1.Introduction

Thinking question (1 min)

“Look at the two photos of toilets. Which one do you think could be considered a work of art? If I tell you that the object on the left is an artwork, what makes these two images different? Why can’t the one on the right be seen as art?”

Traditional art often assumes that art must be painting, sculpture, or handmade craft.

The object shown above left is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917).

The image on the left is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917).

In 1917, the French artist Marcel Duchamp bought an ordinary men’s urinal from a store, signed it with the pseudonym “R. Mutt,” and submitted it to an art exhibition in New York. The object was simply an industrial ready-made, yet it opened the door to contemporary art. Duchamp argued that art does not need to rely on the artist’s physical labour or on visual beauty. He proposed that choosing an object and giving it a new meaning could be enough to make it art. After this, he challenged the dominant standards of the Western art world at the time. Viewers want to ask, where is the value of art come from? From the object itself, or from the idea behind it?

So, this work became very important in modern and contemporary art. From this, the focus of art shifted from “what the work looks like” to “why it is presented this way.” Duchamp’s art experiment started the tradition of conceptual art, turning artworks from representations of the world into forms of critique, questioning, and institutional reflection. From that moment, the artist was no longer only a maker of objects, but also someone who gave ideas and constructs meaning.

2.Case Studies in Contemporary Art (10 mins)

In this section, we will look at several well-known contemporary artworks to experience the diversity and depth of contemporary art.

Case 1 (4 mins): Joseph Kosuth — One and Three Chairs (1965)

Let’s start with a small test. When you hear the word “chair,” what comes to your mind first? Some people might think of the chair they are sitting on. Others might picture a photo of a chair, a visual image. Some might think of the word “chair” itself.

In this work, the artist Joseph Kosuth places three “chairs” side by side: a real chair, a photograph of a chair, and the dictionary definition of the word “chair.” He did not create any new object, but he proposed a key question: when we talk about a “chair,” do we mean the physical object, its visual representation, or the abstract concept constructed by language? This is connected to philosophical debates about representation, and it helps viewers notice that our understanding of the world is never direct but always filtered through different forms of presentation.

One and Three Chairs is a typical example of conceptual art because it pushed contemporary art from material objects toward ideas. Kosuth argued that the core of art is not its visual form but the question it issued and the concept behind it. The artwork is no longer an object to be admired, but a structure that invites thought. Through this approach, Kosuth helped art break away from traditional aesthetics expectations and enter an era where ideas guide the work.

Case 2 (4 mins): Ai Weiwei — Grass Mud Horse Blocks the Center (2009)

What can an artist do when they feel they have been treated unfairly? Write an article? Join a protest? In fact, many contemporary artists choose to speak through their work. Ai Weiwei is one of them.

Ai Weiwei’s works often respond directly to social and political issues. Many of them contain criticism of political control in China, so he often faces pressure from the authorities. Grass-Mud Horse Covering the Middle uses a well-known Chinese internet pun. Its literal meaning masks a vulgar phrase that critiques state censorship. The work points to the limits placed on public expression under a restrictive system.

In this piece, art is no longer only art, it becomes closely tied to politics. Ai Weiwei uses his work to create public discussion and to bring attention to issues that are often avoided in society. Art becomes a social language used to question power, express a position, and encourage collective thinking. The focus is not on visual beauty, but on the force of expression itself, turning art into a part of the broader conversation about free speech and resistance.

3.The Extreme of Dematerialization in Contemporary Art (4 mins)

Case 3: Beeple — Everydays: The First 5000 Days (2021)

Let’s think about a simple question. When you see a nice meme or image online, how do you save it? Do you download it? Would you pay for it? If yes, what is the most you would pay? And if I tell you that an artist once became financially successful by selling his “memes,” would you believe it?

The American digital artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) created one digital image every day for 13 years, and later combined 5,000 of them into a single work. The work exists only as a digital file with no physical form, yet it was sold at Christie’s in 2021 for 69 million dollars. This event shows that the value of art no longer depends on a physical object, but on the sense of uniqueness provided by blockchain technology.

Blockchain is used to record the ownership of a digital file, allowing digital art to be collected and traded like traditional artworks. Through this system, the artwork shifts from a material object to a piece of data. The meaning of collecting also changes—from owning a physical object to owning it on the internet. Beeple’s work shows an extreme trend of dematerialisation in contemporary art.

4.Extension (5 mins)

QUESTION: Is the “artist” still important in the age of AI?

Today, AI can create a beautiful image in just a few seconds. So what is the role of the artist now? In contemporary art, the most important part of being an artist is not the hand, but the mind. AI can generate images, but it does not know what to create or why. A real artist is the person who gave the question, decides what to express, and chooses what to challenge. For this reason, in the age of AI, we may need artists not more to “make things,” but to “think about the world.”

Next, let’s try using AI to create a contemporary artwork of your own. You only need to imagine what you want based on your own ideas and describe it in words. You can use the website below to generate an image. It usually takes about 1–2 minutes.

https://jaaz.app/template

Here are some prompt words you may find useful:

Deconstructivist composition, floating geometry, transparent layered structure, light cutting space, liquid form transformation, fractal growth texture, experimental image texture, dark futuristic atmosphere, cold technological tones, abstract energy flow, anti-gravity tension field.