Ep #97: AI Art & Activist Anthropology Revisited: This Month on TFS

The Familiar Strange

This week we’re joined by Familiar Strangers Kathy, Lachlan, Alex and Sean to talk all things AI Art and activism. Alex kick’s us off by asking us to consider the recent developments in AI image creation. Alex dives into DALL.E and what it means for people that still consider themselves “artists”. The Strangers explore labour, effort and the “creative” process. What do you think? Should we be using AI art generation? Who owns the art? Kath then explores further the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran and what it means to conduct activism as anthropologist and vice versa. Questions around positionality and utility were raised by the Strangers, especially when it comes to research. What do you think? Is there such a thing as an activist anthropologist? It was a series of really interesting topics this week so we hope you enjoy!