艺术在“控与不控”之间
更新时间：2025-08-28 14:41 浏览量：2
艺术在“控与不控”之间
——万毅影像艺术之“AI水墨”试验
文/斯金
水墨在屏幕或投影中呈现晕染的无限动态变化，而后于动态流动的某一瞬间戛然定格，前者是墨在水中扩散物理过程的自然呈现，其交汇、渗透，纠缠、重合的演绎充满偶然性与不可控性；而后者则是自然过程流动的静止，瞬间凝固的画面在意料之外又在意料之中，有人为介入的干预性。这个操作可以通过不同的介质与方法重复、叠加获得丰富的影像素材，经后期制作成为“流动的”和“静态的”两类作品。这就是万毅“AI水墨”试验的模态，即借助AI工具，以一种新的创作生成机制，在屏幕介质中尝试对传统纸质水墨超越性的艺术拓展。
我们可以先从直观的层面来看这个试验的“控与不控”：“控”是“人为的”，“不控”是“自然的”；“不控”是自然呈现，或者就是自然的“涌现”，充满不可控的“偶然性”，而“控”则显示人为介入干预，蕴含艺术家主体的潜在感受和个体审美旨趣，具有某种“必然性”。当然，所谓“控”与“不控”也只是相对而言，事实上由AI工具所实现的这种不可控的“偶然性”已为先在的数据算法所控制，有某种“必然性”在其中；而艺术家潜在的“必然性”则因其创作灵感发挥的不定性也完全存在“偶然性”。因而，透过直观层面的这个模态试验，它首先让我们看到的是一种新的艺术生成机制——混沌与秩序相共生，从无序到有序，在“控与不控”之间，寻求两者互为张力场的某种平衡，从而抵达艺术创造之审美境域和情智愉悦。在这里艺术家的基本能力和才华不可或缺，而对“控与不控”平衡点的把控掌握则尤显重要，惟其如此，才有可能达成创作过程控制与自然、自然与技术、传统与创新的自由。万毅的“AI水墨”试验系列作品（《墨迹》《墨域》），正是在这个维度上的自觉，带给我们不同的视觉冲击和审美感受。
千变万化的动态流淌与静止凝固的瞬间惊艳，这些作品无不蕴含时间的隐喻，充满无限的想象空间。其艺术表现不只是技术（工具、材料、生成技法等）与传统的碰撞，更是对艺术本质、文化身份及人类创造边界的某种探索。突破媒介局限激活水墨生命、解构创作主体去中心化创作、文化符号重构跨文明对话“算法语言”建立、文化身份反思超越，以及科技批判与哲学、诗意表达等等方面，之于当下具有多重的意义。显而易见，其视觉艺术效果在当下抽象艺术中，更是具有了多重象征与美学涵义，比如上述自然与控制的辩证、流动与静止之于生命感受的时间隐喻、混沌与秩序共生中从无序到结构的宇宙本质回应等等。AI与水墨的融合，既非对传统的取代，亦非对现代科技的献媚，它在代码与笔墨的皱褶间开辟出新的空间。在全球化语境下水墨不再仅是东方符号，已成为可被算法解构重组的跨文明基因，这一融合给艺术家提出了新的挑战，也提供了一面身份再确认与反思创作本质的一面镜子，之于未来，它似乎已预示了一种“后人类艺术”的可能。
然而，AI作为工具无论在艺术创作中发挥怎样的作用，也无论给艺术家带来怎样的挑战与改变，艺术的终极意义始终指向对生命本质的诗意叩问。就此而言，我们有必要对这个“AI水墨”试验模态做进一步的探讨考察。
以上述新生成机制进行创作，所呈现出（“流动的”）动态和（“静止的”）静态两种作品形态，在量子物理学的维度里，我们可以把墨在水中晕染、渗透与扩散看成是量子纠缠，“流动”不停进程的形态看成是量子的叠加态，而画面定格的“静止”形态就是叠加态的坍缩。具体一点说就是：在水与墨相互纠缠过程中，当“流动”（自然呈现或“涌现”）不被“干预”（观察、介入），叠加态蕴含着无数种作品形态，而一旦“干预”便瞬间“静止”，叠加态坍缩成为定格不变的一种作品形态。在这里，我们看到了叠加态的多可能性，作品不再被视为固定对象，而是包含多重潜在意义的“可能性场域”，艺术家与观众的参与才最终决定了意义的显现。同时，在纠缠的关联性中，创作过程的不确定性必然带来作品拒绝单一解释，强调模糊性、开放性与不可预测性。
在作品未完成态与完成态之间，艺术与创作者、与观众、与技术（甚至环境）之间形成不可分割的整体，审美体验不再孤立，而是一个系统性的“关系网络”。如此，在这个“AI水墨”试验模态中，我们看到了量子物理学作为哲学基础在艺术上的美学延伸：它将艺术从“确定性对象”转化为“可能性过程”，从“主客分离”转向“纠缠共生”，并非是对经典美学的简单否定，而是提供了一种应对技术时代复杂性、流动性与不确定性的新视角——艺术成为一场永不完结的“量子舞蹈”，在观察与互动中不断重构现实。
如果量子物理学揭开了一种全新的观察、理解自然宇宙的视角，颠覆改变了人类对自然宇宙的已有认知，那么之于艺术、审美，它作为哲学基础在艺术的延伸则带来了观念、思想的震动与转向——宇宙自然本质与结构在上述“AI水墨”试验中的显现，让我们有理由相信：艺术完全也可以以一种全新方式，为我们提供一种理解人类所存在世界和人类自我存在的全新视角（事实上，整个艺术发展史的每一次艺术转向、美学思潮的变革都是视角的革命与新发现），在当代艺术混乱迷失的困境中，打开一个缺口找到突围的方向；而在科技改变艺术生成机制也改变艺术主体性的当下境遇中，重构艺术本质、重建艺术秩序与新美学价值体系，重新获得或回归艺术指向生命存在诗意叩问的终极意义。艺术的进化轨迹始终与人类的认知边界同频共振，在量子物理重塑时空观的今天，艺术已站在文明嬗变的奇点上，在这个奇点黎明前的暗涌中，一切皆有可能的未来曙光已现端倪。或许，这是这个试验更为深层的意义，给予我们更深刻的追问与思考。
2025年6月28日
Between “Control and Non-Control”
—— Wan Yi’s Experiment in “AI Ink Art”
By Si Jin
Translated by Simon Song
