Algography: Conceptual Avant-garde or Kitsch?
How generative AI is stirring our thinking about meaning of art
“All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually.” — Joseph Kosuth
Conceptual art is not supposed to be easy to understand. This secret progeny of Dada, surrealism and abstract art seems bent on bewildering art audiences of all stripes for well over a century now. Sometimes to the sheer delight of art critics, often to sarcastic jabs of gallery visitors muttering: “A drunk raccoon could do that!” (and they may not be far off the initial concept behind the latest piece titillating the art world).
Critics love to accuse art they don’t like of being kitsch, a knockoff, a fake, a fugazi! All you need is a prompt? What drivel! For anyone trying generative AI for the first time, the concept of a machine producing a high-quality image based on a few ambiguous words is black magic. How could this activity ever be considered a creative act? The answer is simple: it is not creative in what it produces, but rather in the process and ideas behind its outcome. Art is shifting to a search and a question activity, away…
