preparing students for the future of the arts and ai, check out the links in our show notes to learn more about our Arts Management studio, art and art history program.

This episode was produced by Amy Stockwell with recording and sound engineering by Jesse Kunze from the Division of Information Technology.