Grand Theft Poetry
Art is made of art — the machines are stuck with data
Every creative act is influenced directly and subconsciously by the creative acts of thousands of other artists. As Pablo Picasso put it:
Author, blackout poet, and cartoonist Austin Kleon’s best-selling book, Steal Like an Artist, explores this part of the artistic process in fascinating detail.
Similarly, the writer Cormac McCarthy said, “Books are made out of books.”
The key to being original is to soak up a lot of influences and let your subconscious blend them with your experiences, skills, and artistic voice. Whether you are a writer or a visual artist, all art is, in some way, a collage of what has come before.
It’s your human experience that makes a piece of art interesting. This is why no matter how good AI gets at creating images and writing, it will never make art. AI might be a tool for creatives, but just like a paintbrush on a palette is not an artist, neither is a large language model.
My primary mode of artistic expression is making haiku comics. Last October, I created this haiku comic:
