(Art)ificial Intelligence
Historically, art in all its forms has always served as a vehicle for presenting ideas and reflecting the times through shared perceptions of those who experience it, capturing both popular and unconventional perspectives of an era. Referring mainly to Western art, we witness the subjectivity of art through different artists, techniques, and the evolution of art movements over the years. Inevitably, we have reached a point in human evolution where artificial intelligence has proven its ability to ‘outperform’ humans. Recognizing this, this body of work seeks to explore artificial intelligence and its relationship with art as a practice, subjective storytelling, and creativity, and whether there exists inherent value in AI-generated art.
Social realism as an art movement reveals the pragmatism of art and its critical role in documenting human history. Visual artists like Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley, and Augusta Savage are well-known for ‘chronicling’ the experience of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance. ‘The Migration Series (1941)’ documents the realities of Black Americans during the mass migration from the rural South to the North of America and their assimilation into an arguably ‘more’ tolerant society. The dynamic use of colours and shapes allows individual artists the freedom to represent progressiveness and multidimensionality found in African American physiognomy while simultaneously maintaining their individual perspectives. Rejecting the idea of a singularity of blackness, the subjectiveness of perspective becomes inherently political in telling the (hi)story of the multifaceted nature of blackness.
Art as a practice and a form of expression is revealed. Surrealism plays an ironic role when exploring art as a form of creative expression in comparison to AI. Surrealism as an art movement seeks to reveal the ‘subconscious mind’ and can be extremely illusionary, imaginative, and often brings dreamlike visions to the forefront of real life — in an incredibly lucid manner. This movement is incredibly important in the development of techniques for which artists employ unconventional methods of expression. In René Magritte’s ‘The Blank Signature (1965),’ a horse and its rider sit at the focal point of the image, overlapping with the surrounding trees. Ironically, the hyper-realistic weaving of the horse and its rider through the trees creates an optically illusionary, surrealist painting — expressing itself as an error that could have been made by computer software, except it was painted by a human. It is arguable that this is where the art and its value can be found — in the time, dedication, creativity, evolution, and techniques required to produce such work. Exploring the subconscious ability to conceptualize an image, whether in a vision, dream, or imagination, and to show things as they are and as they are not.
Generative AI refers to the use of artificial intelligence to create content such as text, images, music, and more (as defined by ChatGPT). Although it is more popularly known for creating text content in recent years, AARON was an art-producing AI software developed by Harold Cohen in the early 1970s. AARON is a computer program designed, using a set of rules and algorithms, to produce original abstract artworks. Over the years, generative AI has continued to serve as a method for restoring old paintings, creating interactive art installations, style transfer, but most questionably, artistic creation.
Generative AI and its reliance on art generation based on predefined parameters and input from users raise questions about its credibility and functionality. Arguments can arise concerning the ownership of the artwork produced as a result of predefined parameters (by humans) and in response to input from users. Considering “an AI cannot own the rights in any artistic work or invention it is said to have created”, when (and if) copyrighting the AI artwork, is it to be listed as ‘public domain’ or ‘moral right’? It can be perceived that the generated art is subject to the creative input and intellectual property of the owner of predefined parameters or users; hence, legal ownership of such works can remain highly unclear.
Art, in its most primitive state, has been used as a medium for historical narration through personal perspectives and finds value as a creative practice, which, like all creative practices, is subject to advancement. Thus, the question of generative art and it’s contribution (or lack thereof) to art as a practice arises. AI and machine learning applications are heavily dependent on the data they have been previously exposed to and, in this case, the art techniques they have observed in the past. Hence, the more art styles they have previously encountered, the better they will be at replicating the techniques of Pointillism or Chiaroscuro (for example), leading to a lack of innovation and creativity. Consequently, remaining idle in the progression of art, its practices, and techniques.
Where do you think art finds it value?