A piece of digital artwork that won first place in a fine art competition has prompted discussion on social media about the nature of art and what it means to be an artist.

Jason Allen came first at the Colorado State Fair's fine art competition using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated artwork on Monday. According to a Twitter post, the synthetic media designer announced his victory on the Discord server. “I won first place,” he wrote while sharing pictures of the AI-generated canvases hanging at the fair.

As per the state fair's website, Mr Allen won in the digital art category. The image, which he printed on canvas for submission, showed classical figures standing in a Baroque hall. He created his piece using an online program called Midjourney, which is an AI art tool using a text-to-image generator. [1]

Figure 1. AI-Generated Artwork Wins State Fair Art Contest, Internet Calls It "Death of Artistry"

Figure 1 shows Allen is the president of Incarnate Games, a tabletop gaming company in Colorado. His work is called "Space Opera Theater". The artwork shows figures seeing through a space setting. His work brings Baroque elements and space opera together. Allen used Midjourney for his artwork. Midjourney is an artificial intelligence software that helps convert text into visual imagery.

Midjourney's beta version launched in July and has allowed users with no art training to create high-quality artwork. Critics suggest that creating AI-generated artwork is not real art and requires no skill. Artwork generally takes hours to complete and can be made within minutes through AI. [2]

Allen entered all three pieces into the competition, paying an $11 submission fee for each one. He listed them for sale for $750 a piece, a price he came up with by considering quotes from other artists, he tells the Chieftain.

The winner, Théâtre D’opéra Spatial, “depicts a strange scene that looks like it could be from a space opera, and it looks like a masterfully done painting,” Matthew Gault writes for Vice. “Classical figures in a Baroque hall stare through a circular viewport into a sun-drenched and radiant landscape.” [3]

Allen says that critics are judging the art by the method of its creation and that eventually AI-created art will be accepted.[4]

References:

1. https://gadgets360.com/science/news/ai-generated-artwork-wins-state-fair-art-contest-internet-calls-it-death-of-artistry-3306193
2. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/ai-generated-artwork-wins-prize-in-art-competition-in-us-find-out-how/articleshow/94010529.cms?from=mdr
3. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artificial-intelligence-art-wins-colorado-state-fair-180980703/
4. https://petapixel.com/2022/09/01/ai-generated-artwork-wins-first-place-at-state-fair-enraging-artists/

Cite this article:

Thanusri swetha J (2022), AI-Generated Artwork Wins State Fair Art Contest, Internet Calls It "Death of Artistry, Anatechmaz, pp.171