Image Thinking after Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

This article proposes that, through synthesizing languageacts with visualization processes, generative AI is currently alteringthe architecture of human cognition, necessitating a new way ofunderstanding our relationship with images. The multifaceted concept of‘image thinking’ offered in its title refers to: (1) our human thinking aboutimages – a key area of enquiry for Visual Culture; (2) image generationthrough cognitive processes, be they human or machinic; and (3) imagesthemselves being agents of thinking. Both Visual Culture and Neuroscienceuse the notion of ‘the mental image’, which is premised on the belief thathumans form internal pictures in their minds from words and concepts.Those pictures subsequently facilitate how we see – and know – objectsand phenomena. Today a novel feedback loop between language, visionand imagery has emerged, with machines being able to generate imagesfrom textual prompts. This latest technological development blurs theline between human imagination and algorithmic generation, thus callingfor a radical reassessment of how we perceive, imagine and understandthe world. Moving beyond the frequent dismissals of synthetic imagery asaverage, banal or ‘mean’, the article offers a Vilém Flusser-inspired criticalapproach that seeks cognitive opportunities for us within the currentcultural moment.