The Art of Expression (and how to annoy other artists)

Should art as a form of self-expression have limits and if so, what are they? This week, I discovered that using AI generated images calls into question everything else you do in the eye of 'traditional' artists. Advertising these posts in someone's Discord channel quickly showed the art of expression certainly has limits and can easily annoy other artists. Let's have an unreasonable debate...

I recently left a Discord server after I was criticised for sharing my blog posts there. It wasn't the content of the writing, I didn't think I was being controversial, and I certainly wasn't attacking anything the discord server stood for - or so I thought. It turns out that the AI generated art I pop at the top of all my posts was seen as a 'kick in the teeth' to all the artists gathered there. True, it was a Discord server primary dedicated to the owner's art and Twitch output, but there was also a channel for the written word, so I thought I was in safe territory, especially as the art is always clearly declared as AI generated and, along with suggested music tracks, are an adornment to the blog piece and not the star of the show, so to speak.

The Discord group owner and I had met tangentially through playing Elite:Dangerous, and they're a fine artist - their streams were always one that I loved to have on while I was playing games or making jewellery. So it was a bit of a shock to me when I was confronted. Apart from the aforementioned bodily assault the images invoked it also, in their eyes, called into question whether my words were AI generated. It was suggested that their validity would not be questioned if I attached a photo taken by my own hand. I must admit, with a history of finding conflict excruciatingly painful and depressing, I did the only rational thing and, after posting a comment, left the server. Of course, I am now kicking myself from running from the debate and you, dear reader, get to read through it instead. You're welcome.

Threatening behaviour

There are a couple of things to unpack from the comments I received. When initially worrying I was being too thin-skinned in my reaction, it didn't occur to me that the same could be said of those taking offence to an art adornment to my written piece. Were the commenters so lacking in confidence about their own ability that a blog shared by someone looking for engagement in a safe space was seen as an existential threat? These posts are created as a form of online therapy for me, and are much cheaper than paying to sit on a chair, opposite a silent, notepad wielding vessel full of other people's trauma. The idea that my creating a specific AI image once a fortnight, or once a week at most, to adorn my online rambling poses any kind of threat to artists is a little baffling to me. While I understand the leap to questioning if my writing was also AI generated, to a certain extent, it was lazy, unfair and was done without any attempt to engage me. I did something they didn't like, so better to burn down everything associated with me - that's the internet way. It certainly seems much easier, these days, to question a whole persons identity and motives based on one point of disagreement rather than being able to hold two equally valid opinions in your head at the same time.

The art included in all my posts are generated using the Surreal Graphics Generator by Deepai - I use the freemium plan and don't pay for it. The model was created by two tech entrepreneurs in California and while I know nothing of them, my first instinct would be that it was probably a financial rather than artistic endeavour (as a private company, I couldn't find any details on their profitability). Attempting to make money by scraping images of other people's art is what, I suspect, is so contentious about my use of it in that Discord channel though, as an adornment to the main content rather the focus of my posts, I feel the digital rotten tomato throwing was a bit much. Take the image at the top of this post. I have created it using a convoluted text prompt, downloaded it, signed it, marked it as AI generated and stuck it on here, to complement the basis of this article. I am not selling it, and like ANY image on the internet since the internet was a thing, it can be screen captured, downloaded, set as a wallpaper or manipulated and sold. It's been a human behaviour since the printing press was invented and, in my time, manifested itself as bootleg tapes of concerts, Limewire and any number of cracked warez sites. Art is not the only victim on the internet, especially when it is used to make money, and strikes at the heart of an age-old debate....

What is art?

For me, art is a personal means of expression. A way of telling stories in song, paint, images (still and moving) and words to name but a few. I usually craft my blog posts in my favourite café, watching the world go by. Trying to craft the right word structure to get my ideas out into a generative AI piece is my preferred artistic approach and part of my writing process - it completes the triangle for me of image, music and words. I am also acutely aware that posting any of my pieces on the internet is, by default, sharing it with the world and as soon as I hit send, I have very little control on what happens to it afterwards. Anyone can copy my piece, rehash it and sell it as an article for money if they like - I might be flattering myself to think any of it is worth that - but I accept this as a limitation of internet use. The heart of the actual problem, as with many things, is money.

