Masterclass
04/06/2026 - 7:00 PM (Barcelona Time)
Authenticity Is Key – Really?
Explore the shifting meaning of authenticity in the age of generative AI with Boris Eldagsen in this provocative keynote. The session asks a deceptively simple question: if an image, video or song moves us, unsettles us, or stays with us, does it still matter whether it was made by a human or by an AI agent? Through a sharp distinction between stimulus, resonance, relationship, and transformation, the talk challenges the creative industry’s current obsession with “authenticity” and shows how easily AI can simulate the emotional signals we often mistake for depth, intimacy, or truth.
A conceptual artist, AI researcher, and internationally recognized voice in the debate around photography and artificial intelligence, Boris Eldagsen has spent decades exploring the boundaries between image, memory, consciousness, and media systems. Known for refusing the Sony World Photography Award in 2023 after winning with an AI-generated image, he uses artistic practice as a stress test for cultural assumptions. In this keynote, he argues that the future of creativity will not be saved by empty calls for authenticity, but by friction, attitude, contradiction, transparency, and real responsibility — the places where human creativity still hurts, risks, and matters.
