Between Worlds Podcast - Mike Walsh and Virginia Damtsa on AI and Art

Walsh speaks to Damtsa about her new show at Gabriel Scott gallery curated around the use of AI by contemporary painters Von Wolfe, Jonathan Yeo, and Henry Hudson. I found Walsh and Damtsa's discussion regarding the notion of the diffusion model extremely interesting -- they acknowledge a division among artists about allowing their work to form a part of a diffusion model (or, in Von's case, form the entire diffusion model); Walsh acknowledges the paradox that, in some ways, this is when you know you've really made it, (i.e. when users ask the diffusion model to reference your work), which I thought was apt. I am not quite sure where I sit in this regard... In many ways I find the opportunity to join some sort of collective conscience quite enticing, but I am sure if I actually saw someone attempting to copy my work using generative AI that would probably change my stance...

Perhaps as a foil to this seeming paradox, I really appreciated Damtsa's point (in this case referring to the work of Henry Hudson) that one of the most interesting things about being around art is seeing the mediality of whatever media an artist chooses to use; I agree with this, namely that the medium itself has a story of its own as relates to the art piece, and this cannot be divorced from the image it presents. Perhaps this is why I am not so concerned about posting high-quality images of my work online...

Another side note that Walsh made which I found so interesting: he mentioned that perhaps the act of putting one's work through the diffusion model could be seen as a sort of print. I liked that very much.