Summary and Evaluation of Overall Progress –
“Art is the soul’s reflection, echoing humanity’s quest for unity amidst the bits and bytes of our technological evolution.”
Out of all of the sections of Unit 3, this one (LO3), has by far been the most difficult for me to complete. Partially because it is the last one and I’m really sad about that, but also because I genuinely don’t know where to begin. At one point I even considered just feeding my words from the first section into ChatGPT. However I wanted my final piece of writing to come straight from the heart. This is because over the last two years I have been on a transformative journey. When I began the course most of my creative activity revolved around macro photography and I had a deep love of the subject. I saw myself initially using this skill and refining it further to create more and more interesting art pieces. However, in the midst of all of this I witnessed the rapid rise of text to image and text to video AI industrialised art. I just instinctively knew that my time as a fine art photographer was drawing to a close. I really did feel a deep sense of loss. Fortunately I also have a very inquiring mind and I began to seek out new ways of working. Initially I began to explore generative art, which even today I still enjoy, but I feel that this too will eventually be absorbed into the AI industrialised art machine. I have such mixed emotions about it all. On one level I embrace AI art. I can see it empowering people to find a level of expression perhaps previously denied to them. On the other hand, there are so many moral and ethical issues surrounding it, that I think we need to proceed with extreme caution. I suddenly found myself in the middle of a rapidly changing environment. Each day there were announcements about the latest algorithms and what AI could and couldn’t now do. Keeping abreast of all of this was at best difficult.
I I just really wanted to pick up my camera and return to the familiar. Instead I decided to move outside of my well worn ways of working and I embarked on a deep exploration of human, digital and AI hybrid art with the addition of incorporating hidden elements into my creations. I documented all of my intentions in my study statement. The working title of my study statement was ‘Know Thy Enemy’ which in my case I saw as AI industrialised art. The full quote is as follows:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War
My thinking was that if I could explore the current developments with this technology, then I would be better placed to both understand it and use it creatively in my work. However, during the research phase of my Research Paper I was met with the sobering realisation that AI art is not popular and in all probability it was never going to be. In fact on many levels it is actually morally quite repugnant. Indeed, my research showed that the only way it was ever acceptable was if its usage was unknown or produced by a humanoid robot. Using AI art and not telling anyone that it was AI was just not ethical nor tenable. This discovery caused a profound shift in perspective. The imbalance of power wielded by tech giants against artists and creators started to become a central theme.
During Unit 2, I took a trip to Barcelona and this was the first time that I really felt the urge to pick up my camera. I was inspired by the vibrant graffiti that adorned the city’s walls. This brightly coloured graffiti to me was a very human statement. It reminded me of early cave paintings. Perhaps when confronted with walls people just feel the need to express themselves? There was just something both very human, very physical ‘and in your face’ about it. I felt such a strong urge to photograph it and document it. When I ran all of the images together as a sequence the sheer volume of it all was quite breathtaking. In my blog post ‘Barcelona Graffiti’ I also documented how some residents (consciously or unconsciously) appeared to be colour co-ordinating their clothes with the vibrant graffiti around them. Even today I still do not know why, but I just felt the need to highlight the graffiti that everyone seemed to ignore on a daily basis. I think it was because in an increasingly technological world, spraying paint onto walls (as Banksy would no doubt agree) seemed quite a revolutionary act.
The Barcelona trip resulted in three self published books that all had a layer of augmented reality from cover to cover. These books represented a very human endeavour and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to mix of AR, digital art and AI art. Any AI images in the books were created from my collaged graffiti images. There was no text to image or text to video used in the making of the books. Anything that was AI generated was based on original photographs by uploaded into the system by me. The act of scaling back my AI usage was becoming increasingly important to me. I could feel my outlook changing. My work was definitely progressing. I discovered that augmented reality can ‘stick’ to its anchor image even when it is moved around. This discovery sparked a series of experiments which culminated in the realisation that augmented reality could be seamlessly integrated into moving structures, paving the way for the development of a moving piece of art.
Around this time I was greatly influenced by the work of Alexander Calder. His work encapsulated exactly how I was feeling. I wanted to create something physical something tangible, something that was real. I was tiring of the AI industrialised art machine. This drove me to work on a series of my own mobiles. It was not easy. I fought for weeks trying to work out a suitable hanging system. Eventually I came up with a system that worked. I created 3 mobiles two of which were exhibited at the Paradiso Gallery in Bovey Traey and the third is due to be shown at the end of year exhibition at Central Saint Martins. The physical act of making the mobiles reminded me that art is so much more than could ever be created by a machine. Increasingly my thoughts turned to all of the artists who had their work fed into this system without consent. I was seeing more and more people being hurt by this, myself included. I began to wonder if I could help shed light on this imbalance of power between the tech giants and the ordinary person. Given that I had been trying to balance mobiles for weeks the words balance and imbalance began to resonate with me. It was at this point I realised my mobiles work on balance, society works on balance and even the universe works on balance. Without balance in our lives we have problems and I believe currently we have many.
The connection was made and I decided to name my mobile ‘The Balance of Power – Unity in Bits’. I wanted it to be an intricate art piece with many hidden layers. Now completely disillusioned with AI art, I wanted my mobile to serve as a testament to hidden voices and untold stories within the art industry. I designed the mobile so that its elements spelled the words ‘Unity in Bits’. This phrase was a simple play on words posing a question – was our unity in bits, namely a fractured society driven apart by the rise of technology and its inherent threats. Or, could we actually find our unity in the bits and bytes of computer code? All that was now required were artists prepared to voice their true options about AI. The art piece already accommodates a number of prominent voices, but the intention is that it evolves as more voices are added. Evolution is a theme that continues to flow through my work.
The Balance of Power Book
I created an explanatory art book to accompany the ‘Balance of Power’ mobile. It contains further details about the concept and rationale behind my mobile. I used augmented reality to hide sounds (often hidden and muffled voices), animations and videos inside. AI did help with some of the animations but all of the imagery was created by me and only my imagery used in the making of the following film. The film below was a contender for my Final 5 minute video, but I rejected it preferring to use a piece that could stand alone. However, this video is a good summary of my thinking and I believe that the book will prove a useful addition to my body of work.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my time on this art course has been nothing short of transformative. It has not only broadened my creative horizons but also challenged me to confront the ethical dilemmas posed by emerging technologies. As I navigated the complexities of AI and its impact on the art world, I discovered new ways to blend traditional and digital mediums, ultimately finding a balance that honours both. This journey has been profoundly enriching, filled with moments of self-discovery and artistic growth. I leave this course with a deep appreciation for the ever-evolving landscape of art and a commitment to continue exploring, creating and evolving in new ways.