What do you believe defines art or an artist? In the rise of infinitely growing and accessible technology, art has had to continually renew what it means. Take the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for example:

The definition of art is controversial in contemporary philosophy. Whether art can be defined has also been a matter of controversy. The philosophical usefulness of a definition of art has also been debated. There is also disagreement, at a second-order level, about how to classify definitions of art.[1] For present purposes, contemporary definitions can be classified with respect to the dimensions of art they emphasize. One distinctively modern, conventionalist, sort of definition focuses on art’s institutional features, emphasizing the way art changes over time, modern works that appear to break radically with all traditional art, the relational properties of artworks that depend on works’ relations to art history, art genres, etc. – more broadly, on the undeniable heterogeneity of the class of artworks. The more traditional, less conventionalist sort of definition defended in contemporary philosophy makes use of a broader, more traditional concept of aesthetic properties that includes more than art-relational ones, and puts more emphasis on art’s pan-cultural and trans-historical characteristics – in sum, on commonalities across the class of artworks. Hybrid definitions aim to do justice to both the traditional aesthetic dimension as well as to the institutional and art-historical dimensions of art, while privileging neither.

First published Tue Oct 23, 2007; substantive revision Tue Aug 14, 2018

Can art be defined? I began asking these questions while writing Visionary Art: Vulnerability In, Interpretation of, and Unanswered Questions: My final thoughts stating: “It’s quite interesting to see how art is critiqued, based on the time of creation, the artist behind the piece and the personal viewer.”

Taking a stance as the observer, not questioning further- is this considered art?

I now ask myself more often, not what is considered art - but rather, who is considered an artist?

In a simple sense we could state all beings are artists and I myself indeed find this to be true. However us all having the chance to be artists does not mean that we have all spent time in a particular craft.

Although, who’s to say the amount of hours spent in a craft means that a prodigy with no experience is any less than? How do we differentiate between prodigy and computer? When does the computer go from being man made, to taking man made concepts and creating their own “works of art”? Be it digital art or even music for that matter.

#humanartist and variations thereof have been trending on Twitter more frequently. Reminding that while the digital art space is rapidly expanding, there are still real artist behind these screens creating. Recently, social media was flooded with a plethora of digital avatars that friends were sharing of themselves. Many downloading the free app Lensa, which to my surprise, I discovered that you had to pay in order to receive any of these photos.

“Here is a collection of relatively modern or currently working artists that they advertise as styles to steal on their site(there are hundreds of others).”

- RJ Palmer @arvalis

At that point, why not commission the many, many artist putting themselves out there for these sorts of images and media? Instead, resorting to the ease and comfort of downloading an app, purchasing instant images of themselves and sharing to social media.

This app is interesting as it uses a “non-profit" means to avoid copyright laws. Making who knows amounts of money, stealing an enormous amount of artists’ work without consent and zero repercussion.

“Shepard Fairey vs. The Associated Press is a great example of why you can't just take an image and alter it slightly without a licensing agreement.”

- Meg Rae @megrae

This brings more interesting points of discussion.

When selling digital art, how does the artist share “proof of authenticity” as the artist can claim AI work as their own?

When is an AI model considered corrupt? Or the humans who are using it for corrupt reasons?

When does authenticity become obsolete?

I cannot say I have any of the answers. If anything, I have more questions and as always, more research to dive deeper into as we move further into these infinitely expansive digital territories.

Without Programs and A Computer, Would You Still Consider Yourself an Artist?