Exposition

Unsettled Subject: From Emancipation to Separation (2026)

Martin Pšenička
open exposition

About this exposition

This essay is inspired by the contributions to this issue, whose common denominator seems to be the transformation of the nature of authorship and the position of the authorial subject, reflecting the broader theme of the position of the subject in the contemporary world. Some authors, responding to ArteActa’s previous call for submissions, “AI (and) Art: The Poetics of Prompting,” explore the changing conditions of artistic work with AI, while others focus on the interaction between materiality and human perception. All raise urgent questions related to the concept of the subject and the connection between the perceiving mind and the surrounding world. Through a historical reflection of poetics as the art of “prompting,” the text addresses theoretical conceptualization of the subject, in which emancipation at the level of the perceiver plays an increasingly important role. With the advent of AI as a “separate intellect” (Agamben 2025), the emancipation and transformation of (creative) subject raises questions stemming from today's paradox, in which all important and necessary emancipation efforts seem to be distorted or lead to tendencies that brutally contradict them. In this context, does AI bring about the final stage of the emancipation of the subject, or does this autonomous intellect enable hedonistic ochlos-authorship? Without reviving the laments of the past, the essay attempts to point out the fragility and uncertainty of the subject facing unprecedented pressure.
typeresearch exposition
keywordssubject, authorship, art, artificial intelligence, poetics, emancipation, Jan Mukařovský
date26/01/2026
published28/01/2026
last modified28/01/2026
statuspublished
affiliationFaculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague
copyrightMartin Pšenička
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/4149335/4149336
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/artact.4149335
published inArteActa – Journal for Performing Arts and Artistic Research
portal issue14. ArteActa 14/2025


Copyrights

nameUnsettled Subject
copyrightMartin Pšenička
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
usagespdf

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