Authorship in Generative Image Art: A Perspective from Distributed Cognition and Agent Harnesses
2026 · Upcoming paper
Generative images increasingly take shape through workflows involving models, tools, platforms, and multiple collaborators; a particular output may be only one stage in an ongoing process. Drawing on distributed cognition and the concept of the agent harness, this paper examines five cases to locate how creators intervene in the formation of works. It asks who arranges the conditions under which images are generated, revised, and displayed, and what responsibility creators bear for the consequences. In the context of photography theory, it shifts the question of authorship beyond attribution of a single image.
