Valentina Tanni's New Book Explores Human-AI Coexistence Through Art
Valentina Tanni, an Italian art historian, has published a new book titled "Conversazioni con la macchina" (Tlon, 2025) that examines the relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence. Rather than focusing on artists' use of AI tools, Tanni investigates how art can test forms of coexistence with machines, challenging the competitive narrative that frames AI as a threat. The book draws on artistic experiments with autonomous AI systems, including Harold Cohen's painting, William Latham's evolutionary forms, Memo Atken's unpredictable learning, Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico's family identities, and Jon Rafman's magical rituals. Tanni replaces the master/slave paradigm with a relational one, aiming to uncover technological and human knowledge. This work follows her previous books "Memestica. Il settembre eterno dell'arte" (Nero, 2020) on memes and "Exit Reality" (Nero, 2023) on internet aesthetics. The book is published by Tlon in 2025.
Key facts
- Valentina Tanni published "Conversazioni con la macchina" with Tlon in 2025.
- The book explores human-AI coexistence through art, not just AI use by artists.
- Tanni challenges the competitive view of AI as a threat.
- Artists cited include Harold Cohen, William Latham, Memo Atken, Salvatore Iaconesi, Oriana Persico, and Jon Rafman.
- Tanni's previous books include "Memestica" (2020) and "Exit Reality" (2023).
- The book proposes a relational paradigm instead of master/slave.
- Tanni is an art historian with a focus on digital culture.
- The book is a critical reflection on the meaning of human-machine relationships.
Entities
Artists
- Valentina Tanni
- Harold Cohen
- William Latham
- Memo Atken
- Salvatore Iaconesi
- Oriana Persico
- Jon Rafman
Institutions
- Tlon
- Nero