Artist-in-Residence

Artist: Nicole Banton | Image: French River

Nicole Banton – AUGUST, 2023

RESIDENCY PROJECT

A year ago, Nicole Banton was working at Critical Mass and had the opportunity to meet other artists and talk to them about their work. Early into her placement, she had a conversation with one of the artists in residence that unbeknownst to her at the time would become the inspiration for her masters thesis. They talked about online chatbots and how men in China have been falling in love with them because they struggle to find a real-life partner and are lonely. This led Banton to begin her research into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what it means to be human.

AI-Generated Sentiments – will explore concepts of human connection, loneliness and self-care. It feels nice to receive a surprise note from someone, but does that feeling change when you find out that the note was completely generated by AI? Are the nice words and affirmations all we need to ignore the fact that the note is artificial? Can AI replace human relationships, and should it be used in this way?

During her residency, Banton will use ChatGPT to create AI-generated notes that mimic the kinds of notes people leave for one another. The text will then be put into an AI handwriting generator to put the text into what looks like human handwriting. These notes will be silkscreened onto post-it notes, scrap paper, receipts, etc. and used as the subject of a series of screenprints. 

ARTIST BIO

Nicole Banton is a visual artist who predominantly works with silkscreen. She grew up in Pickering, Ontario and earned a Bachelor of Fine Art from Queen’s University. She recently moved to Regina and is finishing up her first year of the MFA program at the University of Regina. Banton is currently experimenting with AI text generation software and is interested in what artificial intelligence can teach us about what it means to be human.