Between an Index and an Icon

The rapid development of technoscience calls into question the usual ways of perception and traditional practices of information analysis, in particular, one of the challenges for the communication society has been the development of artificial intelligence capable of creating images that are almost indistinguishable from paintings and photographs, this is clearly visible in the discussions that are developing today around photography and push us to think about the semiotic shift taking place in this field. The article observes three ways for a photographer to work with neural networks, each of which has its own limits of applicability: image processing, image creation based on the style of a famous photographer, image generation "from scratch". The key examples of neural networks at the disposal of photographers and artists are analyzed, their features and expressive capabilities are indicated, as well as those aesthetic and semiological issues that are issues that are actualized by the introduction of artificial intelligence into photographic practice. Based on the results of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the semiotic shifts occurring in the field of photography challenge traditional forms of representation and have a fundamental impact on how the categories of authorship and viewership can be understood in the modern sociocultural process

Aesthetics · Art · Icon · Linguistics · Painting · Perception · Photography · Semiotics · Sociology · Visual arts · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Computer Science · History · Law in Society and Culture · Psychology · Visual Culture and Art Theory