My first reaction upon reading about the balloon dog, more specifically Michael Green’s justification for such a high price, was one of astonishment. How could a gif be considered worth more than 5,000 dollars based on its message alone? But after sitting on the whole idea of it being more than just a relatively easy-to-make piece of media for a while I started to actually appreciate the message. Fine art hasn’t truly reached the digital age yet, but statements like Green’s make it seem closer and closer. The idea of selling a digital piece to commemorate the “death” of the importance of art in the physical world is painfully meta, yet oddly beautiful. When I learned about art, it was commonly brought up that there is beauty in every aspect in the world around us, and we just have to have the eyes to see it. But taking a step further we can see this trend leaking into the digital world. Artificial intelligence is generating incredible images using black-box algorithms, but alongside this there’s this group of purists who cannot fathom the thought of “emotionless” art to be considered invaluable (such as some pieces of fine art). I think this divide is leading to another “death” of art in a way. This clashing of opinions is building to a climax, and once AI’s art becomes indistinguishable from a human’s, I can only imagine someone like Michael Green making another meta approach to the subject claiming that humanity itself will never be able to appreciate art again (or something to that effect).
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