Technology in Service to Art

Here are some patterns I’ve observed based on more than six decades of lived experience and scholarship. I’ll spare you my full CV; details are available to the curious.

Humans don’t completely abandon any technology, ever. What many call obsolete, others keep as hobbies. If you enjoy scratching soot ink onto mulberry bark with a flint-sharpened crow quill pen, be my guest. Whatever feeds your artistic hunger or enables your flow state.

Technology has always served art. Vivid colors, stable inks, finer paper or fabric, durable nibs and brushes, tougher cutting edges; every advance is turned to creating more and better art.

Trying to ban a new technology is futile. You can’t keep artists from trying new tools and materials, or from creating new forms.

No one can reliably predict how artists will use a new technology. Especially the inventor! Edison initially thought motion pictures would be used primarily for education.

Early adopters will make mistakes, try blind alleys, and save the rest of our species from suffering the same losses, if we pay attention and keep honest records.

Artists and technologists and critics and cultural gatekeepers have always engaged in spirited debate about anything and everything. Sometimes about the art; often about the persons. Such drama!

Civilized discussion and free exchange of ideas are good for everyone. Ad hominem attacks are uncivilized. Although the argument can be made that incisive satire is a valid art form. Snark is fun! It’s also useful to remember that we are primates, and when we ignore our more evolved mental faculties we display lower primate behaviors, e.g., hurling feces doesn’t get you the sweetest fruit.

Technology, like “fire and water are good servants but evil masters.” AI has already done good things. Protein folding. Math proofs. Engineering optimization. Some people are using AI to do bad things. Don’t give those people your money. Also, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because it’s been used by evil people doesn’t mean the tool itself is evil, or that it has no good uses, or that all who use it are bad.

Democratization of technology is good. Regular people using it means more voices, more perspectives, more art. Embrace the complexity and nuance.

The greatest single innovation in the service of art in the past half-century is the Undo function. Ctrl-z, Cmd-z, whatever. Shortens feedback loop, encourages experimentation, speeds learning. Writing, drawing, painting, sculpture, musical composition, architecture, filmmaking; any art with a digital form has been accelerated by the use of Undo. The faster the iteration, the more experimentation, the more refined and effective the finished work can be, as long as taste and judgment are exercised by the artist throughout the process. Just try to take this power away from an artist who has used it. Go ahead, I dare you.

Inventors, innovators, and early adopters are often vilified by detractors. Reactionaries. Vested interests. Unevolved. Neurologically challenged. Born that way, or developed over time. Ick.

Hindsight generally makes fun of naysayers, reactionaries, and know-nothings. If you don’t want to look a fool, restrict your public statements to those things of which you have either personal knowledge or a rigorous basis for extrapolations. Your gut feelings may simply be indigestion.

If you want to be on the right side of history, here is an approach you might consider:

Keep an eye on the early adopters. When they report a successful experiment, look into the details. If it appears that it might benefit your specific situation, try it, cautiously. Assess the results honestly. Consider sharing your experiences.

Don’t tar with a sloppy brush. AI is a pretty wide umbrella term, and it’s being misused and abused by a lot of people. The more precise your use of labels, the more useful your contributions to the debate.

Frontier AI is expensive, powerful, centralized, proprietary, hyped, and subject to government restrictions. Caution is advised.

One step back from the frontier is a range of AI options that are much cheaper, nearly as powerful, decentralized, open source, thoroughly documented, and well on their way to being democratized. They are already very difficult to eradicate.

I predict: Many working artists using AI will eventually choose to step back from the frontier platforms. Some artists will choose to build (or have others build for them) their own AI stacks. This will be no more remarkable than is using a suite of creative apps today.

The artists who blaze the trails for others will be fondly remembered. The naysayers will be forgotten, or remembered primarily in punchlines.

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