How I feel about AI… Maybe
How do I feel about technology that threatens artists’ livelihoods, steals artists’ work, and creates alternate realities? AI Images can look so real, which may be confusing. Imagine seeing some of the realistic AI images of life-size knitted elephants or stained glass bathtubs 20 years in the future. They give off a genuine vibe, even though they’re not real. We can’t trust reality based on what we see online. And the technology just keeps getting better.
At the same time, how do I feel about technology that empowers me to create diverse and joyful artwork, visualize my imagination, illustrate my disability, and create the fairies of Forest Fairy Crafts? Oh, it’s fun. The storytelling part is ideal for my tired brain. Messing with the prompt is a creative adventure, which I deeply miss. My health challenges have limited my ability to create or use my hands, to set up and clean up painting supplies. It enables me to share my chronic illness in imaginative ways. I can show how my health challenges feel metaphorically and artistically. My prompts change the entire scene, and the learning curve asks me to be resourceful. I enjoy the opportunities AI gives me as an artist.
So how do I feel? Conflicted. I want to be on the team that is cheering for artists and avoiding AI as a medium. Yet, I want to share the images and stories that I create. They’re fun, and my new mission is to show disability more if I can. I want to help with representation.
And it brings me joy to see the fairies in my imagination that I make with felt and sequins and pipe cleaners and wood beads, to see them as I would imagine. I see them as in an animated series, or an illustrated book. Their world is so magical and safe and supportive and I love creating that. So I have made an Instagram for sharing my AI images, and I am sure that I will have more to say on this topic. Because it’s complicated and it’s conflicted. I think about it a lot because I don’t want to see AI replacing artists. I don’t want the AI photography technology to get so good that reality becomes even more distorted. I rarely try photography AI.
Humans bring a light to their art that the AI cannot replicate. So my AI creations are about stories. They’re about me spending two hours not thinking about doctor appointments or pain or problems. They’re escapist for me. I’m not gonna sell them. I’m not gonna do anything with them except share them. I appreciate any kindness that people show. I use Firefly which is an Adobe product. Adobe said they compensated artists and sent payments to stock photographers and artists that were used in the coding of Firefly. The program is getting stronger and stronger- another interesting journey to see what it can manage and/or where it hits a wall. So sharing the adventure will be fun for anyone curious about AI, not as a commercial project, or a replacement for art, but as a new place to play.
I’ll put some of my favorites on here and if you would like to follow along, I am not sure how I’m going to manage the Instagram stream but it’s LenkaImagines. I will continue to share there. I have many in my archives. And I may share before/after showing what the program has learned even when I’ve used it because it’s getting better fast. And it’s important to recognize some clues that identify AI. And that’s not a terrible thing, to recognize the clues.
How do I feel about AI? I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. We should exercise caution when implementing and using AI technology. I prefer art by human hands. And the ethics are very difficult to untangle from the final work. But if you look at it from the perspective that it’s here, and it’s a tool, and maybe it’s a way for me, as a disabled artist, to actually create art again, which feels amazing. That feels promising. That feels like a way to communicate. And I feel like, right now, I need to do anything that improves my daily life. It gives me a platform to talk about my experiences.
It’s up to you how you feel about this. You don’t have to stay if it makes you uncomfortable. But if you are curious, and if you like story prompts, and if you like cute things or spooky things or things that just don’t really make sense but are kind of cool, then welcome. We’re gonna have a good time.
