Woman vs. Machine

Is it a copy? Fake? Appropriation? Conceptual Art? A performance?

WOMAN VS. MACHINE by Chinese artist and feminist Jiny Lan is an artistic commentary on the debate surrounding art and Artificial Intelligence. The artist challenges viewers to reconsider notions of creativity, authorship, and the value of human interpretation in the age of A.I.

During a 4-day performance, Jiny Lan appropriates the work PSEUDOMNESIA: THE ELECTRICIAN by German artist and photographer Boris Eldagsen. In April 2023, he declined the prestigious Sony World Photography Award because the jury had failed to notice that THE ELECTRICIAN was not a photograph, but an image co-created with AI. In an interview with CNN, he explained this historic moment: "It shows that at the moment the photographic world has been taken by surprise after this development that subtly you can create images that look like photography but you don't need to have the skills and expertise of photographers."

Jiny Lan has the skills and expertise of a painter. Trained at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Zhejiang, China, she has lived in Germany since 1995 and combines the artistic traditions of Asia and Europe to create her own visual language. By producing a hand-painted edition of 25 of one AI-generated image, the artist highlights the role of human interpretation and skill in art creation, even when the original source is AI-generated. Each edition Lan paints will be unique, contrasting with the potentially infinite reproducibility of digital AI art. This raises questions about the value of originality and the human touch in art.

Boris Eldagsen called THE ELECTRICIAN the "Mona Lisa in the age of AI." While the Mona Lisa represents the pinnacle of human artistic skill, THE ELECTRICIAN represents the capabilities of A.I. and its impact on society. Lan's WOMAN VS. MACHINE blurs the lines between original and copy, human and machine creation, much like how digital reproductions have changed our relationship with classical works like the Mona Lisa.

It will take Jiny Lan about two months to finish the 25 editions; she needs about 2-3 days for one painting. The act of repeatedly painting the same image highlights the labor involved in traditional art-making, contrasting it with the presumed speed and ease of AI generation.

Text written by Anika Meier & Claude.ai

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