Artificial intelligence applied to art is entertainment, according to historian
Apart from simple internet tools, many artists work with their algorithms and their databases.
The development of artificial intelligence that generates images accelerated with the creation of ImageNet, a database of tagged images, that is, cataloged by keywords.
Art historian and AI expert Emily L. Spratt calls the new AI imaging tools more “entertainment” than art, despite their incredible possibilities.
Tools like Dall-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have taken the art world by storm with their near-instantaneous ability to turn words into images.
Just type or say something like “Brad Pitt in a Mondrian-style canoe in space” to get a colorful image of the actor paddling among the stars in seconds.
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Inevitable integration
Even though tech companies present their tools as a means of liberating art, this idea of “democratization” is “too simplistic” and “naive”, according to Spratt.
These tools are above all “a way to encourage the use of large Internet platforms, which of course benefits these companies,” he explains.
Spratt believes that the border between artificial intelligence and other technologies is blurring, referring to the already widely used image manipulation programs.
“I think that in the future artificial intelligence will integrate the existing architecture of digital imaging.”
“It will be difficult to avoid because it infiltrates all of our digital interactions, often without our knowing it, especially when we create, edit or search for images,” Spratt adds.
Can you create masterpieces?
Apart from simple internet tools, many artists work with their algorithms and their databases.
His works sell for tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Emily L. Spratt singles out German artist Mario Klingemann, whose work “Hyperdimensional Amusement Series, Bestiary” is one of the most mentioned.
“It’s a video of seemingly organic forms that are permanently morphing and momentarily looking like recognizable animals,” explains Ella Spratt.
“Honestly, it’s a bit disconcerting, but it works well as a commentary on the lines that divide the material and immaterial, and the limits of this artificial intelligence to recreate the world.”
For Spratt, Klingemann’s art raises questions about artificial intelligence as a means of expression and more broadly about the nature of creativity.
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Border with art
The development of artificial intelligence that generates images accelerated with the creation of ImageNet, a database of tagged images, that is, cataloged by keywords.
In 2018, a French collective called “Obvious” (“evident” in Spanish) sold a work for more than US$400,000, explaining that it had been “created” by artificial intelligence.
The sale sparked controversy when Obvious acknowledged using the algorithm of an American artist and programmer, Robbie Barrat.
“The reason the Obvious work sold, especially at that price, is in large part because it was advertised as the first work created by an artificial intelligence to be sold at a major auction house,” says Spratt.
“In reality, it was the art market experimenting with the offer of a work of art produced by artificial intelligence in line with the canons of the sector,” explains Spratt.
At that time, there was a lot of interest in bringing art and technology together, but the crisis in the technology sector dampened that enthusiasm.
Large auction houses such as Christie’s or Sotheby’s created different platforms to sell these digital works.
“It’s like they don’t want to sully the art with these new digital explorations,” says Spratt.
And art critics still have to catch up to learn how to distinguish between good, bad, and mediocre, he adds.
“Unfortunately, the discourse on art created by artificial intelligence is not yet ready, but I think it is on the way, and it should emerge from the realm of art history”, insists Emily L. Spratt.
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