Why Make Art when AI can do it for us

A few weeks ago I was downstairs in my studio working on a class I’ve been following about how to construct complex Islamic geometric patterns with nothing but a pencil, compass, and paper. I spent a painstaking hour or two carefully drawing out the lines and putting everything in it’s proper place, getting the piece slowly ready to add color with a very fine paintbrush. I took a break and went upstairs to find my husband and son oooohing and ahhhing over a new AI program they were experimenting with for the first time. In the time that it took me to draw some lines on the paper they had dozens of finished “artworks”, each more stunning than the last. The level of detail, the quality of the color and lighting, the sheer delicious vibe of the pieces was exquisite. They were elated.

I had quite mixed feelings viewing what they had created. On the one hand, sure, it was fun and exciting and beautiful to experiment with typing in some sentences to the AI program and see what amazing images results. There is a whole new frontier of art out there that certainly has its merits. As someone who has put in my time doing painstaking, repetitive, back breaking work in the name of creating something, I can definitely appreciate the appeal of typing in a few words and making a few clicks to come up with a masterpiece that would have otherwise taken countless hours, not to mention skill, to create.

But yet, the whole AI thing makes me feel weird and uneasy, and I went back downstairs to continue my slow form of art, reflecting on why I was doing this when I could just generate the designs in a computer program so much faster….and besides they would end up perfect and probably better than I can do them by hand anyway!

Well, I’ve thought about it a lot and here’s why: because doing it by hand is THE WHOLE POINT. I confess that I get off on being able to make things by hand that requires a lot of attention to detail, patience and skill. There is a certain internal satisfaction in it that is real. The physicality of going through all the motions to make a finished product is vital to my sense of creative well being. And while I may be an old fashioned weirdo who is resisting modern innovation, I know I’m not the only one out there who feels this way.

I would even venture to say that there are those of us out there, myself included, who NEED to keep doing things by hand not just for our own internal sense of accomplishment, but to keep the skills alive in humanity, who is quickly losing the ability to know how to do such things. Sure, I could create stunning geometric designs on the computer. And maybe at some point I will. (I do use computer software to work out my complex woven patterns, and I’m super grateful for the time it saves me.) There isn’t anything intrinsically wrong with that. But I WANT to know how to do it by hand. Somehow it feels so important to not lose the skill and ability to do so. Following in the footsteps of the ancient artists who have been doing it a certain way for hundreds of years makes me feel more connected to one of the main traits that makes humans different from other animals - our ability and drive to make art.

I believe that as humans we all gain satisfaction and pleasure from making things by hand that directly affects our level of happiness and fulfillment in life. Could it be that one of the reasons so many people suffer from a vague sense of anxiety and depression is because we aren’t actively CREATING things like we all used to until recent years?

So while I get it that AI is here to stay and the art (among other things) that will be created will be extraordinary, I’m going to be over here holding the torch of keeping a tiny bit of knowledge alive of how to do things the old fashioned way. Feel free to join me if you’d like.