There are two sides to this - the idea of losing money because someone directly copies your art and makes money by fraudulently selling it as their own, often for a much cheaper price (hello Temu!). Then there is the idea of someone claiming your idea/style as their own - the work might not be identical, but they've been heavily influenced by your output. As a tool, AI straddles both these concerns, being trained on images scraped from the internet, often without the permission of the creators themselves. If tools, such as Deepai.org have a subscription service to make profit, then this becomes morally questionable. I acknowledge this, will never pay for such a service, and won't be particularly fazed if the tool vanishes because nobody is paying for it to run. Morally, my position isn't anywhere near a high ground, more like a realistic, nonchalant seat halfway up morality mountain. I don't use the images I generate through AI for profit and never will, though I wonder what the objecting artists I encounter would think of me hand copying an AI image I created and selling it, much as an artist arranges found objects for a still life image?

The idea of profiting from someone else's work using AI tools ties in to the next point - claiming someone else's idea/style as your own. Take the image attached to this post as an example - I created the image a few weeks ago and before publishing this article I Google Image searched it. The image wasn't recognised, but it suggested Escher images as a saimilar interest. Concerned, I scanned through Escher's catalogue and was relieved to see the image wasn't a clear replication of any of their work. The style is definitely similar but, in my opinion, too comical and immature to be mistaken for anything they have produced. While ameliorating my conscience, it also demonstrates another concern of artists - in scraping artists work to create new pieces, it dilutes and simplifies their original creation, pumping out quickly created and weak look-alikes of their work. Whilst I have some sympathy with this argument, I find it to be a tad naïve and almost narcissistic. When something is so subjective, no art is truly original. Putting your art on the internet for all to click while expecting it to remain ring-fenced and un fettered, doubly so. True quality art will win out any day versus the AI content I create as a backdrop to my posts.

The best defence an artist has against their art being commandeered to train AI tools is not to put it on the internet at all. Simple. If you view your creative process as sacred and original, then dedicate your life to perfecting it and displaying it offline. My own experience of making silver jewellery is that I sell 100% more in face-to-face interactions and won't make orders for commission - each piece is unique and that's the way I like it. It's a side hustle (I work full-time) but while taking inspiration from others, what I create is unique within the parameters of being a ring, pendant or ear-rings. If an artist wants to sell their work online then there are measures they can take to combat the scrapers from good old watermarking to low-rez images, CSS image obfuscation and editing the robot.txt file. If you are pursuing art as a financial endeavour, you need to invest to protect your work, but as soon as it is out there, it's inevitable that someone will take inspiration from it, especially if it 'goes viral'.

A vivid example of this in the jewellery making world was one maker on Instagram who crafted rings adorned with solid silver casts of their kissing lips - after a few months, they removed the line from their account, acknowledging that someone else had been inspired to produce and sell items that were very similar. Which of the artists came up with the idea first, I do not know, but that's the risk associated with using the internet to promote your endeavours. A quick Google search shows a number of retailers selling similar products - did they inspire the maligned artist or is it fairer to assume that, on a planet of billions of people, it's extremely difficult to have an original idea? We can all be inspired by our bodies, pets, partners and lived experience. We can all paint abstract creations based on our home landscape or renown places of natural beauty. We can all pour our thoughts and feelings into words. We are all inquisitive and creative creatures looking for the best way to get from the cradle to grave - sneering at someone's creative endeavours because they differ in method and purpose from your own is a sad reflection of the commodification of everything that defines the communication age.

So, time to work on that conflict avoidance and hit send. Go create without fear, ghosties 👻

#art #AI #blog #opinion #individualism