Consuming content meaningfully as an artist. Protecting my creativity by avoiding sameness and over stimulation online.

 

 

I'm not really one for new year's resolutions, however this year I would like to revitalise my art practice. It's easy to get in a groove with it, and it's only by pushing out of my comfort zone that I discover new ideas and improve. To do this I am going back to purchasing art books, both as an inspiration and a source of exercises to try.

I pretty much learned art from books. When I started, short of going to courses and workshops, it was the only way. As the internet became more prevalent I have learned some useful things by watching videos, however lately I have felt I'm no longer consciously consuming content.

At this stage it feels like the internet is saturated with basically everything, to the point it's visually and mentally overwhelming. Looking at art online is problematic because there's so much of it, a lot of it looks similar, and it is increasingly difficult to differentiate if it's created by a person, or churned out by AI. 

At times I feel sad and demoralised by AI, it has been trained on work without artist's consent. It's somewhat ironic certain firms are trying to take people to court for violation of trademarks by using inadvertently using one word in an item description, when artists have had their work scraped and people can churn out counterfeit work that looks like theirs with impunity. I love art because it should be an artist's personal reaction to a subject, in a way only they can do it.

As well as AI it feels like the internet is now increasingly samey. If anyone creative has a good idea it's copied, the copies are often copied, and so it goes on. It can also be difficult not to be influenced on some level if you're seeing a lot of similar works.

YouTube constantly recommends me multiple videos with the exact same title, that are basically the same video rehashed by different people. I used to like Domestika courses, but in the name of growth they now have so many courses it's overwhelming, many seem similar, and they appear to have resorted to some shady tactics to try and sell them.

I've retreated into the quieter world of books. I can take my time looking at a book, I can look at the art and spend time thinking about the colours and other aspects I find appealing. I don't have ads popping up, or other moving things competing for my attention. I'm looking at things I choose, rather than random stuff pulled out by an algorithm or search engine. I can buy a book about an artist and see the progression of their work, learn about their inspiration and work practice. Like all artists I find that interesting and stimulating. 

Of course books aren't without issues, if you're not careful there are an overwhelming number available now. I avoid self published books because you can't tell the quality, or if it's even been written by a real person. I look for books published by reputable publishers by artists with a decent reputation in their chosen field. Good books really are beautiful things to own and I'll be able to refer back to them again and again.