Artificial Intelligence, Art and Indigeneity
Between Dreams and Hallucinations
Distributed for University of London Press
Artificial Intelligence, Art and Indigeneity
Between Dreams and Hallucinations
This book explores the cultural and ethical implications of generative AI through the lens of Indigenous visual culture in Latin America.
Responding to the rise of tools like DALL·E 2 and Midjourney, this groundbreaking volume documents the AIAI project (2023–), which invited a group of Indigenous artists and writers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Peru to critically engage with image generation technologies. Through collaborative experimentation with a range of both commercial and bespoke tools, contributors reflect on the promises and pitfalls of AI—from its potential for ‘dreaming’, for imagining Indigenous futures, to the frustration of its ability to ‘hallucinate’, to distort and misrepresent Indigenous cultures.
Bringing together artists, writers, and scholars, the book challenges dominant narratives around AI and representation, using a decolonial framework rooted in Indigenous epistemologies. Structured in three parts—context and theory, creative reflections, and generative critique—it foregrounds multivocal and multilingual perspectives, resisting homogenisation and reframing participatory research. This is the first book-length study of generative AI’s impact on Indigenous visual culture in Latin America, making a timely and vital contribution to global debates on AI, art, and cultural sovereignty.
Table of Contents
Part I AI, Art and Indigeneity
Thea Pitman
1. AI and Art
2. Indigenous AI
3. Indigenous Art and AI
4. Indigenous Art and AI in a Latin American Context
5. A Timeline of AIAI
6. Methodology
Part II Between Dreams and Hallucinations
7. Autenticidad Creativa y Sensibilidad Visual Artificial/Creative Authenticity and Artificial Visual Sensibility
Nicolás Jiménez Reyes (Azul)
8. Inteligencia Artificial o los Artificios de la Inteligencia/Artificial Intelligence or the Artifices of Intelligence
Lucio Torrez Soria (Lucian de Silenttio)
9. Desde una Cuenta Propia hasta un Modelo Propio/From an Account of One’s Own to a Model of One’s Own
Haylly Zamora Aray
10. A Inteligência Artificial e a cosmofloresta, e Representando os encantados e os parentes com IA / Artificial Intelligence and the Cosmoforest, and Representing Indigenous People and their Spirits with AI
Tadeu Dos Santos (Tadeu Kaingang / Ta No Kaingang)
11. Hasta sueño con la IA/I Even Dream about AI
Mariela Tulián
12. Nikiékliwahi e o Espírito da Máquina, e Realismo Digital Indigena/Nikiékliwahi and the Spirit of the Machine, and Indigenous Digital Realism
José Nunes de Oliveira (Nhenety Kariri-Xocó)
Part III Generative Thoughts
13. A Genealogy of Stereotypes: The Representation of Indigenous Peoples with Generative AI
Sandra De Berduccy
14. Drawing the Line: Creativity, Censorship and Copyright in Indigenous Engagement with AI Image-Generation Tools
Thea Pitman
15. Dragon Dreaming: Notes on Methodology for Collaborative Design of an Indigenous Image-Generation Prototype
Dave Lynch and Sam Hallas
16. Algorithmic Indigeneity, Indigenous Textiles and Future Imaginaries
Sandra de Berduccy
17. Artificial Intelligence, Appropriation, Ancestrality and Buen Vivir Sebastián Gerlic and Alex Potiguara
18. Is It Art? Exhibiting the AIAI Project
Thea Pitman, Sandra De Berduccy and Andreas Rauh
Conclusion
Andreas Rauh