It’s tempting to think a new tool to automate creation, such as an AI image generator, is going to make it easier to make art. But often it actually

It's hard to make art with AI, but it's not impossible

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2024-11-05 12:00:19

It’s tempting to think a new tool to automate creation, such as an AI image generator, is going to make it easier to make art. But often it actually makes it harder.

First, let me clarify what I mean by art. I’m talking about a form of expression that shares a glimpse of what it is to be us, to see the world like we do, to be a human. Art as a way of bridging the interiority of human consciousness. When someone does it to us in a way we haven’t experienced before, there can be a profound sense of connection. It’s an enmeshment of minds. This isn’t the only meaning I have of art, but it’s the one that’s relevant for what I have to say here.

Any tool I bring to the creative process holds within it some assumptions of what I’m going to do with it. The tool carries within an essence of the interiority of those who made it. It makes it slightly easier to say what has already been said by others with that tool.

Those of us who design and use creative tools wrestle with this paradox. Sometimes it seems like every time the machine makes something easy, the artist then has to find a way to make it difficult so they can find a voice that feels their own. Or more, everything machines make easy quickly becomes generic. The artist needs to find some level of fuckery to make it personal again.