My only problem with what you're saying is that you seem to be coming from the perspective that there already is some kind of influence of artists that buck trends, or push the boundaries of art today, or simply provide a new perspective.
I'm much more cynical, or idealistic, in that I don't believe that's the case. My argument is that currently we have no such artists, or they're buried under rubble. We do have a lot of people who claim to, or are claimed to, be pushing the boundaries of art, but they actually don't have any effect at all.
What we have is a lot of smoke being blown up people's butts, when the truth is that we're culturally stagnant. Going to the Tate Modern in London is like a masochist challenge to see who can emerge from it with enough energy to say things like "wow, that's cool" and desperately try to find one piece of art where they can say "that's my favorite, it really made me think".
I can tell you that personally I've already said these things about some AI generated art with real enthusiasm. I still have one AI painting burned into my brain because it showed something really new to me.
That's why I believe it's exactly those ambitious artists who will be hurt the most, at first. It'll be a painful realization that they can't hide from anymore, and only then will truly "weird" artists emerge.
My partner is an artist. It’s just something they do at home, for their own benefit. They post some of it to instagram as well, but they don’t have a lot of followers. Their art is deeply meaningful. It relates to what they’re going through at any given time. What they’re feeling. Most of it is in their personal journal that they don’t usually show off. When I do get to see it, I find it moving. It’s very abstract but each piece carries emotion in a way I’d never be able to reproduce.
I met a guy on the street. He’s homeless. Lives in his van by a tent city in Oakland. He wasn’t selling his paintings or anything. I dropped off some donations to these folks and got to talking with this guy. I saw his art in his van and asked to see it. It was really deep stuff emotionally. He put a lot in to it. And you know someone pushed to the sidelines who finds his best option is living in his van with folks at a tent city is going to have some interesting thoughts on the human condition.
I have a few friends that DJ for music at clubs. Nothing big. They’re doing it out of passion. It’s a local scene. People appreciate them. They get paid a small stipend but it’s not about that. They want to connect with people through music. It’s about creating a moment and dancing.
I remember when the local radio station lost the DJs on air that fielded calls from listeners, selected music they wanted to hear, and provided some personality for the station beyond just playing a series of tracks. They got replaced by a playlist of music. I don’t know who created the playlist or who decided how to change it day to day. I stopped listening to the station.
I have never been to the Tate Modern. But there are weird artists out there making art because they feel they need to. For themselves mostly, and for others too. They have something to say, or something to explore.
Stable diffusion is a wonderful tool. I’ve installed it locally on my desktop and I’ve spent countless nights prompt engineering and playing with the results. It’s really going to help artists find new ways of expression. But the human artist using the tool is what channels meaning from real life in to the medium. We may in some ways find ourselves working alongside the AI as it gets more capable. We may find ourselves in partnership with the algorithms. But human artists - the weird ones on the streets or at home making secret collages in their journals - they have a story to tell which will never go away. Those people cannot be replaced by Stable Diffusion. My partner makes collage with old photos they find from the second hand store of people they have never met, combined with cut outs of construction paper and pieces of art that come through the mail from online artists through a weekly mailer. It is the process of creating the art that has meaning for my partner. And it’s done with paper and scissors.
Maybe some day they will print out some AI generated art and include it in a collage. But they will never stop making collages.
I'm much more cynical, or idealistic, in that I don't believe that's the case. My argument is that currently we have no such artists, or they're buried under rubble. We do have a lot of people who claim to, or are claimed to, be pushing the boundaries of art, but they actually don't have any effect at all.
What we have is a lot of smoke being blown up people's butts, when the truth is that we're culturally stagnant. Going to the Tate Modern in London is like a masochist challenge to see who can emerge from it with enough energy to say things like "wow, that's cool" and desperately try to find one piece of art where they can say "that's my favorite, it really made me think".
I can tell you that personally I've already said these things about some AI generated art with real enthusiasm. I still have one AI painting burned into my brain because it showed something really new to me.
That's why I believe it's exactly those ambitious artists who will be hurt the most, at first. It'll be a painful realization that they can't hide from anymore, and only then will truly "weird" artists emerge.