We are Angry at The Wrong People
A.I. art won first prize at a privileged art contest, and the crowd is furious. NFT bro burns ten-million Frida Kalo sketch — what an unforgivable crime. Climate protestors defile master paintings in museums to create controversy, and a few of us thought: what a pity that hurting people is illegal.
But what if I tell you we’re all yelling at the wrong people?
Don’t get me wrong. I am as furious as you’re at the fact such absurdity is happening. Nonetheless, should we regard these incidents as individual misfortunes, or an institutional failure (if not our failure at a species level)? Do these (and many others yet known to us) not indicate a disrespect for artistic excellence and craftsmanship in general?
In my previous essay about A.I. art, I made a clear statement that A.I. is nothing but another tool that brings artists more possibilities. And that statement remains valid. The tools are not what’s driving non-AI artists into a corner: just like the generated images didn’t nominate themselves the award.
If anything, we should be more concerned by the pathetic fact that the juries and judges at an art competition failed to properly evaluate the artistic value behind an A.I. generated conceptual sketch vs. that of a piece of art demonstrating the artist’s knowledge, ideas, and craftsmanship, which inevitably casts light onto another problem:
The majority of our population has lost their art appreciation ability.
It’s not like A.I. art and NFT bros are the first thing that slapped diligent, hardworking artists who actually dedicated themselves to advancing their techniques and artistic abilities. What is the difference between a self-proclaimed A.I. artist and someone who throws paint onto a canvas and calls it an abstract painting? And what is the difference between the judge who lets a computer program wins the award, and the audience who chases after those paint-throwers like they’re kings and queens?
Let’s face it. On a large scale, our population has lost the ability to tell good art from bad ones. Those who do possess critical eyes are often too afraid to bring up the conversation.
But here’s the problem:
Everyone is an artist. But there are still good and bad artists. The moment we refuse to identify the betters, the more advanced, the further developed, the finer crafted, the moment we set ourselves up for idiocy.
And an idiocratic society is destined to create arrogant morons, oblivious tyrants, and entitled bullies.
So let’s face it.
NFT bros aren’t the problem. The problem is the lacking of the ability to show art respect.
Protestors aren’t the problem. The problem is the absence of fear and guilt that should have stopped anyone from destroying a master painting that survived through centuries of turmoil.
A.I. artists aren’t the problem. The problem is how we all so shamelessly claim ourselves to be artists, writers, and visionaries.
We sow the seeds of ignorance and disrespect. Now, we are harvesting the venomous fruit they grew.
