In week three of Real-World Media, we explored the relationship between technology and humans as artists.
Leftover from week two, we confronted what was the sociably accepted nature of AI and programs, that being unbiased, neutral mechanisms. Instead, we posited that the inventor of an AI or program shapes its nature, purpose, and artificial moral bottom lines. A programmer, based on personal moral values and ethics, may program detrimental AI that can, in Eisikovits’ and Stubbs’ words, ‘easily become subject to an addictiveness and attention-seeking imperative rather than more transcendent artistic values’, or cooperative AI that can show ‘a Renaissance town with a steampunk twist.’ (Eisikovits, Stubbs, 2023). Ethics determine how data is collected as well.
After generating AI art, we manipulated the AI images through a process called ‘glitch art’. The exercise tested the value of a piece of art through its process of creation. Through AI, it only took a simple prompt and it was done, hardly providing value and meaning. In contrast, creating glitch art was what I would describe as manually creating AI art, as we took AI art, and transformed them, suddenly granting them meaning. Showcasing how ‘AI is not sophisticated enough,’ or programmed to ‘evoke a sense of wonder’, a function only unique to us (Eisikovits, Stubbs, 2023).
Over-reliance on technology erasing our artistic process is detrimental to artists. This fact was made clear when the class was performed a digital detox for 10 minutes, and play with arts and crafts in what Syvertsen and Enli call ‘resisting media and regaining authentic life’, ending our week artistically renewed (Syversten, Enli, 2019). We live in technology, not around it.
Reference List
- Eisikovits N, Stubbs A (January 13th 2023) ‘ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and the collapse of the creative process’, The Conversation, accessed 13th March 2023. https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-dall-e-2-and-the-collapse-of-the-creative-process-196461
- Syvertsen T, Enli G (2019) ‘Digital detox: Media resistance and the promise of authenticity’, Convergence, 26(5-6):1269-1283, https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/10.1177/1354856519847325