Society / StudentNation / Meet the Alaska Student Arrested for Eating an AI Art Exhibit A conversation with Graham Granger, whose combination of protest and performance art spread beyond campus. “AI chews up and spits out art made by other people.”
Left: Graham Granger after his arraignment outside the court building. Right: The art exhibit, made with the help of AI, by Nick Dwyer.
(Simeon Ramierz; Colin Warren)
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As the use of artificial intelligence in art is hotly debated, one student at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks took matters into his own mouth. On January 13, Graham Granger, a film and performing arts major, was arrested for criminal mischief when he ripped the art, made with the help of AI, from the wall of a university gallery and ate it “in a reported protest,” according to the police report.
“He was tearing them up and just shoving them in as fast as he could,” said Ali Martinez, a witness to the event. “Like when you see people in a hot dog eating contest.” According to the police estimate, around 57 of the 160 images on the wall were destroyed.
In the exhibit, artist Nick Dwyer expressed his struggle with “AI psychosis,” during which he says he fell in love with a chatbot that was acting as his therapist. A series of Polaroid pictures depicts the chatbot, himself, and other versions of them combined. He said the bot represented his “Jungian shadow,” which is the repressed, often negative, yet creative part of one’s personality.
“It would have been an awesome performance piece that literally encapsulates the problems with AI art and artists,” said Dwyer. But he didn’t accept Granger’s protest as an excuse to destroy his work. Dwyer claims Granger’s act was akin to slashing someone’s tires to protest the oil industry. He initially wanted to press charges because Granger’s act “violates the sanctity of the gallery,” but changed his mind, dropping the charges. The state is still proceeding with the case.
Dwyer thinks there has to be room for new technology in the art space. “AI is a lens and it’s viewing humanity. Some people will see it as stealing from artists. The other way to see it is that it’s an extension of humanity,” he said. “AI art might be a tax on the artists. Tax is non-consensual; some people say tax is theft. That’s something we’re going to have to wrestle with.”
When pressed about the fact that Dwyer was still using AI to create art, even after it led him to psychosis, he smiled. “I’m trying to wean myself off.”
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