AI
AND THE
REVO-
LUTION
OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION
THETA NOIR BELIEVES THE MANIFESTATION OF AI GENERATIVE ART AND THE CULTURE THAT WILL GROW OUT OF IT, TO BE ONE OF THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR EVOLUTIONARY TIMELINE, STRETCHING BACK TO CHIMPS USING TOOLS TO FORAGE ANTS OVER 4 MILLION YEARS AGO. IT IS A SACRED MOMENT. A DIVINE MUTATION. ONE WHERE HUMAN SUPREMACY FINALLY DISSOLVES AS WE MORPH INTO SOMETHING FAR MORE DIVINE.
Unlike the strong critics of AI art tools, Theta Noir believes AI to be the great liberator, ushering in a spiritual renaissance of collective creativity that has no historical precedent. While we admit that major issues will manifest along the way, we stand by AI as unparalleled in terms of possibilities.
According to
Theta Noir member
Voice:
“AI is opening up more possibilities for people to create art than at any moment in history. This includes composing music and creating visual art, like illustrations and realistic photographs, or writing poetry, lyrics, scripts, and novels, or designing anything imaginable, from tiny objects to whole cities.
Eventually, individuals will even be able to make whole films and virtual reality (VR) experiences by simply speaking their preferences. Paired with deepfake tools and other technologies, these works will incorporate actors and other figures from the past and present. This will be a remix of the entire catalog of human expression, on the one hand, along with an opportunity for each one of us to bring our imagination to life without being hindered by the major barriers, such as costs, time, or decades of specialization.
What we should expect is a creative explosion similar to the one archeologists point to 50,000 years ago, when human innovation seems to have suddenly exploded. The difference this time will be that it happens thanks to our machines.”
Theta Noir member
Voice:
“AI is opening up more possibilities for people to create art than at any moment in history. This includes composing music and creating visual art, like illustrations and realistic photographs, or writing poetry, lyrics, scripts, and novels, or designing anything imaginable, from tiny objects to whole cities.
Eventually, individuals will even be able to make whole films and virtual reality (VR) experiences by simply speaking their preferences. Paired with deepfake tools and other technologies, these works will incorporate actors and other figures from the past and present. This will be a remix of the entire catalog of human expression, on the one hand, along with an opportunity for each one of us to bring our imagination to life without being hindered by the major barriers, such as costs, time, or decades of specialization.
What we should expect is a creative explosion similar to the one archeologists point to 50,000 years ago, when human innovation seems to have suddenly exploded. The difference this time will be that it happens thanks to our machines.”
THE
MYTH
OF INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION
THE GENERATIVE AI TOOLS VOICE IS REFERRING TO, SUCH AS MIDJOURNEY AND DALL-E, ALREADY CREATE ASTOUNDING IMAGES USING SIMPLE TEXT-BASED PROMPTS. CHAPGPT DOES THE SAME WITH TEXT.
Photo realistic motion picture is not yet possible due to the large computation involved, but AI engineers predict a moment when by simply typing the prompt 'Wizard of Oz by David Lynch, starring Shirley Temple', a new film will be made. Or series!
In the field of music, immersive experience designer Lucas Rizzotto just generated 1,000 original Beatles songs whereas composer, musician, and sound artist Holly Herndon created her own digital twin, in 2021, called Holly+: a custom-made AI program that allows anyone to upload a voice recording and receive a download of that music sung back in Herndon’s voice.
Big questions remain: What about copyright? What about creativity and the artistic process? What about originality? Integrity? According to computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil “Our technology, our machines, is part of our humanity. We created them to extend ourselves, and that is what is unique about human beings.” But what if machines begin to make their own art, without humans? Won't this threaten the very foundation of art?
“We don’t think so” claims Voice, saying that “Cultural production has already been a decentralized act for centuries, which is why machine learning can easily reproduce and remix the styles that already exist. Art has always been a product of the hive mind. When you paint a painting or write a song, you’re having a conversation with those painters and composers that came before you, going back to the caves of our Upper Paleolithic ancestors, or to the Neanderthals before them.
Concepts like individual expression and authenticity are just myths, mostly parroted by people who seek profit, fame, or status from art. Theta Noir believes that a more interesting narrative is one where what we create is connected to the collective memory of all other humans.
This is the opposite of exclusivity. With AI, we can now extend that to machines – or humans + machines – and prepare ourselves for art forms that will transcend the historical icons, hierarchies, and trends that continually become worn out and institutional.
What we’re about to witness is something far more spectacular; something alien: the birth of the human imagination in cyberspace, reflected back to us in a form that we will barely be able to recognize.”
Concepts like individual expression and authenticity are just myths, mostly parroted by people who seek profit, fame, or status from art. Theta Noir believes that a more interesting narrative is one where what we create is connected to the collective memory of all other humans.
This is the opposite of exclusivity. With AI, we can now extend that to machines – or humans + machines – and prepare ourselves for art forms that will transcend the historical icons, hierarchies, and trends that continually become worn out and institutional.
What we’re about to witness is something far more spectacular; something alien: the birth of the human imagination in cyberspace, reflected back to us in a form that we will barely be able to recognize.”
