Autonomous Images: Artists on Human-Machine Interaction

Pacific, 2026, softcover, 208 pages, 15.2 x 22.7 cm

Autonomous Agents: Artists on Human-Machine Interaction captures a pivotal moment in AI’s impact on art and society through interviews with fifteen artists spanning diverse geographies, generations, and philosophies. As machines’ ability to generate complex imagery and advancements in autonomous agents have increased at an exponential rate, artists’ voices are often lost in the unrelenting cacophony of novelty. Sol LeWitt’s 1967 declaration, “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art,” offers advice for the present moment, where the boundaries between art and technology are increasingly porous. This collection takes stock of this vertiginous moment from their point of view, featuring practices that engage advanced technologies in meaningful, nuanced, and critically challenging ways. 

“The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” This statement, made by Sol LeWitt in 1967, offers a link to the present moment. The porous boundaries between art and technology continue to evolve with the rapid pace of innovation and its social consequences. While machines’ ability to generate increasingly complex imagery has progressed exponentially over the past few years, the voices of artists often remain unnoticed in the unrelenting cacophony of novelty. Autonomous Agents: Artists on Human-Machine Interaction seeks to take stock of this vertiginous moment from their point of view. A collection of fifteen interviews, it features a wide geographical, philosophical, and generational array of practices by artists who engage with advanced technologies in meaningful, sometimes contradictory and critically challenging ways.