Dear City Girl,
Do you remember times pre-matcha? A hot latte topped with a heart foamy froth accompanied you while catching up on blog posts. The past was slow compared to now.
The marriage between art and commerce is a charming relationship. The patron and the artist communicates mostly with friendly banter here and there, a guidance that leads to investment. A tale as old as time. What happens when a third party enters this sanctimonious partnership, say of the artificial intelligence variety?
Albert Einstein famously said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” I can’t wait to hear an AI come up with its first really good knock-knock joke.
There is an insanity to being creative. It is the fiber, the root of all the ideas, visions, fiction and non-fiction, shapes and colors come out of. It is from the emotion of that creative person that becomes the work.
So where does AI’s creative hunger stem from? Is it born from a thousand clicks on a keyboard and algorithms from countless data?
Will the artist, the human artist have to take a back seat to financial gains and client budgets?
There are claims that AI can enhance the creative process. In this blog article from New York University, it presumes the ways in which it can be used for good in various creative works. “For visual artists, AI-generated images can serve as starting points for new creations. AI algorithms can create abstract patterns, morph images, or generate unique compositions that artists can incorporate into their work.” In music composition AI can analyze past and current music to generate new, fresh sounds and genres even. For writers and poets, AI’s capabilities for vocabulary, generating sentences (sans grammatical errors) and long form paragraphs can apparently be beneficial for crafting storylines, character and dialogues. Yet as we experienced and witnessed in the Writers Union Strike of 2023, AI could play as the downfall for all things creative writing and screenwriting in terms of lack of jobs.
What about fine art? Well as long as the artist created the AI themselves such as on Adobe’s Firefly, a generative app that with text prompt can generate images. Somewhere Pablo Picasso is turning in his grave, while Frida Kahlo curses humanity from above and Vincent Van Gogh just shrugs his shoulders. Isn’t art still art regardless of its production? Maybe Picasso, Frida and Van Gogh would appreciate such a novel innovation. (I would like to assume that Jean-Michel Basquiat saw this coming) But most artists are skeptics, such as the ones in this New York Times article “An AI- Generated Picture Won An Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy.”
The fashion industry has never been shy with technology, in fact it relies more on data than past years. In this recent story from Fashionista, companies have begun to implement generative AI’s virtual try-on as well as using it to optimize supply chains. And now companies are starting to use AI instead of graphic designers in producing prints for collections and merchandise.
The only valid question remains, is AI going to take over my job?
Emma Winton an illustrator and graphic designer from Melbourne, Australia believes that the AI takeover has begun in her line of work.
“It already has, from Al logo generation to creating photo imagery and ChatGPT for copywriting. However, I don't think it can truly take away our work, as it will never be able to replicate the human aspect that we bring to our projects. From the thought process to the emotional side. The human touch plays such a key role that I think no matter how far Al gets, it will never be able to take that away.” - @emmawintondesign
Anjuli of Studio Junk is a freelance brand + web designer from Houston, Texas who holds a traditional outlook on design work.
“It depends. It depends how much the designer/creative is reliant on them to produce the work. I'm personally still old school where I love seeing people's art from their skillset. We don't want to lose human ingenuity and connectedness from relying so much on Al when it comes to design and art.” - @studiojunk.co
Anjuli has a strong point that I think most of us need to remember - that it’s not always about doing ‘out with the old in with the new’. A few months back I tested out ChatGPT for a work project. With some minimal effort, I was given copy that was at most suffice for the task at hand. It wasn’t wrong, it was correct. But it wasn’t great and more importantly, it wasn’t me. My voice or narrative didn’t shine through in any of the copywriting. It felt like when you pay someone to write your school paper and although it’s well done, I believe those that know you will be able to tell the difference. At least for my clients, I’m lucky enough to work with people who don’t want ordinary by the textbook skills, they pay me for the out-of-the-box and then some kind of ideas. If you’re doing creative work, charisma is everything. It’s a valid reason for why you got hired.
We can think about all the past creative works that have inspired us. The Sistine Chapel is a once in a lifetime masterpiece, the hours, the grief, the joy and anticipation that went into it from dreams to its completion, was not from anything else but the artist’s hands and imagination. No data. The Taj Mahal was built from true romance, feelings and inventiveness of design to outlast decades and eras. No data. These amazing, wonders were outputs of life experiences and real emotions. The McDonald’s logo with its iconic golden arches symbolize a sentiment, in memoriam of where it all began, when it was once a small family-owned business. Nostalgia. No data. If you’re a brand owner, think about what’s of more value, the long-term memory and real-life connection or giving in to a computerized formula that has never felt the peacefulness of a sunrise? (charisma)
What kind of life lessons will AI have to offer? For now we only know that AI with all its boundless data intelligence lacks the heart of it all, which is emotional intelligence.
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5 GOOD THINGS THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION
The truth about the Oscar Awards nomination and winner process
Gen Z is not impressed by brand sponsored influencer trips (nor am I)
The Row’s phone ban at their Winter 2024 show at Paris Fashion Week 👏🏽 (spoiler: every single person survived)
I am now comfortable in my ceramic mug hoarding, and so I anticipate the Hotel Ceramics webshop update this Saturday (3/9) at 9am PST
I. Cannot. Wait. To cook this peanut butter pasta this weekend
My last two cents in the present and future of AI is that the only ones that will reap the success are lawyers. What a lucrative time to be in the field of trademark and copyright law. And in my opinion the ones who will lose out big, accountants. I hope you numbers people have found a passionate side hustle.
This weekend treat yourself to an extra pain au chocolat, you deserve it!
🥐🥐,
DNAMAG