“Predictive Art Bot” is an algorithm that automatically generates concepts for artworks by combining keywords from news and article headlines in real time. Conceived by DISNOVATION.ORG and programmed by Jérôme Saint-Clair, the artwork is a constantly updated commentary on the media’s influence on artistic trends and discourses, as well as on the widespread expectation of contemporary and new media art to address the social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural issues of our time. The artwork goes even further by suggesting future artworks that could be created from its one-liner descriptions, which are sometimes prophetic and sometimes plainly absurd. Each sentence is disseminated online on a dedicated Twitter account, and can be read as a critique of contemporary art, as some generative nonsense, or as the seed of an actual artistic project. Through algorithmic serendipity, the artwork opens up unlikely associations of ideas that could stimulate unconventional forms of creativity.
Since its original inception in 2015, “Predictive Art Bot” has taken on many different forms, including an LED sign, an installation, a video projection, and a website. On Feral File, the artwork can be collected as an archive of all the predictions published on Twitter since September 2015. In this iteration, the sentences are displayed randomly, with an indication of the date and time they were published, plus a link to the original tweet.