Ink, displayed on a screen or through projection, unfolds in an endless dynamic diffusion, only to suddenly freeze at a particular instant amid its flowing movement. The former presents the natural physical process of ink dispersing in water — a performance full of chance and uncontrollability as it intersects, permeates, entangles, and overlaps. The latter, however, is the stilling of this natural flow, an image frozen in a moment that is at once unexpected yet somehow anticipated, revealing a human intervention. This operation can be repeated and layered through various media and methods, generating rich visual material that, after post-production, results in two types of works: “dynamic” and “static.” This is precisely the modality of Wan Yi’s “AI Ink” experiment — leveraging AI tools to create a new generative mechanism, exploring an artistic expansion that transcends the traditional realm of paper-based ink painting within the digital medium.
We can first examine this experiment’s notion of “control and non-control” on a perceptual level: “control” is “artificial,” whereas “non-control” is “natural.” “Non-control” signifies a natural presentation, or even a natural “emergence,” brimming with uncontrollable “chance,” while “control” reflects the artist’s deliberate intervention, embodying the creator’s subjective feelings and individual aesthetic interests, carrying a certain “inevitability.” Of course, the so-called “control” and “non-control” are only relative concepts. In truth, even the AI-enabled “chance” is ultimately governed by underlying data algorithms, possessing its own kind of “inevitability.” Meanwhile, the artist’s intrinsic “inevitability” equally harbors elements of “chance” due to the unpredictability inherent in creative inspiration. Thus, beyond the perceptual level, this experimental modality reveals to us a new artistic generative mechanism — a coexistence of chaos and order, evolving from disorder into order, seeking a balance in the tension field between “control and non-control,” thereby attaining the aesthetic realm and intellectual delight of artistic creation. Here, the fundamental skill and talent of the artist are indispensable, and mastering the balance between “control and non-control” becomes particularly critical. Only in this way can one achieve freedom in navigating the interplay of control and nature, nature and technology, tradition and innovation. Wan Yi’s series of “AI Ink” experimental works is consciously situated within this dimension, offering us fresh visual impact and aesthetic experience.
