Art and Creativity: What Will be the Role of Art in an A.I. and Virtual Reality World?

Without much doubt, the world of art is in a constant state of change.

Sometimes I find myself wondering what it will change into.

A few days ago, Apple released their VR/AR headset, allowing people to enter virtual and augmented worlds at a whole new level.

Augmented Worlds

Without a doubt, these augmented worlds we are about to enter will include art and creativity at some level.

But I wonder whether we — the humans — will be doing the creation, or will such details of a virtual landscape be automatically generated by AI?

Not calling either way a "good" or a "bad" thing, merely exploring the possibilities.

How will the roles of "art" and "creativity" change?

As people, will the creative types still be driven by the need to explore creative expression at our own hand, or will more and more grow content with the idea of simply telling some future iteration of Midjourney to "paint me a picture of a dog sitting next to a basket of flowers?"

In other words, will we gradually detach from the whole idea of "hands-on?"

Again, not trying to make a value judgment as to the goodness or badness of it, simply exploring the changing landscape of what it means to be a creative and artistic human being.

As a photographer, I know that a major part of photography involves "seeing with my own eyes" rather than just bringing a finished image to the world. The experience of seeing matters.

As such, there is little doubt that the natural world will certainly continue to play a significant part in some forms of creative expression.

But what about those who simply create abstractions out of their inner worlds? Assuming that we may not be far from a reality in which we will be able to directly "upload" thought patterns, will we choose to simply forego the tactile part of the process and just let our thoughts and visions be expressed by some device capable of reproducing our inner imagination in a shared visual experience?

Certainly interesting to think about...

Someone once asked me how I "see" art; particularly three-dimensional art, and one of the things I realized is that the tactile experience is a very important part of it.

What I "look" at a wooden or bronze sculpture (for example), I often find myself wanting to touch it, in order to fully appreciate its creation.

I wonder how that will translate, in a virtual world where the item I am "looking" at doesn't actually exist, other than as a set of coded instructions?

Will it seem lacking, of will Virtual Reality open us up to a completely new and different realm of touch and engagement with art objects?

I know some talk about the idea of literally walking into a painting... but let's consider something like a wooden bowl, turned from the burl root of a tree. Will we be able to engage all our senses the same way on its virtual equivalent?

Or are those experiences not even comparable?

This is as much a "Thought Exercise," as anything... just exploring a topic I find pretty fascinating!

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment, if you feel so inclined!

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