Without a Human Trace…
2023: We don’t have flying cars or restaurants on Mars but, in this particular dystopia, we have AI ART. In a city where the creative competition is so fierce, no one was ready for another, not-so-human competitor to join the ring.
Dextrose , 2023
Maybe I was late to the game, but Spring of 2023 was when I first found out about Artificial Intelligence and it’s infiltration of the art world. Platforms like Midjourney and Craiyon were on everyone lips, along with some other unsavory words. It was hard to comprehend another hurdle in the New York City art scene. Supplies are expensive, curators are shady, and now we have wall-E creating digital masterpieces off of a few key phrases. I was never a huge fan of digital art to begin with, but this took things a step too far.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of art is:
the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
Honestly, this is pretty hazy- and it should be! Who is to say what classifies a work as art? For decades, humans have been pushing these boundaries from the Impressionists of the 1800s to the Dadaists of the early 20th century. However, regardless of how strange and unconventional, the human hand was always present. But what if that hand chose an even stranger medium to execute its ideas?
That was where my mind was heading for the creation of this piece. Human artists using AI art felt the same as trying to nourish your soul with something fake… and living in the USA we’re no stranger to that! Acesulfame-K, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, sucralose; these artificial sugars are seen in FDA-approved products lining the shelves of every American supermarket. Sure they taste good, but what are they doing to our bodies? Do you ever feel sustained eating the actual serving size of Oreos? (THREE COOKIES??) I just couldn’t understand how people who have never bothered to pick up a pencil before, would have the gall to call themselves AI artists, creating wildly intricate (and not-so-vaguely familiar to that other artist’s) digital work. It seemed strange to believe that a few phrases typed into a computer could truly mirror an organic idea in your head. But who cares! AI doesn’t need money to live and so wall-E will continue to get the sale and the gig and even the job at that big company. Just keep sipping your tea, sweetened by whatever is in that pink package?
I chose the title, Dextrose, for this piece. Dextrose a type of real sugar that usually comes from corn or wheat, being almost identical to glucose, which is the sugar found in the bloodstream. Human, but not quite. This is my idea, executed by my own hand, but due to the subject matter, I wanted it to feel less human.
A little too pink.
A little too sweet.
And a little too deadly.
Maybe it’ll make whoever views it a bit more reluctant to support AI Art and encourage us to take a risk on our fellow human instead.
