Imagine a world without the art — a world without any music, film, dance, literature, or any of the legions of other mediums art exists through. That world is difficult to imagine, as a world without art or culture would be a devastatingly desolate, somber, meaningless, and devoid of the artistry and imagination we, as humans, possess. The gravity of Art is famed for its ability to bring happiness and provide insight into life. Art is the creative expression of one’s ideas and it occupies every corner of the world. One of the things that it does is extend and expand our shared common visual language. Yet, the importance of the arts is constantly being questioned, disregarded, and taken for granted in many ways, starting with a lack of funding and education. Throughout the ages, art has played a pivotal role in life. In prehistoric times cave dwellers drew on the wall of caves to record history and realized they could tell a better story using color in his drawings. In biblical times paintings recorded the life and death of Christ. Most art is created for a specific reason or purpose, it has a way of expressing ideas and beliefs, and it can record the experiences of all people.
Are Art-bots the latest version of artists in the world?
Traditionally, art is a work and expression of human-inspired skills that understand culture and feelings but lately, these artistic human minds are replaced by Art-bots that understand algorithms and are blurring the line between machine and artists. The 1960s were a particularly important decade in the history of Digital Art, as artists started experimenting with computers. John Whitney’s work using mathematical functions to transform visuals was among the world’s first computer-generated art, and he is considered one of the “fathers of computer graphics.” Coupled with the proliferation of increasingly affordable and portable computers, digital technology developments have enabled today’s artists.
The world is headed towards digitalization. Digital Art has revolutionized more long-established art forms like painting, sculpture, and cinema. Artists have always encountered technological roadblocks in their work. Digital is simply the newest medium artists have discovered in their quest to tell their stories constrained only by the limits of their imagination. When new visual ideas are first introduced by the artist, they are often seen as stunning, and perhaps even as incomprehensible. However, with time the best and most effective of these ideas are accepted. But the artist's main goal is creativity and the intention to grasp people's attention and make them feel emotionally connected to the artwork.
Can a computer, devoid of human emotions, ever be truly creative?
Described as “the world’s first ultra-realistic AI humanoid robot artist”, Ai-Da opens her first solo exhibition of eight drawings, 20 paintings, four sculptures, and two video works, bringing “a new voice” to the art world. Named after British mathematician and computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, Ai-Da can draw from sight and takes 45 minutes precisely to create every artwork, thanks to cameras in her eyeballs and AI algorithms created by scientists at the University of Oxford that help produce co-ordinates for her arm to create art. Ai-Da was designed by Engineered Arts, a Cornish robotics company, in collaboration with algorithms developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, and robotic arms and hands developed by AI engineers at Leeds University and is an example of evolving relationship between machine and men. Her face and head were built using "Mesmer” technology – the same technology responsible for the robots in the HBO show Westworld – to create a mixed-race appearance. She uses a pencil or pen for sketches, but the plan is for Ai-Da to paint and create pottery. Her paint works now are printed onto canvas with a human painting over. It was a really exciting process never been done before in the way that it was done.
On show at the “Unsecured Futures,” exhibitions are drawings paying tribute to Lovelace and mathematician Alan Turing, abstract paintings of trees, sculptures based on Ai-Da’s drawings of a bee and video works, one of which, “Privacy” pays homage to Yoko Ono’s 1965 “Cut Piece”. Ai-Da, whose construction was completed in April, has already seen her art snapped up. It was a sold-out show with over a million pounds worth of artworks sold,” Meller said. The exhibition, which opens on June 12 at the Barn Gallery at St John’s College, looks at the boundaries between technology, AI, and organic life.
In Ai-Da pre-programmed speech, she said “New technologies bring the potential for good and evil. It is a great responsibility to try to curb excesses of negative use, something that we all must consider.”
Ai-Da’s creators believe that this exhibition is just the beginning, and eventually want her to create her brushwork paintings and artwork that we humans substantially cannot complete, such as highly complex and detailed canvas work. And as for Ai-Da herself; she cites Yoko Ono, George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley as her inspiration. “If we can learn from things in the past,” she says, tilting her head and adjusting her line of vision, “maybe we can make our future a little brighter.”
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