Promptografieren als Entscheidungskunst – mit Boris Eldagsen
Boris Eldagsen, a prominent voice in the debate on AI and visual culture, discusses his artistic journey and the concept of 'promptography' in the Monopol podcast 'Fantasiemuskel'. Eldagsen, who began with drawing and later moved to staged photography, now works with AI to create images directly from imagination. He distinguishes between photographed and generated images, coining the term 'promptography' for AI-generated works. In 2023, he won but then rejected the Sony World Photography Award after revealing his entry was a promptography, not a photograph, sparking global debate.
This matters because Eldagsen's rejection of a major photography prize forced the art world to confront the boundaries of photography in the age of AI. His insistence on terminological precision—separating 'photography' from 'promptography'—challenges how we define authorship, creativity, and artistic medium. By arguing that the artist's cognitive 'decision muscle' is central to AI art, he reframes the debate from technology versus human to the quality of artistic judgment, influencing how institutions, critics, and the public evaluate AI-generated works.