Professor Eugene Wang Delivered Keynote at Peking University International Forum on “Intelligence and Art”
Eugene Wang, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, delivered the keynote address at Peking University’s 2025 International Doctoral Student Forum for Art Studies, organized under the theme “Intelligence and Art.” His lecture, “How Do We Code Colors?: Blue Memories and Artistic Intelligence,” reflected on the evolving question of what constitutes art in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing on the example of an AI-generated image that won a top international prize, Professor Wang asked whether artificial intelligence might itself be understood as a form of “artistic intelligence.”
During his talk, Professor Wang examined color blue as a medium of cultural memory, creativity, and artistic coding across time. By tracing how artists have historically “programmed” varieties of blue to generate meaning, Professor Wang explored how color mediates between cultural-historical memory, artistic imagination, and contemporary debates surrounding AI-generated images.
The 2025 PKU International Doctoral Student Forum of Art Studies gathered emerging scholars to explore the theme “Intelligence and Arts,” encompassing AI aesthetics, media theory, design, film, and beyond.