The argument over whether it is appropriate for AI to be used in the creation of art is still being debated and will continue to be questioned.
After an AI-generated image won an annual art competition in September 2022, many people started to have concerns about the involvement of AI in artmaking.
Recently, Boris Eldagsen, a German artist, submitted his work entitled Pseudomnesia: The Electrician to the 2023 Sony World Photography Award (SWPA). His work took first place in the creative category. However, he has turned down his award after admitting that AI was utilized to make his work.
The image portrays a haunting black-and-white photo of young and old women from the 1950s.
The artist claimed that he complied with the competition’s guidelines, which stated that entries could be submitted using “any device.”
The artist claims that he had wanted to publicly engage in an “open discussion” on the topic of AI involvement in photography much earlier on in the awards process, but this had been unsuccessful.
Eldagsen realized that the organizer had not explicitly stated that the artwork was artificial intelligence-generated. When the image was accepted, the artist told the SWPA about his use of AI and his wish to publicly publish that information. The artist purposefully submitted the image to spark a discussion regarding the future of AI-generated work in the photography industry. After being accepted, he informed the SWPA about his use of AI and his wish to share that information.
The Old Tale
It appears that we will hear a lot of news like this (the involvement of AI in art making) in the coming moments. Yet, it is actually not a brand new story.
From the 19th to early 20th centuries, photography experienced criticism similar to the current AI art. Photography is considered to replace fine art. It was feared that the image perfection of photographs and their accessible character would make painting unnecessary.
At that time, photography was considered not art because it lacked the “subtle feeling” that animates the creation of art. Photography could not go beyond its ‘basic mechanism’. [Jordan G. Teicher, “When Photography Wasn’t Art”]. Photography is also considered to lack imagination and creativity. Walter Benjamin (1936) also wrote about the loss of “aura” and authenticity in the era of mechanical reproduction.
Like early photography, today’s AI art is often criticized for lacking originality, inventiveness, and authenticity. Will people eventually grasp that AI is merely a tool for creating art, just as we came to understand that the camera is only a tool for generating photography? AI is also only a tool in artmaking. Angles, techniques, styles, and meanings are always subject to the artist. Through their unique artistic expressions, each artist gives different colors to the world!
