“AI is likely to be either the best or worst thing to happen to humanity.” – Elon Musk
Okay, not really, but I do find that people either react to AI art with extreme love or extreme hate. So I am putting it to the test.
I used two methods to prompted AI to recreate on of my recent art pieces of statue Undine Rising from the Fountain by American sculptor Chauncey Bradley Ives.
But, before we get to the results, what is the story behind ai art?
What’s behind AI art?
1960s to 1980s
The ideas of using computers to generate images didn’t just start in the last few years, people have been experementing with it since the 1960s. For example, Harold Cohen, a painter and printmaker, best known for being the creator of ARRON. ARRON was a computer program that used artificial intelligence to generate artwork, just as many do today! It was developed from 1972 up until Cohen’s death in 2016.
It initial created simple black and white, abstract images but over the years colour was brought in and it’s works became more complex and featured clear objects and people.
See AARON work below:
Harold Cohen's Drawing Machine in Action Feb 9, 2024
1990s to early 2000s
Futhermore, in the 1990s photoshop and digital art started to bring in questions of if art needed to be handmade and more artists created algorithums to generate patterns, though this wasn’t yet called AI art.
2000s to 2010s
Machine learning began to become increasingly popular and AI-generated work began to appear in gallaries from artists such as German, Mario Klingemann. And, in 2018 Edmond de Belamy, an AI artwork, was sold for $432,500 in auction.
2020s to today
Artifical Intelligence image generation has now boomed, flooding all social media platforms and building controversy, questioning ethics and creativity.
AI’s turn
Method 1:Prompt
For this method i tried three attempts using an AI image generator (AI image generator).
Overall, this first attempt created a nice image, it was able to succesfully create an image based off the prompt. However, i have some judgement. It does not look like ink, rather like watercolour, it does not resemble to original sculpture and the yellow seems a bit strange.
For the second attempt I added for it to be closer up in the prompt in order for it to futher resemble my work.
Of all the AI images this was the worst. It somehow resembles the initial idea even less than before and why is there now two statues? I gave it another chance.
To be fair, this image was quite succesful, it followed the prompt and largly resembles Ives’ sculpture with the position of the arms and cloth draping her shoulders but it still appears fake and not like it was handmade.
Method 2:Based of my Artwork
I then tried to see if ChatGPT could generate an image closer to mine if it saw it.
I can’t lie, ChatGPT’s work does seem more richer and competes heavily with my work. It was even able to include details such as my signature on the bottom right.
Criticism
AI art is contantly being questioned, but isn’t this what has happened so many times before. Photography was thought to be to easy and meant art was too excessable, bring questions of if it was actually a form of art. Pop Art was thought to be too simple and just adverstisment or propaganda rather than skill. (Learn more on Pop Art here!) And of course Abstract Expressionism has always faced challenges of if it means anything.
So, I want to hear what you think, whether its just going through the same issues as all new art styles before or if for once, it just isn’t art.
Thanks for reading, please subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work, Isa! <3