Reconstructing the Subject of Painting through the Metaphor of In Vitro Fertilization and Surrogacy

Abstract

This study theoretically investigates the structure of authorship and the attribution of subjectivity in painting creation during the AI era, focusing on the Soaring project. The research conceptualizes prompt engineering as the ‘fertilized egg of creation’, defining it as a core act of conceptual design within the creative process. By considering the selection and semantic interpretation of a single image-among hundreds generated by AI-through human perception and judgment as an act of artistic practice, the study seeks to justify exclusive curatorial authorship as a legitimate model of authorship. Within this creative structure, AI functions as a computational translation device, and the traditional painter (hwa-gong) is positioned as an outsourced executor; this model is structurally framed through the metaphor of ‘in vitro fertilization and surrogacy’. Through comparative analysis of Sol LeWitt’s conceptual art theory, Midjourney’s copyright policy, and the delegated production models prevalent in contemporary art, the study argues that curatorial authorship can be sufficiently justified even prior to the physical realization of the work. This research attempts to reconstruct the creative structure and criteria for authorship in the age of AI collaboration, proposing a philosophical and legal framework to address the fundamental question: ‘Who is the artist?’.