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Could AI ever be an artist?
Could artificial intelligence ever be an artist? Could a computer act as a curator?
These are questions that have been bubbling in my mind for months now. But the more I dissect, the more emerge — because, what is art? Who is an artist? When and are we able to classify ourselves as one? And who decides what work is worthy of entering the notoriously old and mostly white canon?
AI’s tendrils are slowly creeping into every aspect of our lives. While most of us are okay with it claiming factory jobs and menial roles, there is something about art that remains untouchable. I have long believed that art isn’t about what you create, it’s about what others receive. Art should elicit an emotional response. It should stir something. Conjure some fire in your belly: be it yearning, anger or sorrow. Art must fundamentally convey a feeling. Otherwise, it’s just empty. Anyone can draw, but not everyone is an artist. An artist requires heart.
“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.” — Anais Nin
But this is the small, scared part of me speaking. The corner that is quietly terrified and desperate to be seen, recognised and loved. I romanticise my calling to eliminate the competition. That rabid dog in me makes me overzealous and protective: my teeth clenching over scraps. ‘If I have to prove myself’ it says, ‘so must you.’ How can AI be an artist, if I struggle to call myself one?
As a young artist, the title feels clumsy on my tongue. Even on my kinder days, I still fumble as I speak it. There’s an anxiety that slips through as I push past my imposter syndrome and hope the sentinels don’t spot me. A piece of advice I give others and myself most mornings is that you are already an artist. If you make and feel and convert your achings into some kind of artefact: then you are an artist. You are an artist. You are an artist.
Creative coders
But if art is about provoking a response, pushing the viewer to question, rethink and feel, then AI is certainly one. The mere fact I’m mulling over it now says as much.
