Humans and Machines: A Study of the Impacts of the Technological Advances in the Light of Generative Art Theory Huoston Rodrigues Batista, Juergen Hagler University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Hagenberg Campus Softwarepark 11, 4232 Hagenberg/Upper Austria, Austria huoston.rodrigues@fh-hagenberg.at, juergen.hagler@fh-hagenberg.at Abstract This paper is dedicated to the analysis of two works produced by two contemporary artists, more specifically ”Rachael is not real” by Matthias Winckelmann and ”Machine Halluci- nation”, by Refik Anadol, having as convergence point the generative method of production employed in both. The ar- ticle describes both works using, as theoretical foundation, the most widely accepted definition of Generative Art and reveals nuances of both works that might not be fully comprehended by the current theory. Finally, the article looks at some of the most recent technological advances and their impact on the art world, such as Artificial Intelligence, which have been used to create art, and proposes a reflection on the importance of re- visiting theoretical definitions in order for them to be able to keep up with the technical evolution of art. Keywords Generative Art, Generative art theory, Artificial Intelligence, Generative Methods, Artbot Introduction Nowadays, visual artists increasingly use technological equipment and unconventional methods that go far beyond cameras and computers to produce images. The technological revolution has expanded the knowledge and visibility of the arts to the world. Artists have found in technology a way to diversify and disseminate their art through mass media, such as TV, photography, cinema, and more recently the Internet. However, the devices, techniques, and effects used by artists to produce and display their work are not inert. On the contrary, they are embedded with meaning, and present artists with the challenge of overcoming the technological determin- ism embedded in machines and devices. This is particularly true when it comes to Generative Art. Generative Art is created when an artist cedes some de- gree of control to an autonomous system that creates, or is, the art itself. The various implementations of these “gener- ative” processes produce a range of results, from works that are rigidly ordered to those that rely heavily on elements of chance and randomization. The act of generating a piece apparently taking precedence over the final product is a defining characteristic of this art form. This precedence of process may or may not be dis- cernible in the final work. Many of the works of Generative Art have a very close relationship with science or technolog- ical advances that have become so popular and pervasive in our lives, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). Art and science have always been intrinsically linked. This creative, interdisciplinary collaboration has existed since the Western world began to distinguish reason from mysticism. Currently, several research institutions, such as Harvard, Ox- ford and Sorbonne Universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), among others, promote projects integrating art and science. The results of this connection are diverse, and have resulted in the creation of artistic works with fully scientific concepts that reach museums and contemporary art galleries with works that range from Data Visualization to the use of AI and robotics. In this article, we will approach the contemporary art pro- duction through the spectrum of Generative Art by analyz- ing two current works produced by two contemporary artists, more specifically Rachael is not real, by Matthias Winck- elmann and Machine Hallucination, by Refik Anadol. The point of convergence of the analysis is the generative method of production employed in both. The main objective is to con- trast the two analyzed works with the theoretical background in order to identify possible points of divergence between the current artistic production and the theoretical definition dedi- cated to Generative Art. Theoretical Background The term ”Generative Art” refers to art that was developed entirely or partially by an autonomous system. In this con- text, an autonomous system is one that is not human and can independently choose aspects of a piece of art that would oth- erwise demand decisions made by the artist. The human cre- ator may claim that the generating system symbolizes his or her own artistic idea in some circumstances, and that the sys- tem takes on the role of creator in others. Generative Art is a contemporary form of artistic expres- sion in which not necessarily the artwork or final product is at the center, but the process of creation and the underlying ideas. The work is created by processing a procedural inven- tion, i.e. a set of rules created by the artist or a recorded pro- gram in the form of, for example, natural language, musical language, binary code or mechanism. Celestino Soddu [16], one of the pioneers in the that field, 532