This paper examines the potential for localized adaptation, appropriation and re-imagination of AI for non-western cultural expression, using the Persian Gulf as a case. Using sociologist Howard Becker’s concept of 'art worlds' as a situated lens to evaluate generative AI, we set up an eight week experimentation and dialogue between artists, art historians and curators. Our project reveals how local art worlds 1) can appropriate AI tools to address contextual and cultural needs; 2) develop "hacks'' to adapt AI for culturally-specific capabilities; and 3) can be a site for imagining alternative technological trajectories. We thus showcase the importance of expanding the scope of AI evaluations to include the social dynamics AI operates in and its contexts of use. We also reflect on the power that local communities may have to interrupt AI with more culturally-relevant orientations and to offer visions for redesigning AI for non-Western creativity.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3714049
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