Meet the E-ARTi Project

Empowerment through ARTificiality (E-ARTi) aims to demonstrate how synthetic media, including deepfake videos, computer-generated images, and altered photographs, are tools for promoting social justice and inclusiveness within the realm of visual culture and media education. The emergence of deepfakes as a form of identity theft and disinformation has generated negative perceptions and unease regarding the boundaries of synthetic media. Despite the predominant emphasis on their potential for harm, there is a growing interest in exploring this medium to offer critical perspectives through art.

Hence, this research focuses on collaborative creativity involving the sharing of art and memes created through Artificial intelligence, made possible by the recent availability of freely accessible AI-based creation tools. E-ARTi’s objective is to critically explore the impact of synthetic media in promoting cultural awareness among teenagers who use this media as an expanded form of culture jamming and as a tool to disseminate their acts of visual activism. Given the novelty of these fabricated realities, young people need to be provided with new creative and critical media skills by the education system. As such, new innovative responsive curricular approaches must be developed and established.

Hosted by the CIEBA (Artistic Research Centre, Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon) in collaboration with the Multimedia and Art Education research groups, the E-ARTi project takes on an action-based approach to propose a culturally responsive curriculum for Art and Media education, specifically targeting students between ages 12 and 18. This curriculum aims to explore the ethical and social implications of using synthetic imagery created by youth in contemporary media art, focusing on the works of artists and content creators who engage with this medium.

Background

Deepfakes have been recognized as a dangerous form of disinformation, posing a threat to privacy and security. Scholars such as Weikmann (2022) and Seow et al. (2022) highlight the harm caused by malicious use of deepfakes and the importance of detection in mitigating their impact. However, there is a significant research gap in how deepfakes can be utilized for beneficial aims, like fostering creativity in art and media education. As an educator and researcher addressing media technology challenges (Aristimuño, 2020), I have observed firsthand the unease AI-generated content produces in schools, due to its capacity to defy our grasp of reality.

The European Commission recognized the significance of AI in education in its 2019 document “The Impact of AI on Learning, Teaching, and Education” (EC, 2019). In Portugal, media education is a transdisciplinary field aiming to empower citizens to critically engage with the current communicational ecology (MEC, 2014). The E-ARTi project builds on these initiatives by exploring the creative and social implications of AI-generated media and integrating it into responsive curricula development (Gay, 2015). The challenge lies in leveraging emerging technologies associated with identity theft and other criminal activities, such as cheapfakes, shallowfakes, and deepfakes (Paris & Donovan, 2019), to promote social justice and inclusivity.

Media artists increasingly utilize synthetic imagery to offer critical perspectives on the relationship between humans and machines, reality and fantasy, privacy and surveillance, and truth and authenticity. For instance, Hito Steyerl's work "This is the Future" (2019) employs deepfake to examine the impact of technological advances on art and society, while Lu Yang's "Delusional Mandala" (2017) reflects on the connection between technology, spirituality, and bodily experience. Similarly, Dries Depoorter's "The Flowers" (2022) explores the vulnerability of self-image in the digital age. Deepfake memes like "The Shining deepfake," "Mark Zuckerberg Deepfake," and "This Person Does Not Exist" (2022) serve as visual activism, raising awareness of digital propaganda, the digital influence industry, and technology's influence on democracy.

To address these challenges in educational scholarship, the MIT "Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes" project offers a historical context for deepfakes and showcases how AI-enabled media can be used for civic projects by artists, technologists, and filmmakers (Harrel et al., 2021). To advance critical media education curricula in schools, it is crucial to engage in dialogue with teachers, students, artists, and European research initiatives such as Transmedia Literacy (TL), European Media Education Study (EAVI), and European Media and Platform Policy (EuromediApp). E-ARTi aims to deepen understanding and implement practices empowering students and teachers to engage with transforming media technologies in innovative, ethical, and critical ways.

Research Plan and Methods

The core premise of E-ARTi is that implementing an art-based approach can effectively tackle synthetic media issues for teachers and teenage students in schools, improving their ability to articulate social perspectives and depict, narrate, and evaluate the current world by constructing new realities. This procedure involves the integration of visual and performing arts techniques and methods (Mirzoeff, 2015; Scherchner, 2022) into media education to explore ideas and concepts through the creation of synthetic content.

Building upon these fundamental grounds, the research questions that arise are as follows: “How can synthetic media promote social justice and inclusivity among young people in the context of visual culture and media education?” and “What are the ethical and social considerations of employing synthetic media in the school environment for students aged 12-18?”

To address these inquiries, an immersive research strategy integrating ethnographic procedures will be employed, comprising classroom-based action research processes and online/offline observations. The methodological approach is based on classroom research models presented by Hopkins (2014), with a focus on curriculum, teaching, and student perspectives. Furthermore, the strategy incorporates proposals for digital ethnography by Miller et al. (2016) and Hine (2015), which emphasize the intricate relation of offline and online observations to understand digital relations.

