The computers are an integral part of our lives in practically all facets. And now, when more and more imagery is being produced by them, should we consider them as Art? I am an artist, who aims to work mainly by using nature’s contrasting forces (yin and yang) to create a balanced and harmonious work, through my Sumi-e paintings or drawings. I often wonder if the computers can produce images with the intricate aesthetic expression, that it is expected from fine artwork. With the advancements in technology computers have the ability to program anything, one must even wonder can love be programmed? Or Could a computer create……. a sumi-e painting?
It brings us back to trying to define Art, something that I don’t believe can be truly done. Maybe it is possible to give some description, or a thoughts towards a way of understanding it, but truly defining it?…
One would need to understand what contributes to creating art maybe. We have to realize that if there were no humans, then there would be no art. It is the humans that consider/label anything as Art, no matter how, or by whom it is created, including the computer generated images. That sense of aesthetics is unique only to us, humans.
I think that the computer is another tool for an artist’s expression, like a brush or a canvas. There is always a human/programmer behind the computer, feeding it with some parameters, to comply with human sensibilities. Besides, computers are made by using the brain as a model. There is more to being human though, than the brain, don’t you agree?
I believe that art appreciation comes from somewhere beyond the mind. The more we try to use our logic in understanding it, the more we lose it. There is an ingredient in being human that is beyond rational, therefore beyond the computers, and it is that ingredient that decides what Art and for that matter… Love is…
Can Love be programmed?….
Well, this is one way of looking at it. In my next post, I will try to see from the opposite side…After all, I must have learned something from Tao Te Ching 🙂
It’s hard to define spirit, and I would say that it’s possible, just as anything is possible..to convey or impart spirit to a machine, just as I believe that animals have spirit. And though we may not call them humans, dogs, cats, mice, and yes, even insects and grass and trees possess a kind of spirit that we all call life! So does not the Earth that gives us life also possess life? Even Earth can not impart what it does not have! Perhaps we humans can impart our spirit to machines?
Who’s to say?
The Tao te Ching tells us, ‘the Tao that can be named is not the true Tao’, Yin and Yang, light and dark, high and low. This is the mystery of life, the known and the unknown, the inanimate machine… and just maybe someday, we may see the ‘animate machine’.
The Tao is the known and the unknown or the spirit in the machine, yet to be known. The possibility waiting to emerge from the darkness into the light.
This is the Tao, this is the nature of life, known and unknown spirit, waiting to happen. The spirit in the machine I believe….is ‘waiting!’