ADC 101+1 artist shares her experience experimenting with AI

At this point, Artificial Intelligence has been colliding with just about everything and everyone, and at The One Club for Creativity, we had to get in on the robot fun (or fury). We launched ADC 101 + 1, which is an online art gallery created by Pereira O’Dell and developed by lili Studios that highlights the intersection of art/design and AI. We asked 101 designers to use AI as a tool to make a piece of art that would live in the ADC 101 + 1 virtual reality with the “+1” serving as the AI image generator.

We reached out to Roanna Williams who participated in this collaborative experiment to tell us how it went for her and here’s what she had to say.

In the beginning, working with AI felt far too easy. Put in some words and voilà out popped some visual options. Artwork that would normally take me hours and hours to do, was generated in just a few seconds. This fast process made me feel NOT in control. It felt as though it was taking a huge part of the creative process away from me and doing it in seconds. Scary, unsettling, encroaching, unnerving, and defeated were my pool of emotions as I came to the realization that AI is capable of doing the part of the creative process that I enjoy the most.

"Artwork that would normally take me hours and hours to do, was generated in just a few seconds."

Often the process of my creation - when I put pen, ink, or paint to paper is where my art evolves. It’s an organic process that grows and develops over the process. But now AI was going to do that for me, fast. Easy for AI, but it did not sit so easy for me.

But wait!

AI is not stopping me from picking up a pen and drawing for hours. AI is just offering me another way to look at how I can develop an alternative process. And that I quite like.

I have decided to put my initial fear of it taking over the world away. Rebelling against it won’t make it stop so I am embracing its potential and experimenting with it. The endless possibilities it gives you in just seconds helps you to ideate faster. I don’t know where it will take my art yet, or how it ultimately will influence or not influence what I do, but I do know that it’s opening up a new path and it’s exciting.

In production, they say LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. With AI I say POSSIBILITIES! POSSIBILITIES! POSSIBILITIES! New tools and platforms always challenge us to think of new ways of thinking. The speed at which AI generates can also aid our industry. What took us weeks or months to do, can now take us a few minutes. It may even give people a wake-up call. And maybe, just maybe, because we have freed up process time, this will allow for more ideation thinking time, and creative ideas will get better as a result.

"And maybe, just maybe, because we have freed up process time, this will allow for more ideation thinking time, and creative ideas will get better as a result."

Through participating in ADC 101 + 1 I learned to get out of my same old way of creating and to embrace the power of what AI can offer. It has the potential to be a great tool. But a tool is only as good as it’s operator. And AI is not an operator (well, not yet).

It has to make us better. It’s a new industry tool, not a replacement. I think we can use its efficiencies effectively. It gives you so many endless possibilities in a few seconds. What is also exciting is that it now allows people to bring what was trapped in their imaginations into the real world. Previously, some people were at a disadvantage with no ability to draw what was in their imagination. But now there is a tool for that.

Purely AI-generated art will never hold the same value as a piece of art that took an individual hours, weeks, or months to create. Some say AI is just turning “everyone into an artist.” I feel this is not entirely the truth. There is a potential upside that not everyone is seeing. AI will make hand-created art by a true talented artist, increase in value– as the appreciation of what it takes to make the piece will become more and more valuable.

"Purely AI-generated art will never hold the same value as a piece of art that took an individual hours, weeks, or months to create."

ROANNAWILLIAMS.COM

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