Magzoid Magazine - Luxury Magazine in the Creative Space | Feb 2023

EDITORIAL
2023: AI and NFTs are expected
to keep reinventing art
Christie’s recorded a 96% fall in NFT sales over the course of the year, despite the
fact that the entry of artists like Takashi Murakami into the NFT field has given the
space some much-needed respectability.
Little in 2022 split the art world as much as
its turbulent relationship with technology
in a year marked by several crises. On
the one hand, Christie’s recorded a 96%
fall in NFT sales over the course of the year,
despite the fact that the entry of artists like
Takashi Murakami into the NFT field has given
the space some much-needed respectability.
Numerous creatives and platforms continue
to investigate methods to use the technology,
with uses ranging from practical to abstract,
social to commercial, even if the medium is still
vulnerable to the same issues as the crypto
market.
As long as meme art tokens continue to
oversaturate online marketplaces, some will
continue to question the viability of NFTs as a
creative medium. After the excitement subsided,
concerns have been expressed regarding the
supposed “worth” of NFT art, which consists of
conceptual pieces that are simple to produce
repeatedly as opposed to actual works by
contemporary artists.
In other places, advocates of blockchain
continue to hold fast to the utopian vision that
the technology is helping to build — whether
it be as a way to confirm provenance and
authenticity or as a promised land of opportunity
for up-and-coming artists.
The year of artificial intelligence was 2022,
not 2021, which was the year of NFTs. The rise
and publication of AI image generators over the
past 12 months, like Dall-E and Midjourney, has
provided an unmatched window into exactly
how potent these algorithms have become.
By entering “Arab man drinking coffee in the
style of Van Gogh” and witnessing it produce
a precise representation in under a minute,
there is no easier or more concrete way to
experience the power of a contemporary AI
system.
Since this power, many people in the arts
and cultural fields are debating where the
boundary should be drawn. When do we cease
appreciating the distance between the artist
and the brush as well as the distance between
the brush and the canvas? When is the physical
media no longer necessary? Where does it all
end, exactly? The modern question is, “What
is creativity?,” as Murakami noted.
Automation has long been a problem in many
other industries. The argument regarding the
upcoming waves of automation, particularly in
the creative realms, may be led by AI art as
the Fourth Industrial Revolution progresses.
Perhaps there will be a larger push from
artists toward the decentralising forces of NFTs if
monopolies like Meta attempt to enforce control
over these digital spaces, lest the constraints
of algorithms created to further commercial
interests stifle their creativity. What function does
art perform in this result, and what can creators
do to safeguard virtual cultural spaces in a
society where the attention span of consumers
is a commodity to be sold to advertisers?
The topic will undoubtedly change, and given
the speed at which technology is evolving, it
is hard to accurately forecast how events will
turn out. But one thing is certain: the union of
art and technology will undoubtedly continue
to be a balancing act of promise and issues
for some.
The rise and
publication of AI
image generators
over the past 12
months, like Dall-E
and Midjourney,
has provided an
unmatched window
into exactly how
potent these
algorithms have
become.
www.magzoid.com February 2023
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