From the Autonomy of Form to the Autonomy of the Visitor

This essay traces the historical trajectory of Western art over the last two centuries, from the representational image to the autonomy of form, and from the latter to the emerging autonomy of the visitor in the age of generative artificial intelligence. The argument is developed through the lens of neurology and the cognitive sciences: each major aesthetic shift is shown to correspond to a transformation in the scientific understanding of perception, from the empiricist model of the mind as a passive camera obscura to Helmholtz’s theory of unconscious inference, Gestalt psychology, embodied cognition, and contemporary predictive processing. With generative AI, the work of art ceases to be a finished object and becomes a field of co-generation between human brains and artificial systems. The traditional roles of artist, spectator and curator are radically reconfigured: the artist becomes an engineer of generative environments, the visitor becomes the effective author of each instance of the work, and the curator either disappears or turns into a repository and facilitator of relational conditions. The essay concludes by examining the neurological promises and risks of this new autonomy, arguing that the decisive stake is not technological but political: who controls the conditions of generation also controls the margins of freedom of the generating brain.