Algorithms can paint. Would you like the Mona Lisa, one of the most known and famous paintings of western civilization, hanging on your wall at home?
That’s possible. Algorithms can produce the exact copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s original. Not only the exact colors, but every little snag in the paint application of the paintings current condition can be copied.
Now you have a painting, which optically does not in the slightest differ from the original. Great! Mona Lisa for everyone. There’s something missing. The artist, Leonardo Da Vinci was a human being.
Why, when, how was the painting, in which condition was the artist, as he started and as he revised the painting afterwards, was he drunk the night before, was he sexually pleased or frustrated, did he have existential fear, stomach issues, was he himself happy with the result? If yes, why and in which way was he happy? Or did he find it mediocre but was happy to be finished and payed?
No human can tell and much less can an algorithm…
Algorithms are human made, they are able to do a lot, maybe even too much, which no one really understands anymore.
Algorithms imitate right down to the last detail. They can paint new Picassos, compose new Bach sonatas, or produce new Shakespeare sonnets, because they can identify a pattern.
Whose pattern?
Algorithms cannot enjoy themselves, they cannot love, they do not eat and drink, know no fear, no pleasure, they don’t take drugs, they don’t have a dog and even if algorithms could fart, they would mathematically imitate what their human source has to offer, with all the chaos and variety of emotions and impressions, its own protection from it. To live!
No! Algorithms cannot paint! No art!
