Spectator, creator and/or scriptor: AIGC and search for own creation

Description

The paper explores the shifting relationship between agency and spectatorship by taking a closer look
at interactions between the film creator, audience and advanced technology. More specifically, we are
interested in the shifting notion of ‘passivity’ and ‘activity’ in AIGC era. How does our comprehension of
'creator' and 'viewer' change as machines take over more and more of the creative work, and how do
positions of the creator/commissioner and viewer/observer shift in this interaction?
As the mechanization of creative processes progresses, humans may provide intent and context,
while the AI provides synthesis and execution. Who—and to what extent—remains a creator and
storyteller under these circumstances; who becomes a ‘scriptor’ using language as a creative interface
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to generate content? Is the creator gradually/ occasionally turned into a passive viewer of the ‘own’
creative process? What does it mean to ‘DO’ something in an interaction with an AI film generator? What
does it mean to ‘BE’ a creative and active human in contemporary sociotechnological context? In the era
of algorithmic aesthetics, who is guiding the process and deciding what qualifies as a meaningful
art/creative outcome? What is the future intertextuality co-created in human-machine collaboration?
How does the process impact our self-perception and what are the implications for further creation?
What are the broader implications not only for the creative industries but also for the human society?
In our reflection on artistic (co)agency and control, as well as shifting relationship between film director
and audience, initiated by Jia Zhangke’s film Jia Zhangke’s Dance (2026), we are guided by Roland
Barthes essay The Death of the Author (1967) and by Byung-Chul Han's recent book The Crisis of
Narration (2024).

Period	5 Jun 2026
Held at	Nimbo Nottingham University, China
Degree of Recognition	International