AN ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE "ART" ADVENTURE OF HUMANS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The concept of "art" is the field of creativity, the only feature of being human. As the artistic prowess of Artificial intelligence emerges in a fast-moving world, it raises questions we've never encountered before about what it means to be "human". What kind of a period will "art", which is the result of human concepts such as existence, society, communication, subconscious, emotions, imagination, intuition, love, sensitivity, dream, originality and of course, creativity, enter into a period with Artificial intelligence (AI)? With its revolutionary technology that will change production, thinking, lifestyles and the future, will artificial intelligence, which is designed to replace people in other fields of activity, be more creative than humans in the field of art and reach the competence to challenge the artist?

According to Hegel, art carries the spirit of the artist, who is transferred to matter and likens matter to himself. Well, since the products created by machines without a soul today are not generated by an artist, can they carry spirit and meaning?

For years, computer technology has already made an impact and contribution to visual arts with image technologies such as vector, bitmap, 3D, CGI as a tool that creates, processes and changes the image. Today, many smart image generators such as Stable Diffusion, DALL-E, Craiyon, Midjourney, Nightcafe Ai, etc. are software systems that can statistically evaluate themselves over large datasets containing millions of images, train themselves, and produce new images that are not included in the original dataset. Not just images, AI is already being used in other branches of the arts to create music, poetry, sculpture, stories, articles and films.

There are many new questions and concepts such as whether the products created by a system that has human skills but is not human are real works of art, whether programmers and machines will be accepted as artists, whether AI products can be included in the broad and general definition of art. Although there are objections, acceptances, doubts, different opinions, it has been met with great interest by the majority.

First of all, it is necessary to talk about the concepts of “Art” and “Artist”. In its most general definition, art is a reflection of the human mind and cultural evolution, an expression of creativity, way of thinking and imagination. The artist, on the other hand, is the one who makes art with the awareness of "being human", humanizes and shapes life, and realizes the phenomenon of art with action. The artist combines facts with aesthetic elements from a different point of view and records them in social memory. Behind his creative works lie deep stories of man, his age and society. He uses his imagination, patience, enthusiasm and self-sacrificing efforts to embed his passions, memories, dreams, imaginary and abstract ideas, symbols, philosophy and his inner world, the dynamics of the era and society he lives in, with aesthetic expressions. The process of creating the artist's art is complex and difficult, while filtering everything he is affected by and incorporating it into his works. He feels both sadness and happiness most deeply, and experiences his anxiety and pleasure at the highest level.

Art originates from life and human beings and belongs to humans. “Art is an object made by man for man. “ (E.H.Gombrich, The Story of Art) This is a very accurate definition and “Art” is based on a human-made phenomenon that takes its source from the human artist and seeks meaning with its historical, social accumulation and imagination; existence occurs in the unity of human, artist, meaning, aesthetic object and aesthetic taste. In this respect, there is a deep bond of existence between man, art and work of art that complements each other.

The artist searches for the meanings behind artistic intentions and desires and vital phenomena. Since AI is not a living, emotional being, it lacks imagination, the reality of its external world, and the qualities of being human. Unfortunately, those who claim in advance that the products of AI are art, underestimate the artist who realizes the thousands-year-old deep source of art and the artistic production process, and find it unnecessary to question the artist's effort and necessity. Decisions made by those who do not know the depth of the creative process, without entering the enthusiastic world of an artist, are in favor of accepting and affirming AI products without questioning them. We see that the capitalist world, which wants to benefit from the stimulating effect of the trade created by AI products, has great expectations to use this situation in its favor and turn it into money.

The production process of AI is formed by the combination of computer, programmer, data, algorithm, output, aesthetic taste of the receptive subject. Since AI does not perform its actions by focusing on aesthetic values, aesthetic harmony and meaning, the output it produces is only a sensory, aesthetic value uncertain, non-essential, formal object. Because it lacks the subjective point of view and the values of the special creation process in the mind of an artist. The software, which does not take its source from the human mind, does not have emotions, and produces from ready-made data, has the potential to produce likeable outputs. It can even produce outputs, albeit rare, that, by chance, can give aesthetic pleasure and cause emotional and artistic excitement in people. Again, it is the receptive subject himself who adds artistic value to such an output with his artistic disposition, education and dreams. Because, while the output is devoid of a communication basis, an expression to be conveyed and has no artistic value, the perception style, psychological orientation and point of view of the receptive subject who establishes the communication raise the output to the value of an object that gives aesthetic pleasure. The receptive subject participates in the process with its level of perception of the object, aesthetic judgment and creativity, and needs the qualities of its own self and visual capacity. With a subjectivist attitude, he takes the artistic value not from the object but from his own psychology, customizes the object with his own emotions and attributes a meaning to the output. What makes the output of AI valuable is not the qualities of the aesthetic object formed by the activity of an artist, but the way of seeing of the receptive subject.

