Gatekeeping in the Art World and AI Tools as Accessibility
What is art? Ask a million people; get a million different answers. Ask people in the art world what art is, and those answers will start to contain words like imagination, creativity, craft, process, soul, and maybe effort or even suffering.
Is a pile of candy art? Is a banana taped to the wall art? Is a photo of a piece of trash art? Is a picture of a can of soup art? How about eight cans of soup? Are superhero comics art? And if not, why are comic artists hired to draw them? What about fan art?
Do the thousands of fan artists who make commissions for other fans not count as artists? Do they not put their own imagination, skills, style, and soul into their creations, even though they don’t have permission from the people who own the copyright to those characters?
Do the things your child makes in art class count as art? If not, are you going to tell them that? How would you even explain it? Because it’s not “good” enough? Because they haven’t spent years honing their craft? Because it’s a mess of construction paper and scissors…
