CMA Student Named Finalist in Arte Laguna Prize for AI Artwork

CMA PhD student Xuanyang (Nolan) Huang was named a finalist artist in the Arte Laguna Prize for his AI-generated artwork. The piece was exhibited at the Arsenale Nord in Venice, Italy, from November 17th through December 8th.

Arte Laguna Prize is a prestigious international art award based in Venice, Italy. Established in 2006, it promotes contemporary art and emerging artists worldwide through exhibitions, collaborations, and residencies. The prize covers various categories including painting, sculpture, digital art, and installations. Among the 10,000 international submissions, Xuanyang's AI artwork 'Imaginary Sunsets' was selected as one of the 200 finalists for the 23’24 edition Arte Laguna Prize exhibition at the Arsenale Nord.

'Imaginary Sunsets', Xuanyang's nominated work, is an AI-generated artwork that explores the connection between artificial intelligence and collective memory. Using clouds as a metaphor, the work incorporates manually collected images of clouds photographed through windows worldwide during the pandemic period as training datasets. The piece investigates how human collective memory during a specific period is mediated and interpreted through technology, and how machines poetically witness history.

Xuanyang was selected as one of six finalist artists in the digital art category.