No, Ai "Art" is not Art.

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[@finnshelton3815]

After this entire Ai art scenario, I realized that the attitude held by many ( not necessarily a majority, or even close, but a large chunk nonetheless) has always been that of 'artists have it easy' or that it is frivolous. Every step I took on my journey has been in direct opposition of those along that path. My teachers, relatives, schoolmates, counselors, and coaches. Many scoff at my admission that I wish to be a traditional artist, or a baker, or a sculptor. 'you are too smart.' you are wasted doing that' 'you could be so much more.' this trade is looked down upon, exploited, and scoffed at. We do not provide enough value to the commercialized world we have constructed, and we also, uniquely, are willing to take it in the chin. Perhaps this is because of the deeply personal relationship between art and it's maker, or maybe it is simply a biproduct of the changing landscape of the professional space leaking backwards along the path. I am not yet quite in the professional space, and I am young, but I think the way this plays out is simple whether or not we as a community finally standup for ourselves, or once again simply take it on the chin and keep grinding. The problems posed by AI art is nothing new, it is simply yet another detractor, one more hurdle I, and many others must overcome.

[@courtneyfinch5637]

As an illustrator, illustration is more than just “pretty pictures”. It is it’s own form of story telling, not limited to social norms of being hung in a gallery, it can be applied to everything, it can be fast, it can be slow, it can be beautiful, it can be ugly but more than anything illustration always tells a story.

[@Lunarbun2]

I think something important about creating art that you didn't mention here is the process of making art is art. It's beautiful to know that an artist has spent their effort into making it, and it can be extremely cathartic and mentally important to the artist to take part in working on art.

[@yaraalmostafa8173]

I'm following the midjourny group on Facebook and I'm noticing something in my feelings towards these works , the "art" they share and inspite of how creative it looks, is making me lose my intrest in opening the posts and observe what people are sharing, and that's what is SCARY for me, the appreciation of the works, the ideas, the artists ,the stories that made us attached to a work of art before, they will simply disappear . That's just so sad.

[@rbrendel1302]

I once wrote this poem and I think it is fitting for all of art not only for dancing (I tried to translate it from the German original as best as I could, but some of the beauty might have been lost to translation):

[@methei]

I fundamentally disagree with the implicit notion that "deeper meaning" is equivalent to conceptional meaning. In my opinion, an artwork that speaks to the viewer directly through its emotional impact (through beauty or whatever) is far deeper than just the expression of a concept.

[@xaero96]

I mostly agree, but if somebody draws by hand in a world where you can just generate images, that's already enough to give it deeper meaning, so it doesn't now suddenly become "just illustration". They're putting their soul into every line, which makes a difference for someone who can appreciate it.

[@BakedBuddy]

I have a huge problem. I am a cartoonist. Bright colors and round faces are my base and media. It’s silly and amusing, but I’ve always ached to make art that made people think, stirred up a conversation, and had deeper meaning. So ..two years ago, that’s what I began doing, in my style. No words, they’re not comics, they’re simply pieces that happen to be made in a cartoonish style. According to your standards, my art should fall in illustration because my style is considered eye candy and appealing, but to me, they reach topics of loneliness, anxiety, our society, social situations and emotions. I would consider them art. My problem is that there shouldn’t be a fine line.

[@laurabergman6674]

i don't like that you think illustration isn't art. i consider myself an illustrative art because i tell stories with my art, its not just a pretty picture its a tiny tale in ink, watercolor and pencil. take my avatar here. yes it's just a semi realistic portrait of me on the surface, but its meant to tell the tale of how my chronic pain encompasses my body in clean visual language any layperson can understand. i love high and low art, but just because i choose to make my images in an illustrative way does not make it any less art.

[@TheLily97232]

My concern about that narrowing definition of art is that it makes only social or political art "real art" and leaves the role of the audience out of the discussion.

[@canesvenatici4259]

Without great art by great artists, these AI "Art" generators would not exist.

[@luckythirteen9353]

An artist once said, all it takes is one person to believe it's art and it's art.

[@887frodo]

I disagree with the last argument. What’s meant to be solely aesthetics and what’s meant to be art are not inherently unrelated. I mean, I don’t look at a beautiful sunset only because I love how the colors clash and blend upon each other, I look at it also cuz it makes me think about my day, about the next day and its possibilities, about the person I would love to be sharing this moment with me. All these things are meaningful. Beauty has meaning because artistic purpose itself has always been a flawed concept. Art has been made absentmindedly and we have called it art that explores the subconscious desires or beliefs of its creator, so…

[@heartlessmushroom]

So, to anyone who is worried about the need of being purposefuly meaningful or transgressive to society at large, as long as your art is meaningful to both you and the community you share it with, it is still art. Do you want to make pretty fanart to express how much your fandom meant to you? That's art. Do you want to draw cute boys smooching because that is how you express your gender identity? That's art. Do you draw cool characters because their aesthetic resonates with you for personal reasons that are hard to describe in words? That's art. Do you draw dinosaurs, trains, insects, historical outfits, indescribably horrible monsters or anything that is part of your niche hyperfixation because you have a particular fascination, intertest or find deep meaning in them for any reason. That is also art.

[@davidshepherd397]

This as you pointed out goes back a long way. I think about schools dropping their drama and band programs to meet a budget. There was a time historically when a person would create something for a purpose and then try and improve their product partly on the basis that a better thing would sell itself and profit would increase by greater sales, but as you said today today the only goal is to chisel away at that product to increase profit instead of true innovation. I think that being exposed to the arts in school is necessary for a student to be able to see depth in life. This in an interesting topic as all artists may be influenced by the works of others, otherwise there would be no schools of art, so the idea of AI poaching art has to be debated. The only sad reality is that a bunch of lawyers will inevitably make a fortune feeding the fires of this issue. Perhaps because AI art is based on a collection of images, it can only be regarded as a print as opposed to a genuine piece of art. This trend however is disturbing as it will spread to all areas of art, novels where a piece of software is given a time frame and a plot outline and a book is written, we saw in the movie 300 that perhaps shortly actors can be done away with, how long before a computer can compose music, or design a bridge. Once automation was thought to give people a better salary and more time off to enjoy family and friends, today some automation is just making humans redundant. Look at the all automatic McDonalds in Texas for example. Today profit for the sake of profit has become the mantra. The result is that art which was suppose to be a way for people to look at themselves and their society will slowly become nothing more that propaganda to justify the dehumanization of society

[@ThatGuy2005.]

Art is the expression of emotion.

[@EphemeralTao]

For starters, the best definition of Art that I've ever been able to come up with is "Art is the attempt to communicate abstract concepts in a concrete medium".

[@lexsapla]

Even though I agree with the last few sentences of the video, I have to add the following. When an artist can’t make a living out of selling illustrations, they’ll never have the financial opportunity to remain an artist either. Seeing that, I can’t see AI as anything else except a curse for artists. This is the unforgiving world we live in, were the possibility of being an artist, keeps becoming less of a realistic option.

[@Historymaker-xw9wf]

I'm not an artist in the traditional sense. My canvas isn't a blank sheet of paper or vinyl. I build and paint models. In doing so I express my view of the world.

[@WXW1Diagoko]

There was a weird take in terms of distinguishing illustration from art.