The ever-changing dynamic flows and the breathtaking stillness of frozen moments in these works all embody a metaphor of time and offer boundless imaginative space. Their artistic expression is not merely a collision between technology (tools, materials, generative techniques) and tradition but also an exploration of the essence of art, cultural identity, and the boundaries of human creativity. Breaking through the limitations of media to revitalize the life of ink art, deconstructing the creative subject to enable decentralized creation, reconstructing cultural symbols to establish cross-civilizational dialogue through “algorithmic language,” rethinking and transcending cultural identity, engaging in technological critique intertwined with philosophy and poetic expression — all of these aspects carry significant meaning in our contemporary moment. Clearly, the visual artistic effects of these works within the context of contemporary abstract art are imbued with multiple symbolic and aesthetic implications. For example, there’s the dialectic of nature and control, the metaphor of time in the contrast between fluidity and stillness in relation to life’s sensations, and the cosmic essence of evolving from chaos to structure in the coexistence of chaos and order. The fusion of AI and ink painting is neither a replacement of tradition nor a flattery of modern technology; instead, it carves out new spaces within the folds of code and brushwork. In the context of globalization, ink is no longer merely an Eastern symbol but has become a cross-civilizational gene that can be deconstructed and recombined by algorithms. This fusion presents new challenges for artists while also serving as a mirror for re-examining identity and reflecting on the essence of artistic creation. Looking toward the future, it seems to hint at the possibility of a “post-human art.”
Yet, no matter what role AI plays in artistic creation or what challenges and changes it brings to artists, the ultimate meaning of art always points to a poetic inquiry into the essence of life. In this regard, it is necessary to further investigate and examine the modality of this “AI Ink” experiment.
When creating with this new generative mechanism, the resulting works take on two forms: dynamic (“flowing”) and static (“frozen”). From the perspective of quantum physics, we might consider the diffusion, permeation, and dispersion of ink in water as a kind of quantum entanglement. The ever-flowing state can be seen as a quantum superposition, while the “frozen” still image is akin to the collapse of that superposition. More precisely: in the process of water and ink becoming entangled, when the “flow” (natural presentation or “emergence”) is not “intervened upon” (observed or interrupted), the superposition contains countless possible forms the work might take. However, once there is “intervention,” the image instantly “freezes,” collapsing the superposition into a single, fixed work form. Here, we witness the multi-possibility of the superposition state: the artwork is no longer seen as a fixed object but as a “field of possibilities” containing multiple latent meanings, with the participation of the artist and the viewer ultimately determining which meanings are revealed. Simultaneously, in the interconnectedness of this entanglement, the uncertainty of the creative process inevitably leads to works that resist singular interpretation, emphasizing ambiguity, openness, and unpredictability.
Between the state of a work’s incompletion and completion, art forms an inseparable whole with the creator, the audience, and technology (even the environment). Aesthetic experience is no longer isolated but part of a systemic “network of relationships.” Thus, within this “AI Ink” experimental modality, we see an aesthetic extension of quantum physics as a philosophical foundation in art: it transforms art from a “deterministic object” into a “probabilistic process,” shifts from “subject-object separation” toward “entangled coexistence,” and does not simply negate classical aesthetics. Instead, it offers a new perspective for grappling with the complexity, fluidity, and uncertainty of the technological age — art becomes an endless “quantum dance,” constantly reconstructing reality through observation and interaction.
If quantum physics has unveiled a completely new perspective for observing and understanding the natural universe, upending humanity’s previous cognitive frameworks, then as a philosophical foundation extended into art and aesthetics, it has also brought profound conceptual and ideological tremors and shifts. The manifestation of the cosmic essence and structure of nature in the aforementioned “AI Ink” experiment gives us reason to believe that art, too, can in a wholly new way offer us fresh perspectives for understanding the world in which humanity exists — and for understanding our own existence. Indeed, every artistic turning point and every aesthetic revolution in art history has represented precisely such a revolution of perspective and new discovery. In the current predicament of contemporary art’s confusion and loss of direction, this experiment opens a crack through which one might glimpse a path forward. And in this era where technology is reshaping not only the mechanisms of artistic creation but also the very subjectivity of art, it provides the impetus to reconstruct the essence of art, rebuild the order of art, and redefine a new aesthetic value system, ultimately reclaiming or returning to the ultimate meaning of art as a poetic inquiry into the existence of life. The evolutionary trajectory of art has always resonated in harmony with the shifting boundaries of human cognition. In this age where quantum physics reshapes our concepts of time and space, art now stands at the singularity of civilizational transformation. Amid the undercurrents before the dawn of this singularity, glimmers of a future in which anything is possible are already beginning to appear. Perhaps this deeper significance of the experiment offers us more profound questions and reflections.
June 28, 2025