Annie Zhu Q2 Blog #1 - Caricature of the American Dream
Last year, in my quest to fulfill some kind of art journey, I went around looking for art competitions to enter. One quickly popped up, so I spent some time looking into the regional winners to get an idea of what types of pieces were being recognized. Looking through the awards, though, I was upset yet not very surprised to discover that one of the winners two or three years ago was an AI-generated drawing. The title was something along the lines of “My Mother’s American Dream,” and it featured a smiling immigrant woman wearing a cowboy hat and an American flag shirt. Let me be brutally honest: at face value, I doubt that the piece contained any significant creative impact or artistic skill. Maybe choosing an AI-art piece was some kind of political statement on the part of the judges. Or perhaps the person had a lot of insightful things to say about their creation? Who knows?
Regardless of the reason, I was offended. Patriotic spirit should come from real people, not Chat GPT! This work could have been generated in an instant, and it won out over hundreds (maybe thousands) of art pieces made by individuals who poured hours into their projects. Besides, just like how AI art styles are uncanny to the point where they don’t feel real, the ideas this piece supposedly represented didn’t feel real either. There is nothing life-changing about slapping a corny hat on an immigrant and calling that the American Dream. Our values reflect so much more than clothing or red-white-and-blue. For immigrants especially, artificially-generated art simply can’t capture their life experiences: the communities they build and the struggles they go through. That is a job that I believe should be left up to the creatives. People who live here, in the tangible world, should be the ones speaking their truth.
I mean, look at how ridiculous this is!
Hi Annie, our class discussions about the horrors of AI have gotten to you, and frankly, it's had the same effect on me. I've always admired your artistic creativity, and your dedication to it is a prevalent aspect of your personality, hence explaining your choice of blog topic. The fact is that art itself is an incredibly difficult science (I see the irony there). Artistic choices cannot always be understood, as the lifetimes and years of human experiences behind them are difficult to explain and understand. At face level, I can understand why the use of AI art might be absurd in a competition so focused on raw authenticity, neither of which is easily replicated by AI. Which is why I appreciated your attempt to "view both sides of the coin" as they say (I doubt they really say that but I guess I am) maybe they did write and incredibly eloquent piece explaining their choice of art, maybe the choice was ironic, regardless the american dream, and the immigrants who are its foundation are incredibly complex(understatement of the century I know) which is why art representing them should match or surpass their generational complexity. Overall, lovely piece I implore you to keep writing about your passions and connecting them to the American dream!
ReplyDeleteHello, Annie! I love how your topic of choice for this blog is AI art, I think it’s certainly very topical to how AI is changing the world, and it certainly has an impact on what we see as “American.” I love how intensely you expressed your distaste for AI art, and I think you are perfectly justified. While AI is meant to be a tool, it is certainly not a method to replace creativity and definitely should not win any art contests. While I certainly appreciate how you tried to determine why the piece won, I think we can just collectively chalk it up to being completely the judges’ fault. You don’t need to be nice, or try to find a reason to justify why the piece won—the judges simply made a mistake. You are also completely justified in being offended—if I could win an art contest by having a nice speech, then what’s the point of the art contest? While I may not have a shred of artistic capability in me, I agree with you, that AI art should not be used in contests, and certainly should not be used to represent America’s ideals.
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