"Students cheat because the system values a grade more than they value student learning."- Neil deGrasse Tyson
I think art schools should also be thinking about how to prepare students for the real working environment. I'm not sure myself what that environment will look like in 5 years for aspiring artists, the prospect of companies downsizing art teams and using ai instead makes me sad. This isn't the kind of future I want for my daughter, one in which we effectively encourage people not to bother trying to be creative anymore.
Reminds me of when I was learning Spanish and google translate was just getting good. It took a lot of discipline not to just google translate everything.
One of the only student questions I got when reading through my syllabus on the first day of this semester was, "Do you consider AI plagiarism?" I didn't know how to respond because I couldn't wrap my head around why anyone taking the time and spending the money to go to art/design school would want to use AI. I assumed (possibly naively) anyone pursuing a creative path would want to actually create. I hope and believe that the excitement and novelty of all this will wear off quickly for the individuals once they realize that the rewards of making creative work or engaging with it were never about the outward results. Along with a return to real, I hope all of this will drive people toward the kind of work or endeavors that deliver inward results, increase thinking, stimulate growth, etc. If that happens, then there may be some hope that the people, organizations, and corporations that dive head first into all the hype as a shortcut or a means to make a quick buck will either fail or be forced to adjust and do better.
AI art feels like the invention of dynamite. I don’t think we know how powerful it is at the moment and how much it will change the landscape. It’s possible to pull interesting ideas out of it and I am sure it could be a fascinating tool to integrate with craft. What is disheartening to see is how a lot of folks are willing to plug and chug with the program.
I liked your description of the process of sitting down and thinking about the process of making art, then fully partaking in making it. This is something only a teacher or a pro could tell you. The process is the most important part, and it starts before putting brush to canvas/pencil to paper and continues on as the artist works on a piece.
For submitting art to a school just have the students come in and do one life drawing session so the school can take the real art samples and compare the techniques with the submitted portfolio
It's really coming down to what my math teacher used to say, "Show your work".
Interesting take Elliott. The Art Academy of Latvia has been known to have in person exams for their courses. For BA Graphic design course for example there are three tasks: Classical drawing, 2D composition task (poster) and a 3D composition task (sculpture). Then there’s also a portfolio review and an interview. Quite a tricky one.
There are likely talented young artist that have grown up using only a tablet or computer and may be completely blindsided by a rising demand for physical media. I hope teachers and mentors can help yong artist navigate this monumental change in the art world.
In the university where I'm currently teaching in (Aalto ARTS, Finland), we have ba applicants send in a digital work on the basis of which around 90 are invited to campus for a 3-day entrance exam, where they work under supervised conditions and turn in original work. Around 30 are then accepted into the programme based on the exam + an interview. It's not a perfect system — it tends to favour people with strong painting skills over analytic/typographic skills — but at least we get to see work we know for certain was produced by the applicants.
We asked for Artificial Intelligence but all we got was Artificial Creativity.
I’m joining an art program next year (because AI be damned I wanna do it, even if it’s not for a career) and their policy on AI is that, if it’s caught being used, it results in an instant expulsion, which is pretty neat since it’s easy to tell if it’s ai
We had no Art program at my high school. Just an Art class. Great teacher. He did the best he could with the limited supplies we had. Literally an art closet with old art supplies. We had to dig to find a tube of paint that wasn't dried out. A lot of Rubber Cement. Probably killed a few brain cells there.
Everyone thinks ai is a silly toy or they’re concerned about the impact of the current versions. But almost no one realizes how fast this is going to advance. It’s like worrying about the impact of a single asteroid when there 1,000,000 asteroids behind it
I hope all of this AI stuff makes everyone reflect and discover what is really important to them, something beyond even the deep patterns of productivity that we lived for until now.
In the past, I’ve been criticized by other collegues for sticking to traditonal art instead of doing digital Illustration (think basically your generic “videogame character concepts” you see on DeviantArt & Artstation). This is probably the only instance in my life where I’m glad I was stubborn enough to never shift fully into digital means. Though I feel bad because I know so many people that are primarly way too dependent on digital tools. Can't either even draw in paper or haven't done so in years. Is there any way those people can still “make it”?
I think it's not so hard to determine if the work is their own. Have them interview, on video, if not in person, and have them present their three best works. If they can't discuss or answer questions about their motivation/process/technique, etc. it's probably not their work.
There's an easy solution to this problem: Interviews. Preferably in-person. Pick an image from their submitted portfolio, and ask them why it's good. If they can defend the piece in depth without the use of chatGPT, it means they have the understanding to back up their creative process. And if they do, it doesn't really matter if their piece was made using AI or not. The difference between a good photographer and a bad one is not their gear, but their understanding of what makes a good photo. It's the same with art. In the end, it's all about communication and culture, not technical skill or even mastery of compositional concepts. It's about conveying an idea, emotion, concept etc. Everything else is just a set of useful tools to reach that end. I think the whole AI-revolution is doing the artworld and creative fields in general some good. It makes us realize what art and culture is all about. It's not about peacocking over who can make the prettiest, most polished piece. It's about communication between people, our cultural identities, sharing of ideas... that's how I see it anyways.
@AimbotFreak