As Past&Place begins its first-ever series of analyzing art created by DALL-E, an artificial intelligence image generator, we thought it would be helpful to discuss the progression and expansion of art in the digital world.
(click HERE to take a look at Monet-inspired art generated by DALL-E)
When the internet first took off in the 1980s, the art world discovered a new medium to channel their creativity: digital art. This fusion of art and technology expanded the limitations of art and gave artists a whole new set of freedoms. For years, the world has had heated arguments over the credibility ad legitimacy of digital art and artists. Many have said that digital art is not “real” art or that digital artists lack considerable talent. Still, as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, the attitude toward digital art has grown more positive. Many prominent artists, such as David McLeod and Sara Ludy, have successfully established themselves in the art world.
The emergence of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) sparked another outrage over digital art in the art world. NFTs, encoded with similar software as most cryptocurrencies, are a form of buying and selling digital artwork. What makes them different from regular digital art, which usually has an infinite supply, is that NFTs are (for the most part) each unique and have their own identifying codes. This scarcity allows them to achieve similar value to physical art. Yes, you could just screenshot and download NFTs, but spending millions gives you authentication and ownership of the original piece (aka bragging rights). Many people don’t trust or understand the point of NFTs, but that hasn’t stopped artists like All Seeing Seneca from taking off. You probably recognize them from their BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club) works, which have been bought by many celebrities like Steph Curry and Justin Bieber.
The rise of artificial intelligence once again revolutionized the digital art world. If you’ve visited the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), you’ve probably come across this giant projection:
This is Unsupervised by Refik Anadol. The AI supercomputer behind Unsupervised uses over 380,000 images from 180,000 artworks in the MoMA to form a constantly evolving, infinite animation all on its own (hence the name).
In contrast, the AI we’re using on Past&Place, DALL-E by OpenAI, and most other AI image generators are programmed to evaluate keywords and use data to mash together similar images. For example, if I typed in “pretty pink flower,” AI would look for pictures of pink flowers and organize them together to create an “original” work.
As innovative and cool as the “supervised” art created by AI is, it also raises several concerns. There are copyright issues since the art used to generate these images isn’t credited. Many also worry about losing the personal connection in art or the AI’s threat to real/people artists.
Having said all that, the evolution of digital art continues to fascinate and transform the art world. For better or for worse, there’s no stopping it.
What is your opinion of AI like DALL-E by OpenAI? Do you think AI’s art will make it to museums? What do you think is next in the digital art world? Let us know in the comments below :)