Artist Statement: Artificial Intelligence

Link to playlist

I drew this piece in retaliation to the trendy new wave of AI art. Unless you are using an AI program that you yourself developed and fed your own original art into, AI art is simply art theft. These programs steal stylistic elements and images from people who make a living off of their creativity. In a world that feels increasingly less human and more overtaken by technology and algorithms, I present you with a piece of dissent. This piece is made up of many variations/broken patterns/twists and turns to symbolize the unpredictable nature of creativity vs the predictability of technology, as well as a “challenge accepted” attitude from one person and a handful of Sharpies.

As soon as this concept entered my head, I knew the first song needed to be by Slim Gaillard; Slim is, in many ways, the poster child of underappreciated, ahead-of-their-time creativity. He created an entire language of his own (though he already spoke 5 languages) called “Vout-o-Reenee” that he sang in and later released a full dictionary for. Slim was an outspoken figure against nuclear war and a frequent opening act for Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins at Birdland, and yet is often left out of the conversation of the era’s musical greats. Consider this piece and its playlist an anthem of artistic boldness tinged with the voices of society devaluing art/artists.

Once the dulcet tones of Slim’s vibraphone fade out, in comes another unsung musical genius: Elizabeth Cotten. Elizabeth was a left-handed guitarist playing a right-handed guitar, which led to creating the technique now known as “Cotten-picking” where the melody is played with the thumb and the bass line is played in the other fingers. While the history behind “Gaslight Blues” has been lost, other than knowing it was recorded in the 1940’s, this song has come to represent a lot in my mind: running out of resources while being told things are fine, being trapped in the cycle of capitalism to keep the lights on, and of course the 2022 word of the year meaning of “gaslighting”. Gaslight Blues”, to me, is a different side of “artificial intelligence”: competing narratives for the truth. We live in a time where facts can crumble under louder, more persuasive voices. Cue “My Song” by Labi Siffre. The one truth we can always find solace in is our own. Labi’s music is beautiful, tender, and unapologetically queer from an era where queerness was rejected and demonized, and in the theme of artificially intelligent voices pushing narratives into the mainstream, there will always be queer resistance.

“Imposter Syndrome” by Sidney Gish came to me as I pondered the contradictory reality we live in where STEM fields have become the logical/reputable career trajectories that, if left unchecked, threatens to  make art an unattainable perfection crafted by an amalgamation of the world’s best artists at the click of a button and a constant headache for today’s artists dealing with waves of imposter syndrome each time they pick up a paintbrush. As we get turned around to doubt ourselves, Charlie Parr gives us some earthy, twangy inspiration that even if we don’t feel we get to live out our dreams, we always leave a legacy to be remembered. The lyric,  “I worked for a living, I didn’t follow my dream, remember me if I forget.” seems to both challenge us to follow our dreams and learn from his mistakes, as well as serve as another anthem for the underappreciated artists. 

At its core, “Artificial Intelligence” is a simultaneous rejection of modern trends/misguided narratives and a longing for past eras of human creative achievement. When I was an elementary music teacher, I had a number of students from Ethiopia, and I really knew nothing of Ethiopian music until I started my own research. In my college music teaching program, we exclusively learned white, European music history; idolizing exclusively white musicians is, in itself artificial intelligence because modern music would not exist without the contributions of Black and African-American artists.  Mulatu Astatke was a pioneer of the Tezeta genre (translates to “nostalgia”, which was a style that served as political commentary about the changing face of the country’s capital city Addis Ababa. Mulatu’s tone is so far away, you really feel transported and lost wandering through time and memory. I’m not sure how, but decades later and thousands of miles away, Alice In Chains mirror a similar far away sound of sad nostalgia over what’s been lost (or taken, rather) in “Nutshell”.       

 When it comes down to it, the debate around AI art is about soul and creativity versus cold binary algorithms. Valerie June’s sweet voice comes in to bring us out of nostalgia and remind everyone that sure, artists can play/paint in many styles, but what really matters is what speaks to our soul. It’s the classic conundrum for creatives: do I do what sells/is popular, or do I take a chance and create something unique and original. The next song is a favorite of mine, and was one of the first that popped into my head for this theme; When I was in college studying music, I felt at war with my trombone and the professors that held one idea of perfection and no room for expression of sounds outside their ideal. I had borrowed the live album “The Name of the Band is Talking Heads” from my dad and had taken to listening to it most nights while I cooked dinner, with “Artists Only” being the song that resonated deeply with me. I had been creative my whole life, and always drawn more to uniqueness, yet somehow landed in an environment obsessed with perfection instead? Sounds like a “Wrong Opinion” to me. 

“Wrong Opinion” by Chairlift really captures the uplifting empowerment of following your own creative light and letting go of the people who don’t get it. This song, to me, takes a page out of Depeche Mode’s book in terms of soundscape, but flips the mood into something inspiring instead of self-deprecating for the glitter goths out there. The finale, “Bitches Gotta Get Paid”, speaks for itself. AI art steals money out of artists’ pockets. Throughout history, when oppressive regimes come in, the first folx they silence are the artists, and the easiest way to silence artists is to force them into other fields when they can’t earn money for their art. We are living in an era where the “democratic” elections we vote in have been heavily swayed by internet trolls that sought to polarize voters. Do we really want to live in a world where our personal opinions on art are controlled by the tech industry, or do we see through their plans to divert money and public opinion away from the oldest, most effective form of political commentary: the arts. At the end of the day, “Bitches Gotta Get Paid”; THANK YOU for supporting this bitch.