Week 3 Blog

Au Vo 

DESMA 9 

Dr. Vesna

19 April 2024

Week 3 Blog: Art and Innovation

Industrialization, the modernization and wide-scale development of a region through technological innovations, has been a fascinating topic in the arts. Walter Benjamin discusses this topic and gives his thoughts in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” He provides a framework to understand the social and cultural impact of industrialization, especially its impact on art (Benjamin 2). He argues that industrialization and mechanical productions strip art of its authenticity (Benjamin 3). An article in Obelisk Art History elaborates on this, asserting that industrialization also changes the lens in which society views art, making it more abundant and integrated into daily life but less revered like in traditional times (Obelisk).

A cinematic exploration that captures these views is Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times.” In this film, the main character’s struggles in a rapidly industrializing world are documented. It critiques the dehumanizing effects of factory work and mass production. In doing so, the film parodies industrialization’s effect on art, highlighting that technology removes human nature from art and makes it drab and machine-like. 

Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin

                                                       

        Fast forward to today, we are noticing a similar shift in innovation and art. This time with artificial intelligence. In an article on AI, it is noted that AI is not creative, but can be used to “automate tasks that are not creative” (Chatterjee). This leads to a problem, where AI and other technologies can churn out artwork that have little to no character. This art is not only bland, but it compromises the longstanding creative integrity of art and artists that have stood for eons. For example, this AI artwork below is awfully similar to Van Gogh's starry night and adds little to no artistic creativity and flair to it.

        Unfortunately, this blandness and lack of creativity has become the norm in an art world dominated by technology and artificial intelligence. Yes, there is contemporary art that is creative and worthwhile, but the majority of artistic outputs now have been dulled by technological innovation. The creative and artistic process has been reduced to artificial intelligence aided artwork that speeds up the input to output process. It leads to "artwork" like the piece below.

        This "art piece" generated by artificial intelligence has become commonplace as it is quick and easy to make something like this. However, artificial intelligence and technological innovation represents the slow death of longstanding artistic processes if there are no rules and boundaries formed. 

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Counterflow Distro,
2023. 

“Charlie Chaplin - Factory Scene - Modern Times (1936).” YouTube, YouTube, 4 Feb. 2019,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n9ESFJTnHs. 

Chatterjee, Anjan. “Art in an Age of Artificial Intelligence.” Frontiers in psychology, November 30,
    2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9749485/.

“Industrial Revolution.” Obelisk Art History,
www.arthistoryproject.com/timeline/industrial-revolution/. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024. 

Schneider, Tim. “The Gray Market: How Christie’s so-Called ‘ai-Generated’ Art Sale Proves
That Records Can Distort History (and Other Insights).” Artnet News, 3 Dec. 2020,
news.artnet.com/art-world-archives/gray-market-obvious-portrait-1381798. 

“Without Rules, Ai-Generated Art Paints a Grim Picture for Artists: The Asahi Shimbun:
Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis.” The Asahi Shimbun, 12 July 2023,
www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14938694.