“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.”
Pablo Picasso
This project was envisioned and executed between the rise of prompt-based image generators like StableDiffusion, MidjourneyAI, and text generators like ChatGPT3, with the lawsuits filed in early 2023 against these machine learning platforms for the use of protected material in their databases. Defining this moment is essential because it creates a context for this project. For example, the portrait app Lensa released in January 2023 was so disruptive that it scored millions of hits in its first five days. In addition, Hyperallergic.com posted scathing articles about these technologies during that time. In addition, this author is producing a small exhibition called “Inflection Point” with this portrait phenomenon, based on the selfie and artificial intelligence as a snapshot of the time
The point is that this moment in the life of artificial intelligence as an art form may be the beginning of a revolution, or it may be relatively short. This particular moment is the focus of this project; it speculates on the future of the arts in the context of AI and the relevance of human subjectivity. In “In the Posthuman Studio,” a “curator” visits 50 entirely synthetic artists in their studio and collects their statements. In this catalog, every studio portrait emerged from prompts given to machine learning platforms, including MidjourneyAI, and the statements and names generated by open AI’s chatbot, ChatGPT-3. The catalog essay is the only one in the entire volume created by an organic perspective.
The project’s conceit is a critical engagement with the anxieties of digital artists and their comments on social media, asking whether organic artists are “out of business.” In this project, that conceit is neither verified nor denied.
However, the concept is that of the first exhibition of purely AI-driven Art made by purely synthetic personality constructs without humans in the conversation. Except for myself as the pseudo-fictional “curator.” This choice was difficult and highly intentional, as ChatGPT-3 could also generate that text.
Nevertheless, as with the writer, L Frank Baum, in his classic, the Wizard of Oz, it seemed necessary to show the“man behind the curtain” pulling the levers via a critical gesture. Not doing so would have left the project far too hermetic, and some could have believed that an artist/curator/writer would suppose their support for such a project.
The discursive stance taken in this project is, at best ironic, and critical, to allowing artificial intelligence carte blanche with creativity. Art is an act of emotional connection. Without it, there would be only empty aesthetic.