The Synthetic Pink Elephant in the Room

As a digital creator who has been making art for several decades, I thought it was time to address the synthetic pink elephant in the room.

By now, it should be fairly obvious that I am a hybrid artist.

I have painted with acrylic on canvas. I have designed patterns, sewn garments by hand, built costumes, modeled in them, filmed them, edited them, animated them, and dragged them through every glowing portal I could find. I have watched music move from vinyl to 8-track, CD, MP3, streaming, and now AI-generated sound. Every era has had its panic. Every era has had its shortcuts. Every era has also had artists who figured out how to bend the new tools into something human.

For the record, I do not use AI to create my music.

I am not opposed to AI-assisted loops in theory, but the current technology still makes me uneasy. I do not trust it enough yet to know that it will not accidentally hand me something too close to someone else’s copyrighted work. So for now, I have not dipped my toe into that arena. And honestly, having AI generate an entire song for me is not appealing. I suspect that kind of output will often become too perfect, too basic, too polished, and strangely generic.

That is not what I am after.

Visual art and film are a different conversation for me.

I have been teaching myself VFX and After Effects for almost fifteen years. I have sat through endless renders. I have spent five hours on six seconds. I have watched projects crash, files corrupt, hard drives fail, and entire animations disappear after painful amounts of work. I know what it feels like to be chained to a computer trying to make something beautiful with limited money, limited equipment, and limited physical space.

AI has been one of the most useful tools that has ever happened to my creative process.

Not because it replaces me.

Because it helps me keep going.

I do not want to spend my whole life trapped behind a screen doing repetitive technical labor. I do not want to go into debt buying more props, more garments, more objects, more backgrounds, and more materials just to photograph them for a few seconds of animation. I already have more costumes than space. I have no more room for everything I have made, worn, collected, painted, built, or dreamed into being.

With a little AI knowledge, I can take an old photo of myself and transform the clothing, extend the world, build a strange set, or create a visual idea that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars and months of labor.

To me, that is not lazy.

That is miraculous.

My workflow includes After Effects, collage, digital composites, photography, video, green screen, AR, 3D, AI, fashion, film, electronic music, performance, and old-fashioned problem-solving. AI is one instrument in the orchestra. It is not the whole song.

I also find many of the arguments around technology and ethics frustratingly selective. Yes, AI has environmental concerns. So does nearly everything in modern production. Fast fashion, electronics, shipping, streaming, constant upgrades, disposable content, and endless consumer waste all have consequences. We are living inside a system where almost every choice has a cost.

So we either pick our poison carefully, or we sit in a corner and make nothing.

I choose to make things.

I choose to make statements.

On the days when I am financially strapped, when I cannot build the set, buy the fabric, hire the crew, rent the space, or fill another room with materials, I can still create digitally. That has been a godsend.

And if the AI train came to a screeching halt tomorrow, I would survive.

I have always adapted.

The tool is not the artist.

The artist is the one who knows what to do when the tool disappears.

I hope this clarifies a few things. Also, please send help. I have so many art supplies, materials, costumes, garments, props, and mysterious little objects that I can no longer dust like a civilized person. Something had to give.

Side note: If you ever have any doubt.. the people that use AI for EVERYTHING can produce beautiful work far faster than me. There are current all AI creators (and I know enough to know how they are doing this) that put out a song and video almost every day, or at minimum every week. IF I wanted to be that, I could do it easily. Midjourney makes gorgeous fashion photos with some of the most amazing designs I have seen. I too cringe when people gush in the comments that they love this person's fashions. I know exactly what these programs are capable of. You don't have to be a designer to churn out amazing magazine style editorial looks. And I know that creator couldn't sew a thing on a sewing machine. Without a team it is impossible to be prolific that quickly in the VFX or animating space, so suffice it to say if the output appears animated, gorgeous and daily, it is probably all AI. Many do this and also admit they are using AI, and embellish how involved they were in the process. I can clock that too. Does the sound of all of this frustrate you? Think how I feel. I spent the last 15 years learning some of the most difficult programs only to have this breathing down my neck. I saw it coming. I have grieved that time. I just ask that people don't try to pull me backwards in my process. I won't tell you what to do or how to feel. I do know that anything tech related I have hated was later adopted by the masses and it did not matter what I thought about it. So there is that. If you have manual skills be grateful. In the end I think that will give you an edge.