“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.”
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.
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.
THE
EVOLUTION
OF ART
AS THE POWER OF GENERATIVE AI TOOLS RAPIDLY EXPANDS, MANY FEAR THAT THE VALUE OF ART AND ARTISTIC PROCESS WILL SUFFER, OR EVEN DISAPPEAR.
This is a misconception in the sense that art history and cultural production has never been static, nor has human creativity, which has always been linked to new tools and technologies.
Looking into the past, cave painting began 45,000-plus years ago, most likely as a form of religious and symbolic storytelling whereas the oldest engraved object, a piece of ochre found in Blombos Cave in South Africa, dates back 77,000 years. Other mediums like ceramics, pottery, masks, dances, chants, songs, landscape works, and more, developed everywhere humans went, over tens of thousands of years, mostly tied to unique rituals, magical practices, and knowledge systems that formed bonds between communities, nature, the cosmos and more. As new tools evolved, so did the artistic processes which accompanied them.
One of these technologies was metallurgy, beginning 8,000 years ago. As an art form and practice, metallurgy birthed new forms of expression previously unimaginable, in this case tied to the metallurgist or smith, who doubled as a shamanic figure. Taken as a whole, the evidence from archeology and anthropology align with the fact that for most of our species’ history, artistic creation has always evolved while at the same time remaining a supernatural act with spiritual consequences, a far cry from commodity-driven capitalism.
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?
