I define art as something an artist calls art. Simple, right? Therefore, a person can make an amazing painting and call it art, or someone could scream at a rock and call it art. Critics might say “hey, yelling at a rock isn’t art” but they are wrong. It’s art because the artist said it’s art. The critic is always welcome to say “I don’t like this art” but they can’t say it isn’t art… Art is ideas, concepts, self-expression, and a form of communication.
Let’s try to take away the human element as best we can so it’s all computer. I used the text-to-text AI (ChatGPT) to ask for 10 highly descriptive sentences, then copy those into MidJourney. Some results, as you see below, are quite beautiful, and could be hanging in a gallery for others to ponder over – but they are not art. They are just random results of two smart algorithms. The computer didn’t think about what it wanted to communicate, make the viewer feel, or where the work was going next – it just ran code until completion… This is why I strongly believe (and this is my opinion based on my definitions) that if someone thinks of themselves as an artist and uses AI to create images and calls them art – they are.
(click the prompt to copy it!)
The deep blue of the ocean stretched out as far as the eye could see, with whitecaps on the waves caused by the gusty winds --v 4
The desert was a barren wasteland, with rolling sand dunes and sparse vegetation as far as the eye could see --v 4
The sunset painted the sky with a canvas of oranges, pinks, and purples, casting a warm glow over the city below --v 4
(click to view)