25/04/2024
I don't want to turn off my mind when I look at an image, I want to tune my mind into focus and open my heart and observe where the image takes me in both.
An image can be mental and emotional in both creation and perception.
The problem with AI generated images (let's not get hung up on the definition of "art", because we can all agree they are images), is that they remove the mind from the act of creating an image.
Before you say "no, the image is created by language that you created", let's be real - I have easily spent a hundred hours generating AI images, I have no investment in the "Are they really art" question because they are fundamentally images.
That doesn't mean they can't become art, if treated correctly, but without the -act- of crafting the -actual- image using tools from scratch with the feedback of your hands and eyes then they do not belong to you in the same way that a painting or a drawing does.
I've also spent hundreds of hours with a pen in my hand making images, so I know the difference. There is a big difference.
Naming something is how we distinguish it from something else and create seperation so that we can engage in discernment.
Not all art is created equal, and our tastes are subjective but there are still provable non-linguistic objective phenomena within the realm of art (perspective, optical illusion, golden ratio, phi, sacred geometry, etc.) that affect consciousness.
A name carries it's own "essence" or meaning, and this often becomes even more real in our world than the underlying truth of something. Calling something "art" that is unskillful or deliberately ironically bad is common practice in the world of modern art, sometimes artists are pushing the boundaries of what they can "get away with" calling art in the eyes of the established order.
AI images irritate and anger a lot of people because it seems unfair that someone should spend two minutes writing a couple of sentences that often include the names of famous or established skilled artists, and then produce an image which can be passed off as "art" in a particular context. I can see their point. Typing a few words (pressing buttons) is nothing compared to physically painting for several years to achieve a result, as many painters do. People who put thousands of hours of their lives into creating and honing their physical/mental skills deserve to be called artists, and their work deserves to be called art. Unfortunately 'art' is too much of a specific word to describe this entire domain of digital representation we are in the process of unfolding.
Perhaps artists can and do use Ai to create art, but always remember to use discernment, because:
1) Images are not always Art, and 2) This is not the "real world".
Image by Endwar Powers X Dall-E
