Ferris’ Fine Arts Gallery is bringing a new exhibit to campus that features Tylonn Sawyer’s artificial intelligence artwork displayed by Ferris’ design students.
Sawyer’s recent and ongoing project is called “Blacktopia: Detroit 3000” which uses artificial intelligence to help him curate a different world. This is Sawyer’s first time experimenting with using AI programs.
Sawyer started this project two years ago and used the AI program called Midjourney to tell a story of his hometown in Detroit and what it would be like in the year 3000, imagining it as a utopia.
“I wanted to imagine a future where we were going to be alright through hardships,” Sawyer said. “I really wanted to create something that was aspirational.”
With Sawyer’s approval, Ferris’ design students have been working on his work display for the Fine Arts Gallery.
Design professor Alison Popp Meier heard that AI artwork would be in the gallery. She became interested in designing the exhibit with the help of her students.
Popp Meier was especially interested in this exhibit, so much so that she planned an assignment for her and her students to work on.
She reached out to the Fine Arts Gallery Director Carrie Weis to start working on the exhibit with her students.
“When I saw this exhibit, I was really excited and I changed one of my assignments and asked Weis if we could get involved,” Popp Meier said. “We ended up doing even more than I thought. We ended up creating the exhibit and my students really got involved.”
Over the years, Popp Meier has had her classroom work with Ferris’ gallery.
“I’ve collaborated with the art gallery before with my classrooms,” Popp Meier said. “Just designing, branding, concept, and production in various forms over the years.”
Popp Meier and her students had multiple discussions about AI usage in the art space when she introduced the assignment.
“There are a lot of unknowns and even some questions about the legality and ethics of AI art, so we had some conversations about it,” Popp Meier said. “Then once we saw the images, we were intrigued and we thought ‘Well, let’s get involved.’”
Sawyer is also an instructor and believes that Popp Meier’s idea for her students to help work on the exhibit as an assignment and talk about AI usage in art is beneficial.
“I dig how this is used, not only as a teaching moment in her class but also to get some territorial work done,” Sawyer said. “I think it’s really awesome that students get to do that.”
Popp Meier and her students created a design for the exhibit and sent the idea to Sawyer for his approval. Sawyer highlighted how this was his first time being able to work on a project virtually and how it was a great experience.
“I’ve never done it this way before,” Sawyer said. “I think it’s cool how we are using technology to conceive of this entire show, it’s an interesting way to work together.”
The Fine Arts Gallery can be found on the top floor of the David L. Eisler Center. The exhibit will be open from April 1 through May 10.
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