The work of art is a human creation, the creative subject is the artist. The artist produces by adding meaning to his work, and the visible form has a meaning integrity, a unity of form and content. In his work, the artist formally expresses a reality about life in his work. That is, the meaning is not added after making the work, and the meaning exists as a substance in the mind of the artist before the work takes shape. In the work, the expression to be conveyed without communicating with the receptive subject is already present and ready; all this is hidden in the work as a reality and waits to be seen by a competent receptive subject. This is the process of discovery of the work of a spirit that repeats the aesthetic creation formed in the artist's soul. The receptive subject, who judges the output of artificial intelligence, lacks the pleasure and effort of creating, perceiving and recreating the expression level of the artist, that is, the human being. Because understanding and making sense of a work of art requires an effort like the creativity of the artist.

E.H. “We cannot hope to understand a work of art if we do not have the ability to share that sense of liberation and triumph that the artist has over his finished work,” says Gombrich.

We see that while art is realized with the connection of the artist, the work (aesthetics) and the receptive subject (aesthetic interest), the process in the AI product takes place with the connection of data, algorithm, object (sensory) and receptive subject (aesthetic interest).

Human art is the aesthetic relationship between man and objective reality and includes artistic reality. Its source is life, human, society, created by the artist, it focuses on the whole process and is holistic. It is based on the reproduction of the aesthetic values that the artist brings to the object by the receptive subject, the connections and interaction with the aesthetic judgment. It is directly and tightly connected to human practice, society and social life. The work of art is personal, original, and the artist has a compositional knowledge and skill that will require much more than repetitions, different blending and attachment techniques in AI output. In a way that takes its origins from life and focuses on the soul and meaning, art considers beauty as a unity of values. Like artificial intelligence, it focuses not only on the result, but also on the whole process, and this is what we need to distinguish.

Although AI is capable of creativity, this does not mean that it is an artist. Likewise, neither a programmer nor an algorithm is an artist. Because their production is outside of the vital, emotional, spiritual and meaning integrity we have explained above, they produce automatically and with commands. The algorithm does not create the object by considering artistic values, qualities and concerns, that is, the algorithm is not aware that it is dealing with art, so it is not conscious of reality. It scans the database and generates predictive compositions with the ability to fuse, add, subtract, associate and learn.

AI products can be included in the general definition of art, just as the strange, irresponsible, messy, and careless tendencies of the post-modern period find their place in the art category. But the creation process of AI is automatic and is not identical with human art with its layers of existence; source, formation and result occur in a completely different way. Therefore, it is an imperfect, incomplete and experimental type of art, although it is flamboyant and surprising. With reference to the above explanations, AI art has a non-high quality value.

Based on the context of reality, the search for meaning, the layers of existence and the social source of life, it would be appropriate to call it "Human Art" because it represents human beings, and "Artificial Intelligence Art" because it is created by codes. Because we cannot see artificial intelligence, which enters art as a separate actor, as if it is making productions of the same value as human beings and art. What makes human art valuable is that it tells its own story and the struggle for existence with the accumulation of thousands of years of creation process.

As AI enters more and more scientific, everyday and artistic and human fields, we have to make the rules, boundaries and definitions of human domain, arrangements, positioning and criticisms that include what human being is, to remain "human". The important thing is to create and place concepts that will preserve the depth, value, originality, creativity and freedom of the human domain. While doing this, we should determine the roles by defining the field that artificial intelligence, that is, the machine can have. For this reason, the categorical distinction was made as "Human Art" and "AI Art" because it was based on codes. To make both the same, to say that both achieve similar goals in different ways, is a disrespectful, unfair approach to art and the artist and should be objected to.

Of course, AI will enable artists to create new and original products through collaborative work as a resource to benefit from. With artificial intelligence in artistic creation, the artist can expand his creativity, get inspired, try new things, and also think of artificial intelligence as a collaboration tool. Even if the artist is involved in the creation process of the products created by this collaboration, even if he has the initiative, the use of AI based on the source codes will bring about discussions.

