Exploring the Application of AI-generated Artworks for the Study of Aesthetic Processing

In this paper we outline the need for increased control over the stimuli that are used within the field of empirical aesthetics. Since artworks are highly complex stimuli and traditional man-made artworks vary across many different dimensions (such as color palette, subject matter, style) it is difficult to isolate the effect a single variable has on the aesthetic processing that occurs in a viewer. We therefore propose to explore the use of computer-generated artworks as stimuli instead due to the high degree of control that experimenters have over the generated output. We describe how computational creativity systems work by outlining our own cognitive based multi-module AI system, and then discuss the benefits of these systems as well as some preliminary work in this space. We conclude the paper by addressing the limitation of reduced ecological validity.