Introducing: Alex / Dash.
Dash is a Canadian communications professional who is passionate about Japanese history.
Inspired by Time in Japan
Alex shares, “my interest in Japanese history stems from my working in Japan for a number of years. I am fascinated by the people and events that helped forge the nation and national identity.”
You can see the influence in some of Dash’s posts on Instagram, like the one below, which is captioned with a note about the Battle of Sekigahara.
“I currently use Midjourney,” Dash says. “I’m very interested in learning some of the AI text-based tools. They’re a way to explore new and emerging technologies.”
“The tools also provide me an ability to create what I could otherwise not create,” Dash says. “I’d like to learn different styles of art so I can see what’s possible with these new tools.”
Dash isn’t the only one.
When we spoke to over 50 generative artists in December of 2022, we discovered that most of them are excited to learn more about art. Generative tools popped the cork on a number of human’s latent creativity.
Still, Dash was forthcoming with an understanding of concerns, fears, and insecurities of various industry professionals.
From Another Lens
Dash has family who have worked for a long time in the video game industry, and shared some more philosophical discussion on the matter of generative art.
“It’s a fascinating and exciting area of technology, but I see and understand the double-edge to it. How will this impact people’s jobs? Is it hurting artists? These tools certainly have the potential to empower, but there are concerns about the impact on various sectors. As a straight-forward example, pre-production designers who create art to help filmmakers, show producers, and game producers are likely to be affected by the new technology. Tools like ChatGPT are fascinating too but concerns about literacy and academic content are already echoing in the halls of academia.”
We ran a test on ChatGPT earlier and asked for a blurb supported by a scholarly source. Then we asked ChatGPT if it was accurate when we struggled to find the sources it had identified.
Honesty is the best policy… right?
Philosophy and Discussion
We’re comfortable with using the term generative art to describe the type of work people are doing with the tools.
We’re also comfortable with others sharing diverging perspectives, especially when they’re asking great questions that inspire thoughtful responses.
“There’s a lot of creativity when it comes to generative art, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable calling AI-based content creators—artists,” says Dash. “As I see it, any bridge between AI content creators and ‘artists’ is a question of definition. It’s a new realm with new possibilities so we really first need to define what is an artist. Is art only conceptual? Is art physical labor from a human being? How do we define art? How do we define artists?”
These questions have plagued mankind for centuries—what is, or isn’t art?
We’ve invited Dash and other great minds to join us in discussing the philosophy of art in the coming weeks/months. We’re excited to dig deeper into this topic and share our thoughts and perspectives, but we want to make sure we keep these pieces focused on the individual subjects.
Creative Ebb and Flow
“I’ve learned that I go through waves of creativity, then dry spells, then waves again,” he says. “Ultimately, I’m looking forward to having fun with the tools.”
“The nature of generative content is evolving quickly and with it, the ability to do a lot of things.”
GET-A-PROMPT
winter view, shinjuku, at night, sharp focus, high quality, realistic, photographed on grainy medium format Kodak Portra 800 film SMC Takumar 105mm f/2.8 c 50
This prompt was built with —v 4 in mind for Midjourney, we love playing around with prompts in other generators, too, to see how the output compares.
Follow along Dash’s journey on Instagram.
Another great post, and an interesting perspective on generative art.
I believe that the written word is an art form. For me, the images I create are an extension of my written art. I see them as part of that art. But I get Dash's perspective as well.