During my morning coffee, I’m reading the following tweet and accompanying article:
Unfortunately for me, the tweet is written a week after my talk at Festival Mundial on the topic of art and digital technology. This, because the point Mario Klingemann is making with this single tweet could have served as a great way to explain what the merging of AI and art is not about.
Let me explain why.
From the article Artificial Intelligence: THE END OF ART AS WE KNOW IT.
“TMFA [The Most Famous Artist] has partnered with a group of anonymous hackers to build a proprietary artificial intelligence powered by big data capable of emulating and breeding art styles to produce high-quality original artworks.”
The above text means absolutely nothing. It is empty rhetoric used to draw people to an art gallery.
Same example, different content:
“Justin Bieber has partnered with a group of anonymous composers to build a proprietary composition powered by musical instruments capable of emulating and breeding art styles to produce high-quality original artworks.”
You see? Empty rhetorics.
You might wonder why this is an issue at all. Who cares? Well, I do. Because this proves that artists can be just as guilty of using terminologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and the likes in a holistic way for the sole purpose of drawing attention to a product, service or -in this case- an art gallery.
A bad thing, because I am a firm believer that the digital technology available to us will help us to create new ways of seeing the world in the form of new art disciplines.
Luckily, there are also artists doing the exact opposite, like Klingemann.