By JUSTACE SMITHSON
Student Reporter
The expression of life, survival, love, relationships, fear and every other lived experience has been depicted through art since the beginning of human life. Art has evolved as people have and the mediums in which we create is vastly different now than it was 100 years ago.
At one time Renaissance Art was the reigning art form. The style used many fruits, animals and colors that were distinct to this time period. What followed the Renaissance era was Romanticism. The markers of this art form were the idealization of nature and heavy emphasis on individuality.
Each art form that proceeded the last was met with hesitation and questioning. Do these art forms ruin the integrity of the one before? Are they as sophisticated? Do they require as much skill? The question most related to the newest art form that has become mainstream is: what does the use of AI art mean for artist now?
This new medium of art has been met with much backlash because of the fact that is technology-based rather than the usual medium of paint, pencils, pastels and canvas.
With the internet being such a large platform for people to find art they resonate with, there is not a need for traditional artists to drop their desired form to assimilate into AI art. Similarly for artists who do enjoy creating through AI art there is now space for them to do so.
The fact that there is still a want and need for art made through traditional mediums means that AI art poses little risk to these artists. This is a new form of art through AI technology can be used to create things never seen before.
A new era of art has approached and artist can either adapt or continue their chosen form. For those who have embraced AI art they are now able to use technology to assist their creations.
Recently, a painting created by an art collective of French artists along with AI sold for nearly $500,000. AI is just a new medium and the works artist put into creating is something that will not change. This is a new era of art that historians will someday look back on and call radical for its time, but necessary for the progression of art.
By KAMDEN SLOUGH
Design Editor
AI Art: a quick, efficient way to create art, graphics and content that are “authentically” yours. Gone are the days of paying highly skilled artists with hundreds of hours of practice to tailor make illustrations, graphics or branding for the consumers of the world. Instead we’ll let the robots do it.
Businesses may soon be switching over to the digital way of hiring out artist work since it’s faster and cheaper than hiring people. Just like the fully automated McDonalds in White-settlement, Texas, AI art is completely pre-programmed and ready to deliver. This breakthrough technology unfortunately creates a lot of problems for people who are trying to work for a living and keep their job. As the number of things machines excel at increases, the number of things people can do better steadily declines.
The AI programming is also built to simulate the art it consumes and spit out something similar. Is taking a small piece of a thousand paintings to create something new stealing? Those profiting from this system would say “no,” but the hardworking artists who find their work being plagiarized might beg to differ.
If a programmer feeds the computer only Disney artwork and poops out a new Disney character built from the old ones, is that not still copyrighted material? Would Mickey consider it a parody of the Disney brand if the new content is literally built from the kingdom’s own remnants?
Aside from artists losing their curated brand and style, they’re losing their voice. The copy and paste motif of these programs eat up any deeper meaning or complexity and bury it down never to be seen leaving the work soulless because, what is art if not the curation of an artist’s thoughts and ambitions?
The dehumanization of art strips away everything that makes this practice special and worthwhile. Sure things may still be pretty but that’s never been why people create.
The need to put something down on paper, or to improve functionality or to simply scratch that idea-itch that just keeps coming back, that’s why people keep making art. Art is like breathing for many but to a computer it’s nothing but ones and zeros, meaning less and endlessly repeatable.
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