A Reflection Of Nature

Finn Mayeux and Trevor McDonald

A Painting I Made I Guess

Finn Mayeux

The Mind in the Machine

Final Review | 2.3.23



Reflection paper

Finn Mayeux

     Joining the studio for the first day, I was fatigued already with the buzz on AI art. At the time it seemed like an automatic collage creator or a simple solution. I only now have a more technical understanding of the AI art process, but my view is still negative.  While debating and really taking time to think, my thoughts are now more about the lack of beauty or ethics in the art that AI creates, which are far removed from the anxious or threatening first impressions. While sometimes you aren't able to tell the difference between AI art and real art, I still can't feel intense emotions towards an AI-created image. I feel the lack of time, thought, life experience, and effort makes the image feel empty or ghostly. Even modern or abstract art, which I don't usually understand or like, is still recognizable to me as so wholeheartedly human. Some artist cared enough to take the time to make it or put any sort of thought into it. AI is told to create and what to create, and it does it. That is all.

      AI was probably least utilized in my project in comparison to other projects from this studio. Even using it for visual inspiration felt wrong to me. I considered maybe if I prompted it to make a painting like what I was imagining, It would look better than anything I could put on paper solely from my mind. The AI has a better understanding of color theory, composition, and maybe aesthetic appeal too. So why risk making an image that might make me lose motivation? 

     If I use AI art in my future at all, I cannot imagine myself using it for anything I deem as important. For instance, I would use it to generate a fantasy city for a DND session, to get the players to understand the area and the vibe. I would NOT use AI to generate inspiration for my own art or projects. I feel as though that would take the fun out of it for me because I care about creations. I do not, however, care about a DND town we will temporarily be in, enough to draw it, even though an image would benefit the players. This lack of caring about some small things is why I would be emotionally able to generate an image for them. It's inconsequential and most importantly, does not affect my art.