AI & Culture Primer
The AI & Culture Primer is a public guide for artists, humanities audiences, donors, grantmakers, and curious publics who want to study artificial intelligence without reducing it to enthusiasm or rejection.
It begins from a neutral premise: AI is a technical field, a set of tools, a business sector, and a cultural force. Each of those frames matters. None is sufficient alone.
What This Guide Is For
The primer helps readers ask better questions before choosing a position. It is designed for people who encounter AI in studios, classrooms, organizations, public debates, and funding conversations.
It will cover:
- How common AI systems are trained, described, and evaluated
- How AI changes authorship, labor, archives, and interpretation
- Why artists may use, refuse, adapt, or critique AI tools
- How institutions can discuss AI without substituting hype or panic for judgment
- What donors and grantmakers should ask before funding AI-related cultural work
Current Status
This guide is in active development. Mimesis Institute is publishing it as a living public humanities resource while related programs take shape.
Current work includes:
- A public guide for artists and humanities audiences
- Fall 2026 AI for Artists workshops planned with OX Arts
- Companion research notes and definitions
- Links to open-source tools and examples as they are released
Working Position
The primer does not ask readers to become pro-AI or anti-AI. It asks readers to become more precise.
Useful questions include:
- What task is the system being asked to perform?
- What data, labor, and institutional choices made the system possible?
- Who benefits from the system's use, and who carries risk?
- What forms of artistic judgment are expanded, narrowed, or displaced?
- What should remain human, public, slow, local, or accountable?
These questions can support criticism, experimentation, refusal, adoption, or governance. The point is not neutrality as silence. The point is neutrality as a disciplined starting place for public interpretation.
Workshop Track
The Fall 2026 AI for Artists workshops with OX Arts will use the primer as a shared reference. The workshops are planned for artists and cultural workers who want practical literacy, vocabulary, and space for serious disagreement.
The format will emphasize:
- Plain-language technical orientation
- Artist-led discussion
- Examples from creative practice
- Questions of consent, attribution, labor, and institutional use
- Take-home notes that can be reused by participants and organizations
Publication Notes
This page is the first public version of the primer. It will expand as examples, workshop materials, and companion definitions are prepared.