The approach to artificial intelligence products will also mean the sincerity exam of people. The artist and no one should not escape easily, and try to show stolen ideas or directly as his own work. It should not make an effort to reflect worthless products as if they are valuable.

Deciding whether the output has value and the quality of its connection with the art means reaching the big problem area in art. A wide variety of factors should be taken into account while making an aesthetic interpretation. Knowing who the work belongs to is also a factor that will affect our decision. Interpreting a work that is not clear by whom it was generated may cause exaggeration or vice versa, underestimation and incompleteness. Evaluating an object as artistic and beautiful is relative (apart from reconciliation with assumptions that make aesthetic judgment general and based on common feeling) and is difficult, but this is a mysterious and normal state of art. 

Artificial intelligence will be an encouraging and supportive force with its ease not only for artists, but for everyone. In addition, the copyright problem of the entries that make up the database should be solved, and the rights of the artist and everyone else who does not want to be in the database should be respected.

It should never be forgotten that; The importance of painters and painting did not decrease with the invention of photography, the transformation of smart phones into talented cameras did not turn everyone into a photographer, AI cannot turn anyone into miraculous and fantastic artists, nor transfer talents.

While the subject is being discussed, painting is generally focused on because of its popularity. But how do we react when AI produces an image with details and visual quality indistinguishable from a real photograph? Especially when we compare it with documentary photography, the situation will become more complicated. At this stage, the values shaped in our aesthetic, emotional and imaginary world, which we judge the paintings, will not be enough. We will need to ask whether the photograph is based on objective reality, and we will build our judgmental values after the definition of reality. Because, as a document, that photograph is real, it reflects the state of the world while connecting the lived past to the future, it has a place and a story, it is direct, it is a human and social memory and transfers it to other generations. The photograph created by AI has no story, it only depicts unreal scenes with automatic editing, and the composition is created only with the ability to imitate. Such a photograph will not go beyond an image that only arouses technical admiration before the viewer. For this reason, I think that unmanipulated and documentary photography will become more valuable in the future. Because it will never lose its value as a tool that reflects reality and directly reflects events.

Can you consider William Turner's painting "The Slave Ship" separately from the historical, social, reality of the outside world and the dynamics of the artist's inner world? This painting is not just a painting, it is a work that has meanings far beyond the painting. Now let's imagine that a similar picture is generated by artificial intelligence. Even if pictorial values, light and composition are used appropriately, what historical, artistic, cultural, emotional value can it have? In other words, in the background of art, there are stories of life and a context, while artificial art has nothing to tell, it is a storyless phenomenon that is disconnected from the context of reality, as a product of a system under the control of virtual codes, and has no history.

In today's society, communication habits have changed, the world of possibilities has grown, and even magicalized. AI "image generators" give everyone the opportunity to be creative, and thanks to their amazing ability, they make this experience available to millions of people. Even a child who has learned to read and write can accidentally create remarkable products in front of his computer. It does not make anyone who can write keywords to the computer and who does not have artistic personality and creativity an artist and does not include them in art. Millions of people are attracted to this attractive game without age limit and are entertained by its amazing and strange results, as if they have achieved a magical power. It is more accurate to call them "experimental participants". It is a fact that outliers, complex, uncertain, surreal, mystical, imagination-stimulating images attract a lot of attention. Friedrich Schiller and his theory that art is a game come to mind. But in his theory, Schiller meant real art. Besides, art is a much more complex phenomenon than play.

Although the outputs are strange, unencountered, interesting and attractive, as they multiply uncontrollably in the internet environment, they have a high potential to turn into habitual, valueless, artificial, ordinary objects.

It is human beings who will stand against the destructiveness of technology and protect humanity. Being human, despite your shortcomings, is unique. Do we have the human intelligence, virtue, honesty, will, courage and plan to use the future to be a better human being “together” and to create a world based on beauty and equality? While AI becomes human, we never want a role change where people become automatic, ineffective and robotic.

Man interprets and makes sense of life with his art, resists against time, and transfers his relationship with life to the art environment in freedom with his searches and discoveries. Art is formed in reality through "labor" by the artist. All innovations and technological changes should never be allowed to trivialize art and artists. Because AI lacks human touch and love.

Einstein said, "The criterion of being intelligent is not knowledge but imagination," and reconciling human imagination with intelligence.

 

Akil Alparslan

01 2023