My Opinion On AI generation in Contemporary Art Practices. + a cat photo
- Augusta Larsen
- Nov 21, 2024
- 3 min read
TLDR: It's a tool, it is not your final product, it is the stepping stone to greatness. Make them make one that does the dishes so you don't have to.
So I’m going to start by saying that I do see use in AI generation in art practices, I can say that I do not want to be hand drawing 400 cells of sparkle effects in an animation and if a computer can do that for me? To a repeatable level of quality? I would use it constantly. I can even see it as a story boarding or preparatory planning tool for projects, can’t figure out how to draw a scene or unsure of colors or need inspiration for something like a background but cannot find references? AI is great for that, it is great for getting past the parts of the work that is a massive time suck or struggle. My BIGGEST line of contention when it comes to AI is when I am doing my work, or talking about it, and am approached by individuals who presume to tell me I should change my career or look into a different study because even they(Often only peripherally involved with the arts or creative writing, enough to be able to talk about the market or works but having never put in time to the craft beyond fleeting interest.) are able to do what I do and better with the use of AI generation.
Because the truth is they cannot.
I also have massive opinions on the copyright legality of AI generation both pertaining to the scraping of work from social media without authorization or permissions from artists(Cause guess what? Just because it’s on social media DOESN’T mean it is CREATIVE COMMONS!) and the practice of selling work generated by AI. But generally they all boil down to using AI as a tool to speed up tedious or tricky portions of the work flow or to test ideas without extensive time commitment is great, but using it to go from first pass to end product is not. AI should be a stepping stone tool and not a pinnacle of an artist's repertoire. To claim that that is the best you can do creatively is to choose mediocrity and ineptitude. Art and creativity is not something born to you, it is a skill to cultivate. You will never draw a perfect circle on the first try, so do it a hundred times.
If you are going to put in the hours learning what 6 word combinations get you the best image full of artifacts that matches your specifications, you may as well start learning to draw or paint it yourself. You clearly already have the time.
– I will link here an essay I wrote on this topic for my business degree which contains links to legal cases where the courts rule against granting copyright to AI generated work and their “prompters”. (Document is view only Google Doc.) https://docs.google.com/document/d/15A5pWLxS_uOsyZyYy_peJ-bNvi8ImwrTI35TndVLwXI/edit?usp=sharing
– Link by SamDoesArt from youtube and instagram. He has a good, short overview on the opinions I found at the time it came out, and still do agree with. And as a practicing social media artist himself I found he was a good outside perspective for when I was unable to explain my opinions clearly.
Why Artists are Fed Up with AI Art.
– If it wasn’t created by a human artist, is it still art? By Liz Mineo, Harvard Gazette
– An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Arenʼt Happy. By Kevin Roose, New York Times
– AI created award-winning art stirring up controversy
-This is Hopper, Hopper is an art critique. Hopper sees ghosts in the AI art. Hopper sits in the sink and judges me while I work in my studio area at home. If I used AI for anything but trying to figure out how trees work Hopper would probably eat my soul.
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