Thread by @85pixels

Been sharing a lot of #AI #artwork recently, and wanted to give my thoughts on the history of art technology & future impact of text-to-image generation tools on visual art…🧵

First off: yes, I do think it’s still ART, even when it’s made by a machine using human input.

Art is CREATIVE EXPRESSION.

Our ability to express ourselves will evolve over time, along with the technology & tools available to us.

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” – Thomas Edison💡

(…remember this, it’s how most people feel about creativity…)

Let’s start with spoken vs. written word. 📖

Socrates questioned the invention of writing itself: he insisted writing destroyed memories and weakened minds. 🤔

He also believed reading & writing would make people “sound” knowledgeable without actually experiencing anything… ☺️

…fast-forward to the Middle Ages, writing is widely considered the GOAT invention.

People re-enact what’s written 🎭

Painting/sculpting became “real” artistic mediums 🎨

Artistic skill trends to realism: how close can you represent the beauty & emotion of the natural world…

Craft rules supreme in art; make dope sh*t AND become an “expert” in your medium from a lifetime of manual labor, that’s “value”. ⚒

Nothing of quality comes fast or cheap… right?!

…UNTIL, this small, funny-looking, smoking box that captures actual real life screenshots in 8 hours gets invented a couple hundred years ago… and now guess who’s mad?! 📸

Painting, as an art form, had a straight up existential crisis.

Like, what do we paint now…?

Photography legit sent painting into the Impressionist era. 🖼

Artists said fuck it, we’re gonna start painting our feelings now.

And yet still, some of the most iconic paintings of today came after this period.

Photo & video became the dominant artistic mediums of mass consumption for decades, thanks to the print press, cinema, & television 🎥

We were fascinated with seeing the actual world.

As technology advanced, tools for capturing snapshots of time became cheaper & more accessible

Photos were $2-6 a pop when first invented; $80-$190 in today’s dollars.💰

100 years later, you could buy a disposable camera for $1.50 ($3.50 today) with multiple exposures. 💵

Today, most people regularly delete photos of the insides of their pockets & bags taken on accident.

35 years ago, this tool called Photoshop is released that lets people digitally manipulate photos and create photo-realistic art from scratch 🎨

Today, “Photoshop” has become synonymous with “fake” and people can’t tell what’s real in the media

This is NOT a photo, it’s CG art

In that same 35 year time span, a whole wealth of “new media” had been created for artistic expression:

- animations
- video games
- interactive installations / kiosks
- websites
- mobile apps
- VR

… and the list continues to grow exponentially.

So… Where am I going with all this?

We’ve always made these kinds of value judgements about what we create & call “art” since the invention of writing ✍️

Our ancestors probably said the same things painting caves.

What is “good”?

Is it “good” if anyone can do it?

Which brings us to today, and the emergence of text-to-image AI tools like Wombo.ai, MidJourney, Disco Diffusion, Dall-E 2.0, Google Imagen, et al. 🤖

We are on the cusp of a revolution in visual art unlike anything before it, and I, for one, am excited for it.

https://twitter.com/paultrillo/status/1547274303552438274

These tools are incredibly powerful, and I’m certain the next evolution of visual art is coming, powered by these tools.

And much like Photoshop and even photography, AI image gen will not be liked by everyone.

These tools can be divisive, not everyone will make “good” art.

https://twitter.com/djbaskin_images/status/1536156787329495040

Example: the internet was created as a tool for academic researchers to share data with each other across the globe in an instant.

That is the revolutionary spirit of the internet. 🙌🏾

Today, 80% of internet traffic is video: mostly porn, YouTube & Netflix. 🤷🏾‍♂️

No doubt, AI image gen will unleash a wave of memes & bad art like a biblical plague on the internet.

There will be lots and LOTS of extremely terrible and downright offensive images generated in the future because that’s just what some humans will do…

…but you know what else humans do?

We create art. 🖼

We build for others. ⚒

And we value that kind of creativity.

With AI image gen, YOU are now the creative director, and AI is your design team.

https://twitter.com/amli_art/status/1549555688304623617

Back to photos: if everyone has access to a camera, does that change the value of photography as an art form?

Yes: as things become easier, we tend to value narrow specialization.

Now, what happens when ALL digital images can be artificially generated, like these AI pics? 👇🏾

What photography did to painting (which still exists), AI image gen will do the same to various forms of digital art:

- Graphic design
- Photo manipulation
- Digital illustration
- CG/3D modeling

…and motion graphics too, but focusing on images here...

imagen.research.google

The prevailing ideology is “ideas are cheap, execution is everything”.

…BUT, what if the goal of technology is to make execution more accessible?

To reduce complexity.

To spend LESS time working.

When execution becomes cheaper, GOOD ideas become more valuable.

Again, it will be a level playing field in visual arts for anyone to be a creative director of a full CGI graphic arts studio…

…but everyone is not capable of producing “GOOD” art, just like everyone can’t take “GOOD” photos.

Our standards for what’s “GOOD” will change.

IMO, if Beethoven were alive today, I’m certain he’d be an electronic music producer.

Not for “the love of the beat”, but for the freedom of creative expression.

Beethoven could compose ANY sound using a digital synth keyboard.

Imagine EVERY instrument at his fingertips…🤯

This is similar to the power AI image gen provides visual artists: creative freedom & tools for the imagination.

So… if you can speak your ideas into existence, what will you manifest?

What will you dream of?

Thanks for making it to the end!

If you’re interested in AI tech:
@midjourney @OpenAI @RiversHaveWings @Somnai_dreams @douglas_eck

A few AI artists pushing the limits:
@FillipTM @socalpathy @unltd_dream_co @diggium @binxnet @amliart @inigma_a

Like/RT if you dig 🤙🏾

🤦🏾‍♂️ Oh, that’s @amli_art btw! Sorry for the mis-tag. Please check out this amazing artists, insane work!

https://twitter.com/amli_art/status/1549887460666003456