Creativity Vs. Code: UNC’s PVA Posters Spark Debate Among Students

Written by Adam Johnson, with contributions by Shellee Schwartz

Creativity and technology are colliding at UNC’s School of Performing and Visual Arts, in a way that they never have before: The posters for the 2024-2025 PVA season were made with the help of Artificial Intelligence. This choice has left students wondering what role they’ll play in an increasingly automated world –and what happens when creativity is outsourced to code.

For an arts college with a strong graphic design program, the use of Generative AI designs is about more than just visuals; it carries implications about the role and value of human artists in a world where AI is encroaching on the creative field more than ever before. A study commissioned by CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, calculates that the market for Generative AI will see dramatic growth in the next five years, while human creators will lose a large portion of their income as a result. This is just one of many instances of AI charting its way into artistic territory in a way that could be damaging the livelihood of the human workers in that field.

Artificial Intelligence can be useful in many different facets of daily life. But it isn’t perfect and can easily make mistakes. When examining the poster designs, there are discrepancies in some that hint at the use of Generative AI. In the poster for “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” the central character’s arm does not cast a shadow. Additionally, in the poster for the “Holiday Spectacular,” the cello player to the far right seems to have two heads. These are just a few examples.

The Posters for “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and the “Holiday Spectacular.”

Another aspect of the posters that many have noticed is that they seem to lack any specifics about the piece that is being advertised. An employee in the PVA office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the graphics for some of the theatrical productions do not seem to reference the source material in any way.

“Looking at the posters, they feel impersonal to the shows,” they said. “Such as ‘42nd Street,’ like that's a tap dancing show and the poster, you know, seems like a very general take on what a musical of that era looks like in general and not specific to the show.”

The poster for “42nd Street.”

“I think that if an artist would be able to read the play or to see a production of the play, they could make a poster that more directly promotes that production and not just generalize as to what that show's about,” the PVA employee said.

Another aspect of Generative AI that is important to consider is the fact that it can only create an image with the help of preexisting images created by human artists. AI image generators output a new image by searching every picture on the internet associated with the request, compiling segments of random images to complete the picture.

Rachel Gordon, Senior Communications Strategist for MIT, puts it plainly in her article “3 Questions: How AI image generators work”:

“They can find patterns in art that people have made,” Gordon said. “But it’s much harder for these models to actually generate creative photos on their own.”

In this case, the artist was given photos from past UNC theatre productions as a basis for his designs, which were then inputted into an AI image generator. This may explain one poster in particular. In the poster for “Getting Near to Baby,” a play being produced by the school of theatre and dance in April, one of the girls featured in the poster shares an uncanny similarity to Abby Petit, a sophomore acting major at UNC.

The poster for “Getting Near to Baby" (left) and Abby Petit (right) performing in “This Restless House” last February. Photo by Thomas Meyers.

Petit portrayed the role of Electra in “This Restless House,” a UNC production that was performed last February. Petit explained that seeing her face on the poster came as a surprise, as she was not notified of it beforehand.

“I first saw it around August of this year,” Petit said. “One of my friends sent me the poster, and I was like: Oh my god, that’s my face."

“I don’t have a problem with being on the poster at all. My problem is the fact that they’re going to feed my face into AI without giving me a heads up.”

AI has made great advancements in the past few years, and many are still understanding how to use it ethically, especially in fields that rely on authenticity and creativity. Aubree Robidoux, a fourth-year graphic design major at UNC, explained that AI use can be helpful or unethical, depending on how you use it.

“I have mixed opinions on it,” Robidoux said. “I think it as a tool is amazing. I think if you can use it for research, then it's great. But I think if you're using it to create art, that's when you run into some issues, especially on an ethical level, because then it's stealing artwork from artists who might not have their artwork protected. I think that you can get into dangerous territory, and I don't like it.”

Mirror reporter Shellee Schwartz interviewed the designer of the posters, former UNC professor and doctorate student Shawn Williams. Williams now works full time at “The Duck Company,” a college apparel brand based in Denver. However, when he designed the posters, he was working as a freelance artist while pursuing his doctorate at UNC. William explained that his reason for using AI was to complete a large project within a tight deadline.

“For a project like this,” Williams said “where it's like 26 posters, in like six to eight weeks, That's a very tall order for any single designer. And so that's usually among a design team, you know, you would need like five people to take on a task like that and be efficient. But because it was just me, I was like, 'Okay, how can I really utilize my time efficiently?'”

Williams went on to explain that AI was only used for some posters, and that any photos that were procedurally generated were then corrected and heavily altered to fit the overarching style of the season posters.

“None of the images are exactly how they were generated,” Williams said. “I manipulated every single one of them to the point where they no longer look like the original photo.”

At the time that the posters began to be uploaded to social media, it was not known by UNC that AI was used to aid in the creation of the posters. According to Williams, since he was heavily editing the elements generated by AI, he didn’t feel the need to disclose it.

“None of these posters were completely created with AI,” Williams said. “I've been doing design for many years, and nobody really asked me, ‘Oh, how did you produce that?’ And so maybe because of that, because there's a lack of people asking me the process, I don't necessarily tell everybody exactly how I do everything."

“Since I've only been really using it [AI] for like, the last four to six months, it's still kind of new for me as well. And so, given the fact that I didn't use it for every single poster, I didn’t feel like I needed to talk about it.”

Robidoux said that there are many talented graphic designs majors at UNC, and that she wishes the opportunity to work on the season posters had been extended to the students who study art.

“There's so much untapped potential and talent at this university that I don't believe is taken advantage of enough,” Robidoux said. “And especially, you know, when it comes to internships, there's so many students who I think would love giving back to their university.”

While AI offers efficiency and innovation, it raises ethical questions about authorship, transparency and the value of human artistry. As students like Robidoux advocate for more opportunities to showcase their work, the challenge for institutions like UNC will be to balance innovation with integrity, ensuring that human creativity remains at the forefront of artistic endeavors.

For now, one thing is clear: as AI continues to evolve, so too must the conversations around its place in the arts. The question isn’t just what AI can do, but what it should do—and who gets to decide.