What sometimes gets missed when people talk about AI and visual art is that there is this assumption that mimicry of style can replace real artwork.
But despite the fact that many of us see artwork on screens these days, artwork still exists in physical forms and it’s hopeful point of connection is personal, tactile, and multifaceted.
Even a simple piece of paper with a sketch will always be better than a tool that primarily can only output to screens.
Of course systems can be devised that bridge AI output to physical forms but in its dominate consumer form, AI can only assemble pictures on a screen. Not that pictures on a screen don’t have power and emotion, but it’s just the shallow end of the depths that we can fully experience artwork.
It’s why zines, even in their most simple folded paper forms have so much power. Holding something in your hands and turning its pages, feeling the paper, seeing it in different lights, the sound of paper, the scent of paper. There is humanity in that.