Will AI Be The Death of Art?

While I was in Florida this past winter I had the opportunity to revisit the Dali Museum. I really took it all in and there was even a moment when I just stood in the center of the main gallery floor and almost burst into tears. I can’t explain what it was exactly but, I knew that I was in the presence of genius. The creative energy of Dali was there and it overwhelmed me to the point that I was powerfully moved - almost to tears.

Dali was intimately in touch with what was going on in the world around him and it was represented by various elements in his paintings. Some things reoccurred, like the ants and his wife, Gala. But it wasn’t like there were a ton of paintings with melting clocks - that seems to have been a one off. Yet it is one of his most celebrated and powerful works.

The museum has a couple of areas for visitor participation. One is a virtual reality where you are actually inside Dali’s paintings and you click around and see stuff from really cool perspectives. Dali wasn’t alive when virtual reality was created but, I think it’s exactly the kind of thing he would have embraced. Innovative, immersive and just plain fun.

Here’s my husband in the VR chair.

The second area for participation is the Dall-E Artificial Intelligence Art room. You sit at a computer and type in a bunch of words or phrases and a program generates a picture. I don’t remember exactly what I typed in but it was something like: colorful sky, soaring eagles, cascading waterfalls over green rocks. Here is what the program generated.

Then the program took all the images generated by the people in the room and created a large image. Here it is with separation and without the black lines.

I have no idea what the other participants typed in but the program somehow made this collage of images. I walked away thinking that was interesting. I also thought Dali would have really loved this. If you want to try it out you can give it a go here.

Lately I have been listening to conversations on podcasts, membership groups and with other artists. A lot of people are worried about how artificial intelligence is going to impact the creativity of humans. After experiencing it, I’m not concerned for my creative output. It was fun to try out the program and see what it does but, it’s not the same as putting brush to surface or stitching my hand dyed fabrics together. It certainly didn’t give me a deep sense of contentment or joy. I guess the concern is that these computer generated images could become so popular that people prefer them to actual original artwork. The price point would be so much less than artwork created by the hand of an artist. It could potentially put artists out of business.

If I never showed another piece of my work I’d continue to create art. I love the physical act or creating. I love the process, the journey, the happy accidents and final outcomes. None of that existed for me with the computer generated art. Going forward, I think it’s imperative that we, as artists, share the journey with people.

If artificial art, a.k.a. fake art, a.k.a. F.ART, is the way of the future like so many believe, it’s our job to make sure people know the backstory of our work. Talk about the amount of time you have been honing your personal voice. Create so authentically that no one could reproduce your ideas. Make your work so personal that it compels the viewer to engage with it. That’s where the magic is. The real treasure of art can only be found within the artist. To believe that a computer program would replace your life story, life choices, creative vision and authentic work is ridiculous. The power of keeping your art alive lies in educating the public about it. A program can make the picture, but it cannot interact with an inquisitive public. That’s unique to humans. We are what keeps art alive. It lives within us. Have the conversation with your artwork and then let it speak to the public.

Out in the courtyard, I just had to pose with the iconic Dali ‘stache.

Thanks for checking out the blog and I hope you are inspired to try something new. Have a creative day!