Abstract

The art world has been transformed by generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) models in the last three years, creating new possibilities and challenges. However, the impact of Gen-AIs on the art world is too broad and complex to address comprehensively. Thus, it is both valuable and important to map out an ecosystem to increase awareness, facilitate future research, and aid decision-making and problem solving. One area of interest includes digital art, which has become important to contemporary art world stakeholders. However, there is no clear definition of what constitutes a digital art ecosystem. Therefore, this paper provides a discussion of relevant reviewed literature to construct a theoretical ecosystem for digital art as well as its interconnected components and elements. This can help guide future research and studies on addressing existing and emerging challenges, identifying missed opportunities, and fostering a healthy digital art ecosystem for diverse stakeholders, contexts, and digital art practices and media.