AIDVERTISING
Advertisements from an artificial dimension.
“When people are ready to, they change.” — Andy Warhol.
Since the release of multiple AI tools such as ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, there has been a tidal wave of opinions washing over media channels, which have been polarizing, to say the least. Fear of the unknown is a strong motivator for unfounded accusations and preconceived defenses by the old guard.
As an artist with a background in advertising, I freely admit that when I saw what these programs could do for the very first time, my stomach turned at the thought of my immediate replacement. The results were stunning and yet awe-inspiring.
One of my functions as a creator is to explain what’s in my head and heart in a concise way to people who may have yet to see what I’ve produced or will produce. To gain the ability to envision something I can see clearly in my mind, I essentially give them prompts to trigger a material vision in their minds stemming from their own memories and experiences.
AI programs work in a similar fashion. They take in prompts and attempt to formulate a picture that is materialized from a massive database of information created by humankind. The current state of this technology may possibly be construed as an archaic model of the mind in some respects.
To produce my work, I use various tools at my disposal that save time, energy, and allow for more freedom of expression. However, as I explored the utilization of these programs in my own workflow, especially Midjourney, I began to see the limitations of what my imagined expectations were and came to the realization that my initial gut-punch of fear was nothing more than that — an apocalyptic scenario that didn’t exist thus far.
Beyond hearsay insinuations of stolen art or text to fuel the databases these programs use, we must understand that as sensorial beings, we too have taken in data since the formation of our bodies and minds — memories consisting of electricity to formulate and produce artistic creations. That is what being a creator is. The major difference is that we have the ability now to do so at our volition while machines do not unless we command it.
For the 10th anniversary edition of FOMA (Fear of Missing Art) Magazine, I created a series of advertisements for products that don’t exist, or may so in another dimension. I have dubbed these ‘AIdvertisements’ as they were, in part, created using new AI technology. Humbled by my past employment and simply thinking about society and consumerism, I wanted to produce a collection of humorous and possibly questionable pieces of art as a kind of spin on what used to be a serious job for me.
One of my goals was to befriend the idea of using AI, so to manifest these pages, I acted as a ‘Prompt Director.’ I like the sound of director rather than the popular title ‘engineer,’ as I feel as though I’m directing an entity rather than programming it to produce something. I first sketched out some ideas using the ancient tools known as pen and paper, and then proceeded to use Midjourney, crafting prompts to generate imagery. The images took many iterations of refinement, sometimes hours to produce what I wanted to land on. When I was happy with an image, I then used an AI generator to ‘up’ the resolution if necessary. From there, I took the images into a layout program called InDesign and designed the ads by writing copy and producing the final layout.
In advertising and furthermore, in some aspects of art, there is a sense of emotion created from nothing, or rather a false sense of emotion by the imagery, sound, and messaging being strategically projected toward the viewer. Emotion being an intrinsic part of humanity, regarding the creation of these AIDVERTAISMENTS, I came to the conclusion that the fearful idea that a human hand has no place in the world of artificial intelligence is a rather narrow way of looking at this technology. Furthermore, the imagery that was produced would not have existed if not for my thoughtful direction and, moreover, any emotional reaction they may induce.
In conclusion, as we’ve now come across this fork in the road, these tools are simply the next in a long line of past, present, and future “nexts” we will use to craft what is innately human — art.
The full series can be viewed here: https://www.lasergunfactory.com/aidvertising