Bildmuseet Puts Artistic Agency on the Screen
Priya N. Chen on 4th Nov 2026
Bildmuseet Puts Artistic Agency on the Screen
I trust an art programme more when it makes agency a question, not a feature. Bildmuseet’s exhibition AI and the Paradox of Agency runs from 13 March 2026 to 17 January 2027. The museum says the artists challenge the power dynamics behind artificial intelligence. On Saturday, 14 November, from 14:00 to 15:00, the programme pairs a book launch with a screening of Rachel Maclean’s film They’ve Got Your Eyes.
The pairing gives the question two forms: a book to read and a film to watch. In a generative system, a person supplies an input; a model processes it according to its design and training, then returns an output. That sequence can be part of an artwork, but it does not settle who made the work. The model is a mechanism, not an author with intentions or rights. The human may direct, select, revise, and arrange the result. The company that owns the system controls the mechanism. Authorship remains contested between the company and the user, and the event listing does not state the book’s position on credit or ownership.
The tool comparison is useful, but incomplete. A camera records light through a lens; a brush leaves marks through a hand. A model’s output depends on its training as well as the user’s direction. That raises questions about whose work shaped the system, whether training involved consent or payment, and who benefits when a model can produce images associated with a style. The fears are lost commissions, work flattened into style, and power gathering in a few firms. The hope is that artists can use these systems to test ideas, make unexpected combinations, and extend their own practice. Neither hope nor fear answers the authorship question by itself.
Law requires a human author, while the point at which a person’s direction, selection, iteration, and editing amounts to authorship remains unsettled. An in-depth human process may carry authorship; a prompt alone does not decide the matter. Bildmuseet’s programme makes room to look at agency as more than a button press: it sits across the person making choices, the model’s operation, and the company that owns the system. Admission to the museum is free; the book’s price is not stated. The event listing does not identify its authors or set out terms for training, consent, credit, or ownership. Those questions remain part of what the title asks us to examine.
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