‘Art of AI 2.0’ is coming to The Delaware Contemporary

When ChatGPT dropped in late 2022, accelerating artificial intelligence’s evolution seemingly out of nowhere, a lot of people started freaking out.

Linda Watson was not one of them. Last December, she discovered the AI art platform Midjourney, and everything changed for the Wilmington-based designer and founder of MADO Agency.

By February, she was co-presenting an AI of Art event at the Emerging Enterprise Center in honor of Black History Month. On Friday, Oct. 27, she’s co-presenting “Art of AI 2.0,” with Dimion Denson, founder of Breakthrough Inertia Inc., this time at The Delaware Contemporary. The space is currently exhibiting “Mining the Form,” a collection of physical art by artists Stass Shpanin and Ben Snell, both of whom use technology as a medium.

“Art of AI 2.0” will include AI art on display, AI and augmented reality demos, local art vendors, and music by Young Seda, Ciera Sadler, First Out the First and Dimion Denson, who is also an organizer. The event, hosted by Randall Law, will cap off with a discussion about AI-moderated by Sara Crawford featuring Watson, Malcolm Coley, Ashlee Cooper, B Smithsonian, Brian Mills and Shaylin Wallace, with special honors being awarded to Nataki Oliver of The Sold Firm and “Grouchy” Greg Watkins, founder of AllHipHop.com.

As far as the controversies over AI and especially the common complaint that it lacks soul, Watson, who still uses an older version of Midjourney that produces a more “arty,” less polished look, disagrees.

“I feel like because it comes out of my thinking and my heart, my soul is still attached to it,” Watkins told Technical.ly. “I’ve got 14,000 images that I produced since back in December — only 100 of them made it out of the computer.”

Art of AI 2.0 is a free event, as long as you register beforehand at theartofai.io. If you don’t, it will cost $8 at the door.