Public Talk: The Algorithmic Brush

Generative AI has made it possible to produce convincing artwork in seconds. No canvas, no years of practice, no university degree required. For Professor Gareth Schott, that raises a question: if a machine can produce the output, what is art education actually for?

This talk is an opportunity to think harder about what creativity and a university education actually give us that a prompt box can’t.

Professor Gareth Schott is a media psychologist, creative technologies scholar, and practicing artist. He has spent his career moving between traditional research methods and practice-led approaches, with work that includes soundtrack composition, soundscapes, poster design, and asemic art.

Professor Schott was among the first group of scholars to develop ‘game studies’ in Europe, with published research spanning gender and digital game cultures, the measurement of player experience, gaming and violence, and media regulation. He served on New Zealand’s Film and Literature Review Board where he contributed directly to Aotearoa’s classification processes.