3 Reasons Art will Survive the Rise of AI

1.  Art is about the line of thought and emotion to hand, not thought and emotion churned through a data centre

For thousands of years, men and women have used art as vehicle and prism to distill their thoughts and emotions into something beautiful. Around the 20^th century, this process also became about asking the viewer confronting questions and allowing them to see themselves reflected in the work. AI is a jumble of every thought and question from millennia thrown into a gigantic pile of data – it does not reflect a singular human perspective and thus has the reflective qualities of a giant pile of refuse. People appreciate a singular point of view gained through life experience and knowledge, it’s part of being human to seek this out in various art mediums like books, paintings and installations.

2.  Art is a physical act where the artist leaves behind evidence of his gestures and body. It is not a disembodied collection of data without a physical process to leave these marks

Often when we look at a painting, we can see the artist has put real gestures and energy into the brushstrokes, has scraped back paint with the end of a brush, or blended a section with their finger. In ceramic work, it’s common to see fingerprints and other signs of the maker. AI will never be able to replicate this because it is not a human process using the body, with the brain signalling when to leave a gestural stroke or reach out and touch the surface with a finger.

 3.  Artists will always use art as therapy, as expression of repressed emotion and as a way to meaningfully connect with other humans, especially in a world where this connection is more difficult to achieve

The rise of technology does not change human nature and emotion. We feel pain, bewilderment, loneliness, love and a plethora of other feelings. In a bigger picture sense, we use art as commentary about a world that confuses and causes anxiety. Art is the perfect vehicle for releasing our emotions – we don’t need a data centre to know how we feel, only art materials and quiet to release everything that has built up inside. Art enthusiasts then sense the emotion in the work (reflecting their own) and the authenticity of physically placed paint and genuine feeling is something that brings joy day after day, year after year.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. Feel free to browse my work (full of my own thoughts and feelings!) and let me know what you think about the future of art in the comments.