Art and Artificial Intelligence
September 2022 a digital work won an art prize
Théâtre D’opéra Spatial by Jason M. Allen, September 2022, Colorado USA
Do graphics generated by Artificial Intelligence threaten real artists and graphic designers? So, what is this AI stuff and how is it generated? Here is one of my own pics.
Orpheus
I created this picture in an app called NightCafe
You can start for free. The picture is generated from a basic text to which you apply modifiers regarding style and medium. The output, however, is unpredictable. For example, I wanted a statuesque figure playing a lyre and the result appears to be a feller holding some sort of steampunk crozier. Several iterations are needed to create a passable pic. NightCafe will sell you creation credits if you get the graphic gambling bug.
There are bigger beasts in the AI Graphics arena and they are currently battling over beta editions of their wares. DALL-E2 appeared to be winning but a game of leapfrog goes on
Yes, it is pronounced to resemble the name of Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). The other big fish in the Artificial Intelligence pond at present is called Midjourney:
https://www.midjourney.com/home/
Jason M. Allen, who won a prize for his picture Théâtre D’opéra Spatial, used Midjourney and immediately became subject to abuse and attack. Is this REAL ART? Can it be copyrighted? Charles Baudelaire regarded photography as a debasement and devaluation of Art in the 19th century. Now, AI Art scrapes millions of images from the open web to reshape into new compositions; so, is it a form of mass plagiarism? Who can sue whom? A milder view regards AI Art as similar to works long conjured by Adobe Photoshop. Everyone knows the cliché – It’s amazing what you can do with Photoshop. Deep fakes are Daylight Photoshoppery
To be continued … Steve Mongkut
