Artificial Intelligence as a New Form of Artistic Literacy: A Conceptual Model of Digital Art Literacy

Abstract

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence has radically transformed the ways in which visual images are created, interpreted, and circulated, giving rise to a new cognitive environment in which artistic production unfolds through the interaction of human intention and the latent probabilistic structures of the model. Traditional frameworks of artistic and visual literacy prove insufficient for describing these processes, as they presuppose fixed relationships between the subject, the image, and the cultural code. In this study, we propose a conceptual model of digital-art literacy, interpreting artistic literacy in the age of AI as a hybrid cognitive competence that integrates four levels: semiotic–compositional, prompt-rhetorical, stylistic–generative, and algorithmic–semiotic. We demonstrate that generative models transform not only the techniques of image production but also the epistemology of visuality, turning the image into a computational object that emerges within latent spaces. We also discuss practical implications for engineering education, creative industries, professional communication, and critical media literacy. On the basis of our analysis, we conclude that digital-art literacy constitutes a new form of cognitive culture essential for meaningful participation in the algorithmically augmented visual environment of the twenty-first century.