Authenticity in the Age of AI
With Emilio & Monica DeGrazia
Thursday, MaY 30, 2024 | 6:30pm - 8pm | MMAM
MMAM and RAA members free | Non-members, free with MMAM admission
Registration is required, and space is limited to 25 attendees per program.
About the Program
The dawn of Artificial Intelligence poses a historically profound, alarming, and unprecedented problem for writers, musicians, and artists. AI’s generative powers, often controlled anonymously, are matching human creative ventures and promise to surpass them. What then is “authenticity” as an outcome of human creative processes? How can we establish criteria that will help us decide whether the art forms we are exposed to are “authentic” and worthy of our respect? The main focus of this presentation will be on literary works, with a few visual artworks on display at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum providing opportunities to consider analogies between literary and visual arts. In preparing a definitive book about many different versions of the “Princess Winona” legends, Monica DeGrazia has confronted questions about the legend’s credibility in direct and varying ways. The city of Winona’s identity and heritage are based in large part on suppositions that have no basis in authentic history. Emilio DeGrazia has a long history as author of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction, and he also has worked as a literary editor and judge for several literary contests. He will discuss how he, as writer, has struggled to generate literary work worth calling “authentic,” and what standards he, as editor and literary judge, believes it is important to maintain.
About the Artists
Monica DeGrazia received a B.A. and M.A. in English at Winona State University. For Nodin Press of Minneapolis she co-edited three anthologies featuring Minnesota writers: 26 Minnesota Writers (creative prose), 33 Minnesota Poets, and The Nodin Anthology of Poetry. She is currently preparing for publication a book about the Winona legends.
Emilio DeGrazia arrived in Winona in 1969 to teach English at Winona State University. In Winona he founded Great River Review, which eventually became the official journal of the creative writing program at the University of Minnesota. He also has worked as editor on several manuscript projects, including those published by Shipwreckt Books of Winona. His own work includes five collections of short fiction and creative prose, two novels, and two books of poetry, all of them published by small presses in Minnesota.
About artsXchange
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum + River Arts Alliance are coming together to bring you a monthly informal artist exchange - a chance for artists and creatives from across a variety of mediums to gather for inspiration, exploration and exchange at the museum. Each month, a member from River Arts Alliance, a nonprofit that supports and celebrates regional arts and culture, hosts a 90-minute artist meet-up and conversation with an artist, maker, designer, writer, or another creative person.
The event will begin by gathering in the atrium at MMAM and meeting their artist host. The group will then a take a short inspirational tour of the museum (identifying a couple of signature pieces to spark conversation, chosen by your artist guide), and continue with a meet-up in the Oberton Education Room for inspiring conversation that ranges from anything from technique, to who’s making what, to sales strategies, and other opportunities.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.