This week we had Ian Haig as a guest lecturer discussing his various artworks.
Personally, I was not a fan of his works, as most of it was just lots of AI generated gore. I do agree to an extent of his point being that artwork has always been stolen and/or interpolated, however the stolen work has required some skill and technique to make it work and to learn it. I do wonder how much authorship he claims on creating his works, as most is AI generated. Sure, people can argue there is some skill in prompt engineering (if you can even call it that), and there is most certainly skill in editing his videos and compiling them, but is putting words into a text box now a form of art? How much artistry is in learning to type words into an engine and picking the image you like?
I think he is far too critical of the art world and calling out the “identity politics” of fine art, when art has always been based upon gender, race, politics, emotion, etc. Completely removing this aspect of identity takes away what it means to be human, and how we each perceive and experience the world in which we live. Without art we have no culture. I also believe that viewers that aren’t fans of his work “don’t understand” what he is portraying, and dismisses any and all kinds of criticism. I haven’t seen his longer experimental films, but from what he showcased today it seems there is a semi surface level idea that he tries to explore, but doesn’t quite get the message across. Maybe I didn’t/couldn’t experience the artwork the way he wanted, but for me it seemed like there wasn’t a way to explore it any further than “gore on social media”.
Moving on from the AI, the collaborations and sound design were effective in helping convey the brutal/uncanny/disgusting themes he was portraying. His quote from Phillip Brophy – “Cinema is 100% image and 100% sound” – I agree with fully, as something visceral and repulsive does have a level of disgust, but with sound design brings it to the next level. I also agree to the point he made of questioning artificial intelligence and not trusting it blindly, and corporations that are using AI to track the populace is terrifying.
Exploring his earlier works, I believe these are much more interesting concepts than his newer pieces, but I may be biased as I am not necessarily a fan of gore and viscera. These newer works are effective in conveying the perversion and the ideas he is exploring, however being subjected to an hour of AI generated viscera is not my idea of an “interesting” or “enticing” afternoon.
I guess in a sense he has achieved his goal of disgust and perversion.
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