Human-made

I originally thought that AI art was harmless. This was before I understood how AI was trained. It was before I saw that this was not a lack of consideration by tech companies; rather, it was an intentional subsuming of human creativity, with no intention of compensation or credit. In early 2022, I began using AI-generated backgrounds to illustrate fieldnote photos. I have examples of this in the ‘imagination’ creature that is listed in the previous section. At that time, I was experimenting with general AI-generated backgrounds and placing them behind photos to illustrate an imaginary world. I then drew on these backgrounds to add what I wanted. For instance, I drew a full moon into one. I then pasted the subject of the photo over the background and removed the original background manually. This was because, at that time, it was unclear what AI art did with the photos it transformed. Years into it, and understanding the apparatus that is AI, I no longer use AI-generated art. Instead, I have moved to illustrating many of my field notes. Using the Procreate drawing application and iPencil, I used the original photo as a guide to hand-trace an outline, then used a watercolor ‘brush’ to add the color. It is not clear how or where these photos will be used, but over time, they have accumulated into a significant collection. I hold them here for the time being…