This is an excellent point about the value of human art: it creates a perceived connection between audience and artist.
This makes me wonder about the future of human-directed AI art. Would I like your drawings less if you had conceived them in detail, but not directed the brushstrokes with your own hands and brain?
I think I personally would appreciate them almost as much. The skill required to actually create them is impressive in one way, but it’s not the aspect of creativity that I think about and value. Conveying ideas and mood through art is the part I value. So if you’d prompted an AI to create those same images, but in detail, I’d feel that same connection to you as the conceptual creator of the pieces.
This is making me hope that we see more detailed accounts of the creative process attached to AI art. If someone merely says “make me a cool picture”, they have very little creative involvement and so I feel no attachment to them through the art. If they have a detailed prompt describing a piece they’ve imagined, then I do feel that connection to them as a creator, and more so the more detail, meaning, and creativity they conceived the work with. But it will take a detailed account of the creative process to know what happened; in many cases, a vague prompt could produces something the audience will resonate with.
This detailed account of the creative process is something I’ve always wanted more of in connection to visual art. On the rare occasions that I’ve heard artists talk in detail about the concepts and ideas behind their work, I’ve valued and enjoyed that work more deeply. I think this is rarely done because a) describing concepts isn’t the artist’s strong suit, so they avoid it and b) they want to let the audience see their own meaning in the piece. Both are reasonable stances. The first requires artists to learn a new skill: understanding and expressing their own conceptual creative process. The second can be addressed by making it optional for the audience to read or hear about the artist’s conception of the piece.
But if the advent of AI art leads to more explicit descriptions of the creative process, I for one would greatly appreciate that trend.
And I look forward to seeing more thoroughly human art, like yours, that exists alongside AI art, and for which the creative process can remain mysterious.
Would I like your drawings less if you had conceived them in detail, but not directed the brushstrokes with your own hands and brain?
I guess, for centuries revered artists have been directing apprentices to render works for them, AI is not a significant departure from this practice, and I think you’re right—there is still a connection with an artist even if their role was to prompt for an emotion, and then, in their selection, recognise that emotion when the AI successfully captured it.
This is making me hope that we see more detailed accounts of the creative process
This is really interesting. As your rightly state, making their intentions explicit is not a common practice for artists, my cynicism again tells me this could be c) part of the inflationary imperative of artists to play on the allure of ineffable qualities in art to make something relatively shallow seem deep and meaningful (and therefore valuable).
Imagine a space where truly deep thoughts, and profound messages well put could generate art that really connects people—not because it means something different to every person but because it evokes the very same thing, common humanity, among unique individuals. Pretty lofty.
This is an excellent point about the value of human art: it creates a perceived connection between audience and artist.
This makes me wonder about the future of human-directed AI art. Would I like your drawings less if you had conceived them in detail, but not directed the brushstrokes with your own hands and brain?
I think I personally would appreciate them almost as much. The skill required to actually create them is impressive in one way, but it’s not the aspect of creativity that I think about and value. Conveying ideas and mood through art is the part I value. So if you’d prompted an AI to create those same images, but in detail, I’d feel that same connection to you as the conceptual creator of the pieces.
This is making me hope that we see more detailed accounts of the creative process attached to AI art. If someone merely says “make me a cool picture”, they have very little creative involvement and so I feel no attachment to them through the art. If they have a detailed prompt describing a piece they’ve imagined, then I do feel that connection to them as a creator, and more so the more detail, meaning, and creativity they conceived the work with. But it will take a detailed account of the creative process to know what happened; in many cases, a vague prompt could produces something the audience will resonate with.
This detailed account of the creative process is something I’ve always wanted more of in connection to visual art. On the rare occasions that I’ve heard artists talk in detail about the concepts and ideas behind their work, I’ve valued and enjoyed that work more deeply. I think this is rarely done because a) describing concepts isn’t the artist’s strong suit, so they avoid it and b) they want to let the audience see their own meaning in the piece. Both are reasonable stances. The first requires artists to learn a new skill: understanding and expressing their own conceptual creative process. The second can be addressed by making it optional for the audience to read or hear about the artist’s conception of the piece.
But if the advent of AI art leads to more explicit descriptions of the creative process, I for one would greatly appreciate that trend.
And I look forward to seeing more thoroughly human art, like yours, that exists alongside AI art, and for which the creative process can remain mysterious.
Thanks Seth, great points.
I guess, for centuries revered artists have been directing apprentices to render works for them, AI is not a significant departure from this practice, and I think you’re right—there is still a connection with an artist even if their role was to prompt for an emotion, and then, in their selection, recognise that emotion when the AI successfully captured it.
This is really interesting. As your rightly state, making their intentions explicit is not a common practice for artists, my cynicism again tells me this could be c) part of the inflationary imperative of artists to play on the allure of ineffable qualities in art to make something relatively shallow seem deep and meaningful (and therefore valuable).
Imagine a space where truly deep thoughts, and profound messages well put could generate art that really connects people—not because it means something different to every person but because it evokes the very same thing, common humanity, among unique individuals. Pretty lofty.
Thanks again for your kind words and insight.