I’d like to share my opinion on art generated by AI, or rather art generated by AI programs operated by human beings- to be precise.
Once images generated by AI started popping out, my initial reaction was quite defensive, I must admit. Sheer volume of imagery, fast improvement of quality, speed of delivery- characteristics that traditional artist, whom I consider myself to be, struggle the most with. It’s been a while since I’ve been trying to understand how I feel about it, and to come to some conclusions, I had to focus on myself. As it often happens, to understand something happening around I must concentrate on myself. I had to come back to my last image ‘Bring me some flowers and the Moon’ created before a short hiatus from artistic world. I was going through a painful break up at that time. A dark place. I had a feeling , that bringing all the flowers in the world could not fix it, neither would bringing the moon. All the emotions I had at that time, I’d transferred to the image. Now, did it help me personally during the drama? Probably not that much, but it lifted the weight of the shoulders a little bit. That moment of a vulnerability made the perfect wave to create, and for me that’s what art is all about.
Bring me some Flowers and the Moon, 2024
I was asking myself, would it have the same weight, if I had this image generated by AI? For me, probably not, as using your own material is a must, and the struggle of physical creation is part of the whole process.
Is it important for an image to have some story behind it, or be emotionally charged? Why wait , when one can have a diarrhea of random words generate an object of amusement? In this age of consumption, swiping, chewing, spitting, and going to the next one, 99.999% don’t care, and good for them, but those 0.001 who know, they know and feel.
Funny part, for an illustration of this text I decided to use AI (the robotic part of the illustration). It took me about 30 seconds to get what I wanted, which was perfect as I wanted a fast result, the process of mixing photography and generated part took much longer but was fun :)
Have I come to some conclusions about Art and AI? I think so. Two things. We create for ourselves, not anybody else. AI is tool, and you decide how much of yourself stays in your creation.
Cheers!