(digital) Art is just taste
Some artists (or worse, art critics) are pretentious little bastards. Specially towards their own craft. They think their creation has some kind of special meaning or spiritual depth. All bullshit!
Now that technique is no longer the gatekeeper, anyone can create (digital) art in any style. You just need be creative with words, describing what you want to the computer and AI will spit something for you.
People who practiced their craft all their life are sassy about it, with good reason. At this point you probably know all the reasons for them to be pissed off, so I won’t elaborate on that. However, fighting against technology is always a lost battle, I believe we can all agree with that.
Taking ethics (about how AI models were trained) and/or how we got to this point aside - just for a second -, let me get to the practical point. With proficiency in a medium not being a barrier anymore, what will be considered good art in the in future? Forget the human vs machine-made debate and concentrate only in the outcome/product. Again, just for a second.
Two meticulously “painted” images. Two delightfully sounding songs. Two heart-melting poems. One is bad and one is good, you just know it. How, why? It’s certainly not because one has soul and the other is soulless, you can’t even tell which one was made by a real person. If you have to pick your favourite, it’s just a matter of taste and I think I’m fine with it.
Now, moving forward, I see a few things:
- Creativity and taste are still kings
- Humans will create new styles1, AI will pickup fast. Rinse and repeat.
- Low entry barrier → explosion of experimental stuff → new genres are born (ironically, enabled by AI)
- AI-generated art will get less stigmatised over time.
- Challenge for “artists” behind prompts: humanise themselves.
- Easy-to-replicate (commercial) art styles / artists are doomed [if they still want to make a living out of their art]
- Live performances and imperfections will become stamps of authenticity
- Showing off the process will get popular again
It is indeed interesting times... Personally, I’m inclined to consume old stuff, pre-2022, when it comes to art. However, please tell me, how can I ignore this instant-classic?
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