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Comment by pawy | Hacker News Reader

"most creative endeavors often do involve CREATING many things" ; not generating them.

You've "selected" something you liked. You are no artist and should not call your self like that. If you do, you will never inspire "simple" people.

At least if you do it would become the MacDonald of art.

Do nothing, sit and say to the bot if it fits you or not.

You're even worse than a DJ. The DJ actually works his selection and works his transitions.

Sketches have been written out of artist mind. Not by some selection that fits you or not.

Art is work.

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By this logic no photographer is an artist either. They just 'selected' a composition they liked. They didn't work to create any of their subjects, just walked up and took a picture.

Slowly coaxing a desired result out of a computer by painstakingly tweaking an algorithm over the course of hours or days doesn't sound like work to you? The computer wouldn't have just done it on its own if an artist didn't tell it what to do.

I think your definition of art is narrow-minded. Who are you to tell someone their work isn't art. Art is (and always has been) in the eye of the beholder.

Alright, that is an argument I give right.

Still, I see the work putted as an art, not only the result.

What I mean is that tools that allow re-generation without someone putting he heart into it would not result in art.

Dropping 200 pics and having a new one is no art.

If you iterate your self on how these mechanics goes on and create something with it with control and skill then that looks more like it.

But then, if you drop out an algorithm that does that, handle it to users,

would their results be art ?

Tools and way are more important than result. How you use them and how you create something original from it is the art process.

I guess it really depends on how you use this.

>But then, if you drop out an algorithm that does that, handle it to users, would their results be art ?

in the same respect, did someone not create art in photoshop because they used some fractal noise?

I've had this conversation and thought about it a lot for what I'm doing and come to this conclusion.

art can be directed, it can be accidental, it can be both (every artist loves a happy accident), it can be because of a million iterations whether by hand or computer.

it's up to you, the viewer to decide if you think the end result is good art.

What is the difference between creation and generation?

What is the difference between me selecting the specific frame made by a generative algorithm and photographer picking a specific moment in time to capture a frame?

What's the difference between me using a generative algorithm and Michelangelo using assistants to paint the Sistine Chapel?

Creation is a goal that admits occasional accidents.

Generation is a series of unfortunate accidents in search of something that might pass for a goal.

Dedicating our life to find a meaning trough work.

Get interested in some artists and what they have achieved.

A humble human being would never call it self an artist.

That's the first mistake, and it's philosophical rather than technical.

I would say the tool it self is rather an piece of art. Not what it creates.

I am really curious to hear your responses to the questions I raised

"What is the difference between creation and generation?" -> that one has already been answered under.

"What is the difference between me selecting the specific frame made by a generative algorithm and photographer picking a specific moment in time to capture a frame?" -> he captures life and tries to create a embodiment of something that already has a meaning for everybody. He can have multiple ways of underlining different aspects of the same thing. He has total control over How and Why. It is not only technical but it also communicates something in very different ways depending on the subject and how he took the picture.

"What's the difference between me using a generative algorithm and Michelangelo using assistants to paint the Sistine Chapel?" -> these are people not machine.

Art is work, as the parent said. It's in the word, art is human sweat and thought within a certain technique framework (such as an aesthetic).

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