The work of American Artist began in 2013 with their legal name change to ‘American Artist’. They describe themselves as an artist who “makes thought experiments that mine the history of technology, race and knowledge production.”
Read their article about their AI-generated art inspired by Octavia E. Butler. Look at images of their exhibition 'Shaper of God' at the RedCat in Los Angeles watch their conversation with scholar Ayana Jamieson, founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network.
Reading Time: 4 minutes 55 seconds
Video Duration: 5 minutes and 38 seconds (clip starts 35:10, ends 41:08)
American Artist, Study for Estella Butler’s Apple Valley Autonomy, 2023, AI generated image. Courtesy of American Artist. As published in American Artist, “Can AI-generated art help us understand the future Octavia Butler saw?” Los Angeles Times, 20 November 2023.
How does the exhibition's recreation of California environments resonate with his experiments with AI-generated art?
What is the difference between the terms ‘Afrofuturism’ and ‘histofuturism’ as Jamieson defines them from her knowledge of Butler's work?
How did Butler describe ‘futurists’ and ‘historians’?
Jamieson recalls being taught to be a futurist when she was a child. What does she say can easily be forgotten or ignored when a person takes a futurist position?
How does an ‘historical materialist’ approach -- as American Artist describes it -- look at works of art like Butler’s writing?
