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REFLECTION
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These images explore the positioning of generative artificial intelligence landscapes as a "new frontier" that echoes the echoes the 1850s to 1870s Manifest Destiny paintings (often associated with the Hudson River School). The wave of Manifest Destiny paintings functioned as a form of propaganda, luring settlers westward while concealing the ethnic cleansing of Indigenous populations. Similarly, AI-frontier models usher in new forms of colonization within digital realms, their technical prowess often overshadowing the environmental and labor exploitation that underpins them (from the Congo to historical examples of Navajo weavers). The visual similarities between these two types are characterized by a Luminist quality of light and expansive and empty lands that blur the line between history and future—elements often associated with the 19th-century U.S. paintings are eerily replicated in the canon of AI-generated imagery., but underpinning these images is continued colonial history.
Gina Helfrich reminds us that the term “frontier AI” continues the colonial mindset, “further reinscribing the harmful dynamics between the handful of powerful Western companies who produce today’s generative AI models and the people of the “Global South” who are most likely to experience harm as a direct result of the development and deployment of these AI technologies.”
In this light, by overlaying the dramatic aesthetics of contemporary AI-generated art with the sweeping landscapes of Manifest Destiny paintings, my images seek to unveil parallels between the two eras. The visual similarities work as evidence of “progress” – a proxy for expanding U.S. frontier models (imbued with notions of democracy and capitalism) across the globe.
Historical Context
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcOV1jtE7lkS1pqJ_Y_fKvZXRrebLfSPsGRWlzOD0ZZ3u_kwaINJNqdSqHSkILZs2a6d_EMG6uc8o65ZkHw8_ubUW-Butxf8fnVfXiLvp_ABucMSiHbxpolTTBnKYj2pPJ10OOyYffc-VZBy3nyPOo68Nc?key=W-lBF39WIRqauRkXYV_V3Q
Figure 1. “Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California” by Albert Bierstadt, 1868.
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcONQKAOqvOyasjk6tNTWKRVKTipkAaNfhnCzJD23e-xiVfLBxbc7apNu6jFkJ_ctFkRoItiQOieVZOUCZahIvRlH16Cb9B7bhg9sAH2HIzWMA5fipjCU7JS1stndBsErcllsA2aWg6gGXeYn82rvg295o?key=W-lBF39WIRqauRkXYV_V3Q
Figure 2. “The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton)” by Thomas Cole, 1836. ******
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeffCZL7qncaRFDOOiXR5Rw9RBuEWerN52ZbhKhjLccrkqr1QL-gCv2cmPLLcT3M_STE23BNttcoStV4VzO4WRHzcbzmupBTtmhy7rPsIWL4oDKMPVpeUKN6psz3LRi2REwNiYfg1sUJKZG5BmWBMy8Uug?key=W-lBF39WIRqauRkXYV_V3Q
Figure 4. DALL·E 2 Generated Landscape, 2023
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf-lQJhGmY6tG0SEydS1nD8abSSK3T0bNUGWV07Yh2o5-LZufrSe3IN4WYj8BAaFS4W24elBlxsEfi9rypesbba6IZRARCa8QJwnua3CFc4LrTC4wITKawh0mb4PmZonvg7f0LoN8Un-hJoRjPISio4P-E?key=W-lBF39WIRqauRkXYV_V3Q
Figure 5. Stability Diffusion AI Landscape, 2024
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