I’ve been a sporadic traditional artist for my whole life. Seeing the whole NFT artwork movement (or fad?) unfold over the past few years, along with the recent advances in artificial intelligence, has inspired me to move my graphic artwork into the digital realm.
I have always been interested in generative art. In fact, when I was finishing up my computer science degree in college while spending much of my time at the art studio learning oil painting, I resolved that if I ever went for a PhD in computer science, my thesis would be in artificial intelligence generative art. My theory at the time (early 2000s) was that a computer could generate “good” and “creative” artwork using a set of art rules and random number generators. I think modern generative-AI has proved this theory correct.
In my view, artificial intelligence doesn’t hurt graphic artists. Instead, it gives artists a new medium for expression and frees them from the tedious aspects of creation. It’s much the same way cameras removed the need for painters to paint realistic scenes and allowed them to express themselves more abstractly. It also created a whole new field of graphic art called “photography.”
Using computers to generate art will allow me to create artwork native to the Internet, which also frees me from the constraints of physical media. As artists, we need to adapt our art to build upon the best works of the past, instead of trying to stop the advancement of time and knowledge (which is a fool’s errand, and we are not fools).
You can see my explorations in generative art at https://stevealvest.com/tag/generative-art/
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