Never stop creating your art
Technology is trying to make the sharing of art meaningless, so you must hold onto the meaning
Modern technology gives us many new tools to create art. I personally use a computer to develop my Raw photos from my camera, and I know many others do the same. At the same time, it seems that art is losing its relevance in today's society.
Sure, we have more photos shared than ever, and graphics seem to be everywhere. However, at least for me, the most important aspect of sharing art is the act of sharing a human experience.
And, as a photographer, I feel that aspect of art is definitely drifting away and being minimized by digital technology. Photos are mainly used on social media platforms powered by algorithms that encourage mindless scrolling. And artificial intelligence now is being used in all sorts of ways to remove objects and add things to scenes that were never there in the first place. In other words, the emphasis with modern technology is no longer on the experience itself, but manufacturing something visually appealing that ostensibly is about experience.
I'll admit, I find this aspect of art combined with technology quite discouraging. Most people these days no longer seem to connect with the experience behind the photo. Instead, most of the discussion in photography today is around gear and processing, rather than artistic expressive aspects. I wouldn't be surprised if similar feelings were going through the hearts of illustrators and graphic designers who are now being replaced by AI.
The truth is, it is in technology's "best interest" to divorce the human experience from art. That is because once the human experience is removed from art, the person behind the creation becomes replaceable and effectively anonymous. This vastly reduces the human power to change the world for the better, and to go against the trend of subjugation by technology. Moreover, if we have art, then we can connect with others and form communities. Having a community is also against the "best interests" of technology because without community, the only place we have left to turn is technology. Instead of relying on others, we start to rely more on technology.
If you are feeling this way or if you are feeling something lacking in your artistic endeavours, I'd like to encourage you to continue to produce art and find new ways to display it to others outside of mainstream technological outlets. For example, if you're a photographer, send your photos to your friends through the mail. Get together with other artists and display and critique each other's work. Talk to a fellow artist and attempt to understand the meaning and experience behind their work from their work and from your relationship to them.
In short, take a moment to understand how technology is taking away our ability to share experiences through art. Don't use generative AI even if it saves you time, because even seemingly innocuous uses of AI supports AI. And the ultimate purpose of AI is to take away your ability to share your experience. Even being indirectly supporting of such technology is a taint of the human soul and thus, AI should be avoided. I know as a wildlife photographer, AI noise reduction is popular for high ISO photos, but I advise all photographers to avoid it and I never use it in my own photography.
I know the world is a scary place and it seems to be getting more scary every day. It seems that the old ways of face-to-face interaction are being replaced with digital interaction, and the simple essence of human connection is being eroded for the sake of technological efficiency. But don't lose hope, because if you are a person who creates art, you have the ability to counter this descent into madness. Every drawing you create and share with another is a statement that AI is not the answer. Every time you share a photo, you remind the world that it's more than just the photo that matters: it's the fact that you were there.
Yes, such an approach might not be the best one to make you the most popular photographer or the most renowned artist, but I'd rather genuinely share my art with one person than win a million photo contests.
Lovely article Jason. I like your heron photo! It's really sad to see that art, like pretty much everything today, is becoming an industrial process. Content like yours give me some hope.