Alongside the warning signs of institutional colonialism, art’s significant role in shaping national identity, and the insights on the generative nature and subversive power of subnets, this text also offers up an awareness toward the power dynamics that developed nations (as we categorise them in the west) can have on developing nations, insurgent governments and cultural movements. As alluded to in Savage’s text (2023), as soon as the USSR and Gorbachev decides that they don’t recognise a certain political party and no longer have “a formal interest in southern Africa”, the cultural exchange is severed (Savage, 2023).
The opportunities for new movements and governments to provide foundational, technical skills in the arts is greatly reduced and thus their ability to enshrine new ideals in visual language and culture is slowed. This regional “progress” is dictated by nation-state power dynamics. But with the advances in generative technologies like AI and machine learning tools – and this is neither a testament to their virtues nor a declaration against them – does pose a threat to this long-standing world-order. If the generation of future artefacts continues to become more automated, then the gatekeepers cultural exchange surely lose some power. I wonder how these powerbrokers are planning for a more automated future with regard to preserving modes of influence and control. I don’t believe that an AI cultural revolution will necessarily create a sustainable shift in cultural warfare because for that to happen all sides would have access to the same tools, most likely rendering their macro-impact neutral. This is an assumption admittedly made in a vacuum, without regard to other critical resources and factors. I believe it is, however, still a significant circumstance to consider at a pedagogical and structural level.
But perhaps more directly relevant to my role as university art teacher in the UK, I wonder how I can apply an awareness of these political realities and build curriculum/pedagogy that avoids the teacher/student trappings (Savage, 2023) of many cross-cultural, transnational dynamics while inspiring creative work that resonates more universally with what it means to be a responsible, compassionate, and fair human being in a more-than-human world. To borrow sentiments from Savage (2023), how can new technologies and teaching/learning techniques serve as “resource[s] to critique the material inequalities of [the] present and imagine new futures from the ground up” (Savage, 2023), and how can educators best inspire artists and designers to actively learn beyond “passively accepting their training” (Savage, 2023)?
References
Savage, P. (2023) ‘The New Life: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity’, in P. Savage (ed.) Art History. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1078-1100.