Art professor 艾琳·麦吉·法瑞尔 isn’t afraid of AI — yet

While the thought of artificial intelligence in the classroom may be enough to spark headaches in the minds of educators across the globe, one art professor at the University of New England is not just embracing its use — she’s incorporated it into her curriculum.

艾琳·麦吉·法瑞尔, adjunct assisting teaching professor in the 艺术与人文学院, is no stranger to using new techniques and technologies in her studio, having garnered international attention for her interactive paintings and installations.

Now, she’s teaching her students to do the same.

Ferrell has integrated the use of AI into her 2D Design Studio Art class, in which students complete assignments using both digital and traditional methods. 学生 first create an AI image based on Ferrell’s prompts. 然后, they produce a similar image using conventional tools — pen to paper, 在工作室里，在画布上作画. 

在一堂课上, 法瑞尔说, students may use AI to generate a still life of an apple depicting emotion using dark and light values. The exercise reinforces a visual design technique, the students can apply the learning to their hands-on studio projects. She said the methodology affords students — many of whom are majoring in the sciences and haven’t taken an art class in years — the flexibility to learn new techniques without the fear of failure due to the lack of learned studio skills.  

“AI allows people to say what they want to communicate visually without having to develop mastery in every specific technique,”她说。. “A lot of people feel very intimidated by a blank piece of paper or a blank canvas. AI can provide them a reference to manipulate while giving them a better appreciation of what it takes to be an artist come time to do it on their own.”

The methodology is inspired by Ferrell’s love of innovation in the creative arts.

10月, Ferrell traveled to Pittsburgh to visit the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), 她在哪里遇到弗里达的, an AI-powered robotic arm equipped with a paintbrush. 2月发布, FRIDA — which stands for Framework and Robotics Initiative for Developing Arts — uses AI to collaborate with humans to develop works of art based on text descriptions and submitted images. 

虽然, Ferrell met with CMU robotics researchers to discuss techniques of interactive painting using robots, 最终的美术创作和所有权, future art objectives using robotic artist tools.

“我印象非常深刻, I loved the exploration into the process of trying to teach FRIDA how to paint,法雷尔说. “There are a lot of limitations to AI in art right now, but I was very excited by it.”

CMU的研究人员认为FRIDA, 以著名艺术家弗里达·卡罗的名字命名, 并不是要取代艺术家的工作. Rather, they say the goal is to promote human creativity. 

It is the same message Ferrell incorporates into her lesson plans at UNE.

“The end goal of FRIDA is not to take over our lives and replace other artists but to learn the dexterity to use tools and complete more utilitarian tasks,”她说。. “The same is true of how I use AI in my own classroom.”

And while debate rages on about the ethics and implications of artificial intelligence — such debate was the focus of UNE’s recent President’s Forum event, “AI: The End of the World or the Dawn of a New Age?”— 法瑞尔说 artists shouldn’t shy away from the technology as it continues to proliferate the artistic sphere.

“AI doesn't have to be an enemy to the artist,”她说。. “事实上, it’s important not to be so afraid of artificial intelligence not to realize that it can actually be a very powerful tool.”

“Once you understand it more, it takes the fear out of it,” she added. “至少现在是这样.”

法瑞尔的作品可以在 artistamerican.com.