When it comes to art and the use of artificial intelligence, opinions on the topic, to say the least, are mixed.
At the Cleveland Institute of Art, faculty and students are facing the realities of AI head on, with an emphasis on maintaining creativity while preparing students for the rapidly approaching future.
Inside the Cleveland Institute of Art’s interactive media lab in Midtown Cleveland late last semester, Professor Jimmy Kuehnle and senior Camron Wright experimented inside the lab’s extended reality (XR) studio filming in front of the large video wall.
Wright was making a short film of music videos and using AI to learn how to operate the studio’s technology.
“Artificial intelligence has played a role in problem-solving some of the things that will come up, especially when it comes to managing the quality of the screens or trying things with the cameras,” Wright said.
As the institute’s professor of sculpture and expanded media, Kuehnle is a big proponent of using AI to assist in his teaching. For instance, Kuehnle couldn't figure out the 3D video game software Unreal Engine for use in the XR studio.
“I knew how to 3D model. I knew how to use computers. I could figure out the basics. But I didn't know how make it work with different shots, so I used large language models, both Gemini and ChatGPT, to figure out how to make that workflow happen,” Kuehnle said.
This is just one of the examples of how art students and professors can use AI.
“Even if you hate AI,” Kuehnle said. “How can you talk about it if you don't know anything about it?”
AI is a hot topic at CIA these days when it comes to creating art.
The Cleveland Institute of Art President and CEO Kathryn Heidemann said CIA is open to artificial intelligence with clear guidelines, establishing a philosophy around academic integrity and that “plagiarism is a non-starter.”
“We were very quick to work together across a partnership between faculty and staff to develop an AI philosophy. And really what that is rooted around is not about endorsing AI at all, but really endorsing learning and responsible ethics around AI,” Heidemann said. “None of us expected it to happen so quickly, and so it's very important that we don't allow our students to get left behind.”
Faculty have the freedom to set their own policies specific to the course allowing students to use AI but requiring them to cite that use.
Using AI - or not
At the Cleveland Institute of Art's main campus in University Circle, some graphic design students said they have used artificial intelligence in the ideation process. For instance, junior Hailey Fuller used AI for a graphic design assignment to create a storybook.
“I was using AI to talk about it, like ‘Here's my idea, here's my concept. This is what I'm considering for a visual language. How does this translate? Does this give the tone?’” Fuller said. “Just asking those questions gives you bare bones, but it gives you enough where, as a designer, you can take those bare bone materials and [form] it into visuals.”
Graphic design associate professor Adam Lucas welcomes students using AI to spark creativity.
“I think CIA is doing a good job at letting all faculty, staff and students explore and navigate their own thinking around what AI is and how it should be used and how it shouldn't be used,” Lucas said.
But not all students want to use AI in their artistic process.
Senior Bianca Curry-Naguit majors in the traditional art of painting and said she's interested to see where AI is going.
“But I have no desire of using it to make work, and I have no desire to [look] at work made solely by AI - or just having the final result be a generated image or a generated text,” Curry-Naguit said. “We care about the human hand a lot, because … we're using our hands to make things. So, I think that's where the distaste for AI comes in.”
Fellow senior Samantha Vacca is in the institute's drawing program and said she's also not a fan.
“I think that it takes away the personal creativity that is so interesting and important about art,” Vacca said. “The things that artists' brains can do is one of the most impressive things, at least that I find, when I'm looking at a drawing or a painting or an animation of any kind, and I think AI kind of takes away the personality of it.”
Here to stay
Meanwhile, students also expressed concern about the future after graduation. Some fields, like graphic design, have been hurt by people using AI instead of humans.
CIA President Heidemann said that some of the jobs her students will apply for won’t be replaced by AI but those who understand how to use AI.
“As a form of digital literacy, it's going to be expected,” Heidemann said. “We’re already starting to see in our career office, some of our employers who are coming to hire our students with questions about their proficiency in AI usage.”
While AI is having an inevitable impact on the future of art education, it will be up to the artists themselves to use it as a tool rather than a crutch.