The ultimate aim of this research is to devise the E-ARTi Curriculum, a culturally responsive approach developed by teachers (Gay, 2015; Mclaren, 2022; Acaso & Megías, 2018). Through a critical/art thinking approach, E-ARTi specifies the curriculum as an experience, rather than a static document or object. Unlike traditional curricula that rely on predetermined content and structures, E-ARTi seeks to cultivate independent knowledge by emphasizing the performative aspects of teaching and learning, focused on creativity, media content creation, and interaction through AI technologies. As such, the E-ARTi curriculum is not intended to replace state-mandated curricula, but rather to serve as a platform for teachers to develop their own teaching experiences.

The methodological design consists, therefore, of a cyclical theoretical/practical action plan divided into four modules: 1) participant observations; 2) drawing up strategies to solve problems with students and teachers; 3) classroom-based practical experimentation; and 4) validation and analysis of results.

As in my Ph.D. research (Aristimuño, 2020), the fieldwork for this project is intended to take place in cooperating schools associated with the teacher training internship program at the Faculty of Fine Arts. These schools are willing to receive art-teaching students for their work practices and were chosen as observation sites due to their openness to new experiences.

Apart from the collaborative and dialogic experiences gained through conducting classroom research with students, I aim to develop teacher training programs that foster dialogue and address teachers' daily work challenges. To achieve this objective, I plan to establish partnerships with centers of continuous teacher training in schools, as I have done in my previous research (ibid.). By leveraging my existing contacts, I hope to expedite the initiation phase of this action research.

In order to present and validate the analysis of research results of the fieldwork with peers, my findings will be continually published in peer-reviewed high-level scientific journals including Arts, published by MDPI, and Citizenship Teaching & Learning (CTL), published in partnership with the Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe Association (CiCea). Initial drafts will be presented as papers at international conferences like Matéria-Prima promoted by CIEBA, Comunica2 at the Universitat Politàcnica de València and Literacia, Media e Cidadania (LMC) at the University of Minho.

Furthermore, ongoing dialogue with students and teachers is essential. During my Ph.D. studies, I created a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/canalculturavisual) and a Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/projetoevms) to facilitate discussions with fieldwork participants. These channels exemplify social media platforms that I intend to use to foster dialogue among educators, share creations and insights with students, and engage with the broader school community.

Commencing in 2024 and concluding in 2030, E-ARti will be executed throughout three distinct phases, with specific stages outlined as follows:

. Stage 1 (2024-2025), will involve conducting a thorough literature review and obtaining necessary documentation, such as authorizations from parents and the Ministry of Education for school research, as well as establishing communication with cooperating teachers. During this stage, participant classroom observation will be initiated to integrate the field, and preliminary results will be published. Discussions of research hypotheses with peers will also take place.

. During Stage 2 (2026-2027), I will develop and execute specifically tailored workshops for two different age groups of students (12-14 and 15-18) and teacher training workshops in collaboration with School Teacher Training Centers. These workshops will focus on different topics: the first work package, titled “Bridging Gaps: AI-Generated Media for social justice initiatives” (one semester), is dedicated to discussing and creating art content to question how social justice could be promoted and its possible relation to AI-generated media. During the second work package, titled “From Awareness to Action: inclusivity and ethical considerations of synthetic media in education” (two semesters), I will address the implications of inclusivity and focus on discussing with teachers the ethical and social considerations of employing synthetic media with teenagers. Initial research field results will be published for further outcome discussions with peers and promote a broader community engagement through social media platforms.

. In Stage 3 (2028-2029), after having gathered multiple experiences emerging from the E-Arti Curriculum development and the fieldwork concluded, I will organize two monographs: one, with a working title of “The Art of Deception and Creation: Deepfakes and Synthetic Media challenging Visual Art Education”, targeting the academic community, and the other, “Transformative World: AI-Generated Creativity in Media and Art Education”, to serve as a handbook for teachers and undergraduate students.

Expected Outcomes

E-ARTi’s primary impact for educators will be its curriculum proposal, designed to encourage self-reflection on our teaching practices regarding synthetic media beyond state-mandated curricular documents. By using an art-based, culturally responsive approach, E-ARTi will draw on real-world experiences, empowering teachers to build their own curricular paths, rather than a prescriptive model.

The impact of this project will be also contextual, experienced through the involvement of researchers, students, and teachers. Thus, its significance will be measured by the perspectives of each participant, enabling hidden curriculum elements to be uncovered, such as affection, hostility, kindness, or bullying. These localized discoveries will reflect within synthetic media content created by students, impacting our cultural environment, ethical considerations and accomplishments. The sharing of experiences with peers researchers worldwide will contribute to a greater understanding of the impact of synthetic media in art, education, and contemporary life.

Another aspect of the project's impact will be the implementation of Teacher Training Programs at Stage 2 of the research, creating a network to expand the reach and cultural responsiveness of the E-ARTi Curriculum.

E-ARTi's contributions to ethical and social implications will be related to the ongoing debate of AI use in scholarly environments, particularly concerning teenagers and the representation of their identities. With a preparatory perspective, this study will address critical issues surrounding privacy, authenticity, and trustworthiness, while providing insights for educators to address these concerns into classroom realities.

Finally, E-ARTi will consolidate its findings into two books: one for the academic community and another as a handbook for teachers and undergraduate students. These resources will offer practical guidance and reflections on the challenges of synthetic media in art and media education.