The Ontology of Cinema in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Manifesto in Defending the Human Footprint

Abstract

This study examines the integration of generative artificial intelligence technologies into cinema and audiovisual media production not merely as a technical innovation or an issue of industrial efficiency, but as a crisis that transforms the ontological, aesthetic, ethical, and labour-political foundations of cinema. The aim of the study is not to produce a simple anti-technological stance against artificial intelligence, but to defend cinema’s relationship with the human body, testimony, error, creative risk, and ethical responsibility. In this regard, André Bazin’s ontology of the photographic image, Vivian Sobchack’s film phenomenology, Stanley Cavell’s reflections on cinema, auteur theory, studies on algorithmic bias, and contemporary debates on creative labour are evaluated together. Methodologically, the study adopts qualitative theoretical synthesis and critical discourse analysis. In addition, the artificial intelligence provisions in the 2023 agreements of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, as well as current text-to-video generative models, are included in the contextual framework of the study. The study concludes that a smooth and optimized mode of visual production devoid of human error, bodily vulnerability, lived experience, and artistic risk is not cinema itself, but an algorithmic simulation of cinema.

Keywords

• Generative artificial intelligence
• cinema ontology
• actor’s body
• algorithmic auteur
• creative labour.

Üretken Yapay Zekâ Çağında Sinemanın Ontolojisi: İnsan İzini Savunma Manifestosu

Abstract

Bu çalışma, üretken yapay zekâ teknolojilerinin sinema ve görsel-işitsel medya üretim süreçlerine dâhil oluşunu yalnızca teknik bir yenilik ya da endüstriyel verimlilik meselesi olarak değil, sinemanın ontolojik, estetik, etik ve emek-politik temellerini dönüştüren bir kriz alanı olarak ele almaktadır. Çalışmanın amacı, yapay zekâya karşı basit bir teknoloji karşıtlığı üretmek değil; sinemanın insan bedeni, tanıklık, hata, yaratıcı risk ve etik sorumlulukla kurduğu bağı savunmaktır. Bu doğrultuda André Bazin’in fotoğrafik görüntü ontolojisi, Vivian Sobchack’in film fenomenolojisi, Stanley Cavell’in sinema düşüncesi, auteur kuramı, algoritmik önyargı çalışmaları ve güncel yaratıcı emek tartışmaları birlikte değerlendirilmiştir. Yöntem olarak nitel kuramsal sentez ve eleştirel söylem analizi benimsenmiştir. Ayrıca WGA ve SAG-AFTRA’nın 2023 sözleşmelerindeki yapay zekâ hükümleri, metinden-videoya üretim yapan güncel modeller çalışmanın bağlamına dâhil edilmiştir. Çalışma, insan hatasından, bedensel kırılganlıktan, yaşanmışlıktan ve sanatsal riskten yoksun pürüzsüzleştirilmiş görsel üretimin sinema değil, sinemanın algoritmik bir simülasyonu olduğu sonucuna ulaşmaktadır.

Keywords

• Üretken yapay zekâ
• sinema ontolojisi
• oyuncu bedeni
• algoritmik auteur
• yaratıcı emek.

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