BUT IS IT ART?

[behzad]

This is why I have retired. I feel sorry for the younger audience who think they can make a living designing.

Here's what I find utterly astounding. Not just the ability for Midjourney AI to create these four variations of "a golden butterfly with silver markings and jewels" in less than three minutes, but the degree of artistic skill and beauty in these images. I have worked with the best illustrators in the business who if given an assignment to come up with this image could do so. But it would take days, maybe even weeks.

Even the choice of background which I did not specify is perfect.

Yesterday I watched someone build a portfolio of logo designs one after another that were incredibly handsome and elegant designs. And this person will probably be offering his/her/their design services on the internet and the joke of it is, he/she/they can offer consistency of design. For pennies on the dollar.

The professional world of creativity as we know it is over.

[behzad]

Who would care if frog legs are on the menu lol

Is it art to have a frogs left front leg coming out his ear?

[handrawn]

This is why I have retired. I feel sorry for the younger audience who think they can make a living designing.

exactly behzad

it is designing that will bear the brunt, not art, and GWP's butterflies are designs

sure they are artworks, but they do not have a message contained within them like standalone art should, they are just nice to look at...

[Jonopen]

I’m not actually sure if asking the question “is it art?” matters nowadays. My thinking is that anything can be “art” if you intentionally want it to be art. I always think about the digestive machine (Cloaca, Wim Delvoye) that consumes food and outputs 'faeces' which is then put in jars and sold as art!

It's great you can get quick results for concept ideas, but maybe not yet for finished work. Things might unravel if the client likes butterfly number two but wants different antenna, larger eyes and the whole thing a different colour.

I guess things like the wayward frog leg will get corrected as systems advance, but I do wonder if ideas presented will become more homogeneous due to AI choosing, for example, the most popular type of photographed frog, rather than offering a few different species.

[behzad]

Remember the banana that was taped to the wall, it was sold how much? Also if the day comes that those butterflies are done in vector and the file is provided then I would be impressed.

[Chris M]

Remember the banana that was taped to the wall, it was sold how much? Also if the day comes that those butterflies are done in vector and the file is provided then I would be impressed.

You can stipulate vector graphic in the prompt. You then upload to VECTORIZER.AI Trace Pixels To Vectors in Full Color, Fully Automatically, Using AI - Vectorizer.AI and in less than 30 seconds you're downloading an SVG. As I mentioned early, not so good with smooth shading.

I'll post some examples later.

[Chris M]

Here are 2 examples of using AI to end up with vector images.

01 original (first pic) was had a fine detail model of 'digital art'. The shading is smooth gradients and doesn't work well when run through Vectorize.ai, see 01 Vectorized (second pic)

​

02 original (first pic) had '1980.s pop art, vector style' added to the prompt. As usual, AI went its own petulant way and decided that people in the 80s didn't have headphones and they all wore neck braces. But it did take note of 'vector style' and made 99% of the shading cell shading. It still made the sunglasses a gradient, but it worked well regardless 02 Vectorized (second pic)



Attached are the SVGs. Ungroup them, or ctrl+click to see the tracing.

>>> 01 SVG.svg <<< >>> 02 SVG.svg <<<

[behzad]

Good find. I guess the tech is not there yet for smooth gradations.

[handrawn]

. My thinking is that anything can be “art” if you intentionally want it to be art.

indeed... for me:

munch's scream is art
emin's unmade bed is art
these are more than the sum of their parts


the butterflies are pretty but they have no added value, no matter how good they are they they are just tarted up butterflies, they say wow but do not relate to your experience outside of the purely design oriented box

wow AI can do
scream I don't think so

[Acorn]

art is the idea - craft is the implementation ....

the butterflies are pretty but they have no added value, no matter how good they are they they are just tarted up butterflies, they say wow but do not relate to your experience outside of the purely design oriented box

wow AI can do
scream I don't think so

I alluded before AI is the artisan, the artist is its questioner.

Me:

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Roll it, pat it, and mark it with a B
Put it in the oven for Baby and me.

AI (Bing Chat with GPT4):

Please provide a more descriptive prompt

This prompt was too vague to generate appropriate, high quality images. Please try a longer, more descriptive prompt.

Me:

Make a large B on top of the cake.

AI:

I can do that
...

No images could be created

We were unable to create images for this prompt. Please try another prompt.

Me:

Oh, go on, go on.

It can't even keep track of its personal pronouns.

Acorn