Belfast Exposed, which calls itself Northern Ireland's leading photography organisation, is being criticised for including AI-generated images in "Beneath the Surface," its show of Ulster University MFA graduates.
The work is Galatea by Jonny Sheridan, one of nine artists. It follows a doomed romance between a man and his AI robot girlfriend, draws on the Pygmalion myth, and asks whether AI makes misogyny worse or only reflects it.
Visitors and local photographers pushed back. One called it slop hung next to real photography, and Brendan Harkin said the use of AI had become the story instead of the idea. Sheridan told the Belfast Telegraph the images took many rounds of prompting and reworking.
The gallery is standing by the show. It says it has a long partnership with the university to present each year's MFA photography graduates, and describes its role as a platform for contemporary work and critical debate.
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