AI + Art = The Primordial Pond

The creative gates once closed to most of us are opening, and we now have the opportunity to learn from our collective wisdom. Will we?

Ashley Bickerton

To the anti-AI crowds who are loudly denouncing AI imagery as idiotic "slop," I politely suggest that you take another look. Many computational creators use Instagram, and their work can be found under the tags AI art, Midjourney, and DALL-E.

une_photo_synthetique, Philipp.frank_mapping on rocks

Begin by allowing yourself to engage fully with the visual environment. Note the conceptual and aesthetic variations, then filter out the chaos, organize the successes, and edit until you've selected your favorites. In that final pool, you'll discover new creative forms worthy of consideration.

Fashion for Bank Robbers

This method of curation is loosely based on evolution. Humans are one of evolution's newest creative forms. We survived the cuts because we're curious, imaginative, inventive beings. We experiment a lot, and yes, it's a sloppy process. We turn rocks over, poke at stuff, and endlessly wonder how to make new things better.

All three images by Oonaoda

As it turns out, new isn't always better, but the chance to invent challenges our inquisitive minds; we stagnate without the possibility of change. Not having change is like not having hope. Computational tech allows people who never thought of themselves as creative, let alone "artists," to conjure up personal visions and share them with the world. The creative gates once closed to most of us are opening, and we now have the opportunity to learn from our collective wisdom and create as never before.

Serifa

The thorny questions surrounding ownership and copyright are too complex to cover here, but protection software is available to visual artists. If you need it, use it because there is no undo button. AI is past the point of no return.

Frequenseers

The other night, I saw some short films from the upcoming Austin AI Film Festival. As I watched the moving images materialize, it felt like I had slipped into the creator's mind. Traditional films require many highly skilled people, and you can feel their presence throughout. The AI films I saw felt like singular visions, and the viewing experience felt intimate, less like a movie and more like a work of art. AI is still an emerging technology, and the optimists hope the competition it ignites will lead to a renaissance in both traditional and AI filmmaking.

Visual Dome AI Film, District 4 Businessman with Robot Security

My takeaway was that while creative tools change, all artists, whatever the medium, begin with nothing: an empty canvas, a blank screen, a sheet of paper, and so on. The artist's job is to shape nothing into something audiences can relate to now and over time. It's a difficult task.

Computational art is here to stay but will not replace analog media or creative people. On the contrary, well-conceived, handmade objects will continue to be valued because they are handmade. By contrast, computational media is mind-made.

Blumquist

Although all art has a conceptual foundation, I refer to computational art as mind-made because it's not dependent or constrained by the human creator's physical skills or by the limits of the canvas, paint, pencils, rock, clay, lighting, locations, crew, etc. Every element of an AI or generative picture can be manipulated or deleted. Those unlimited choices add complexity but also free the imagination to test ideas.

Hedonism Lost, Alex Dodge, Cosmodernism

Each medium has distinct aesthetic characteristics. For example, painting can explore paint and surfaces, sculpture addresses form and space, photography plays with light, etc. The right tool can enhance the work's impact, and computational artists are starting to understand the medium's unique attributes.

Monster Within (detail)

I have discovered a few myself. AI is good at conveying psychological states. We're seeing fantasy portrayed as reality and the thoughtful use of science as a creative material. Analog and digital materials are merging. Themes like tech indoctrination and species integration are being explored. Generally speaking, these paths are circling humanity's provocative relationship with technology.

Fashion For Bank Robbers

It’s reasonable to be concerned about AI's impact on the arts, but romanticizing the past, name calling, and canceling creative pioneers won't stop them from using new technologies. Art never stops evolving—that's its nature, and it’s our nature too.

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