Overheard Through History 'That is not real Art’
Understanding AI's Place in Art Through History's Echoes
Echoes of dismissal: From Gutenberg’s press to Pixar’s pixels, new creative forms have often been met with the critique, ‘That is not real Art.’
Said the Monk to the Printer, watching Gutenberg’s press:
“That is not real Art. This machine does in days what took me a lifetime. What now shall I do?”
Said the Academy to the Impressionist, viewing Monet’s Impression, Sunrise:
“That is not real Art. A smudge, unfinished, lacking descriptive detail.”
Said the Painter to the Photographer, observing Ansel Adams develop a landscape:
“That is not real Art. A trick of chemistry and light, too mechanical, too literal. An invention, not a vessel for imagination.”
Said the Photographer to the Film Director, after watching Lawrence of Arabia:
“That is not real Art. Impersonal, overlong, beholden to big money; nothing between the public and the advertising.”
Said the Film Director to the Digital Animator, as Pixar’s Luxo Jr. played ball:
“That is not real Art. Code and triangles, lacking emotional realism. The animator’s tool is the pencil.”
Echoes of dismissal: From Gutenberg’s press to Pixar’s pixels, new creative forms have often been met with the critique, ‘That is not real Art.’
And so it is said today to the Artist before the AI prompt:
“That is not real Art. An echo, a clever pattern, a ghost in the machine. You trade the struggle of the blank page for the ease of a prompt. There is no soul in the syntax.”
With every turn, the new tool is dismissed as a ‘crutch’, the creator as a fraud.
Yet script, brush, camera, and computer never suggested what should come next, and could create plausible art on its own. AI learns, predicts, it generates. This can be very different. Can it be more than a tool? Can it shape the vision as much as serve it?
AI must be defined and utilized strictly as a tool in service of humanity and artists. As Pope Francis stressed, ‘AI is a product of human intelligence.’ ‘Its proper role is to assist and augment our capabilities, not replace or undermine them.’ This boundary is crucial.
Dismissing this new tool serves no one. Instead, we must demand more from it, just as Martin Scorsese challenges formulaic films, urging a rebirth of vision. We must ask more of the tool, the audience, and the artist to grow this new art form, its techniques, and the guardrails. If an artist uses AI to research, learn, collaborate, revise, or brainstorm, that is a tool. Is that not part of their creative journey? Anton Ego taught that “a great artist can come from anywhere.” It is the journey, not the origin, that defines artistry, a standard AI cannot meet.
We should embrace AI as a tool that can teach and grow, not just produce outputs.
Human x (Intention + Journey) / AI Tool = Outcome (Art)
We should also recognize that when human intention and journey are primary, the tool is secondary; the result is Art.
Notes, Images, and Quotes
A Note on the ‘Said’ Quotes: The historical quotes attributed with “Said…” are stylistic adaptations that represent viewpoints or critical reactions to each technological shift. They are intended to capture the spirit of the resistance faced by innovators, drawing from the historical context provided in the sources below:
Monet
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism]
Ansel Adams
[https://articles.anseladams.com/founding-group-f64/]
[https://daily.jstor.org/when-photography-was-not-art/]
Lawrence of Arabia
[https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,956880,00.html]
[https://nofilmschool.com/is-filmmaking-art][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline\_Kael]
Animation
[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/t-magazine/hayao-miyazaki-studio-ghibli.html]
[https://thewolfpacket.org/9788/opinions/heavy-visual-effects-have-ruined-cinema/]
Collage Image composed of:
The Gutenberg Bible, courtesy of the Library of Congress
Impression, Sunrise - Monet, courtesy of Wikipedia
Moonrise, Ansel Adams, courtesy of Ansel Adams Society
Lawrence of Arabia poster, courtesy of IMDB
Luxo Jr poster, courtesy of IMDB
Quote: “Because now, more than ever, we need the moving image. We need vision, creativity and storytelling that takes us on a journey and opens us, enlightens us, opens our hearts and our minds, ...” Martin Scorsese: ‘Irish storytelling connects with everyone’ https:// www.rte.ie October 18th 2020. https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2020/1018/1172364-scorsese-irish-storytelling-connects-with-everyone/
Quote: Pope Francis, ANTIQUA ET NOVA Note on the Relationship Between
Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20250128_antiqua-et-nova_en.html
Quote: Anton Ego: Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*. IMDB Quotes, Ratatouille. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/characters/nm0000564