Publish at March 11 2025 Updated March 13 2025
In France, the Pass Culture program gives young people access to art and culture. This tool gives the most disadvantaged access to art. Many people in "poor" or "impoverished" countries do not benefit from these policies, and consequently have no access to the arts, at least not in their diversity.
With the creativity that AI brings, habits in the field have been turned upside down, facilitating access and popularization; even the less well-off can build up their own catalogs of artistic products to enjoy. How is this possible, and what's the point of doing it? There are two ways of setting up a catalog with AI: by creating your own works, or by asking AI to do it for you. But first, it's important to ask whether we can entertain ourselves with our own creations.
I sometimes open my book Oralidad y lirismo. Antología de literatura hispanocamerunesa (2021)", an anthology I produced by collecting poems by Spanish-speaking Cameroonian authors, to reread my own poems in it.
Recently, a special reader through whom my book is due to transit on its way to Bolivia wrote to me, expressing her amazement after reading the poem "Las almas errantes" (wandering souls); she read precisely the last three lines for me: "y mis brazos como la puerta del mundo/ se abren para abrigar para siempre/las almas errantes. "(and my arms like the door of the world/ open up to shelter wandering souls/the wandering souls forever). Since his testimony, I've been rereading these verses over and over again. Am I egocentric? In other words, is it wrong to enjoy one's own work?
This question led me to the Internet to find testimonials from artists who enjoy their art. I came across QUORA, an online forum where people ask questions and receive answers. On this site, the following question was the subject of debate: " Do famous musicians listen to their own music?". Most of the answers confirm this, but point out that they listen mainly to improve themselves. If so, do they really enjoy their own productions?
On another similar site Reddit, almost the same question is asked but in a tendentious way " Is listening to your own music too self-centered?" The person asking it was reportedly called egocentric by his colleagues at work, because he listened to his own music. For this other question, the answers are mixed. However, one answer is particularly interesting: "If you put it out for everyone to listen to, without anyone else asking, I'd agree that's pretty egocentric, if it was just you listening with headphones, it's a ridiculous thing to accuse you of." I agree with this opinion but, not being an artist, what's it really worth? So who better to answer this question than an artist?
With this in mind, I turned to one of the best American jazzmen of Cameroonian origin, Gino Sitson, and asked him if he ever listens to his own music. His answer was clear: "Yes, I sometimes do...to work. On the other hand, sometimes I come across one of my albums and feel proud to have made it."
Some artists admire their own work, so it's logical to think that any creator is likely to be entertained by his or her work. As AI has facilitated creativity, it's now easy for any user, "non-artist" at heart, to produce his or her own song, image, game etc. and be entertained by it. But what would motivate us to do this?
If we can create our own works of art and use them to entertain ourselves, AI has democratized the creative process, turning art admirers into creators too. A person who would never have created a work of art can now do so thanks to AI, and can therefore build up a catalog of their own creations.
If I'm in love with good words, arranged in a poetic style, if I like this "approach which, through words, images, myths, love and humor, places me at the living heart of myself and the world" (Aimé Césaire), all I have to do is ask an artificial intelligence. It will produce them for me at my convenience.
Of course, I won't be able to see the " demigod " of this creation, but I will be able to limit myself to the beauty and wonder of the "artist-chatbot" or the Robot artist. Failing to commission an original work, I can have the ambition of owning my own collection of existing products. By way of illustration, I can ask the AI to produce a painting for me, like "Les demoiselles d'Avignon" by the famous Pablo Picasso. This is a work I couldn't possibly have, due to its exorbitant cost and the fact that only one original exists. If the AI doesn't produce it for me, because it's protected by copyright, I can still enjoy the result of a copy.
It won't be the same work, but I'll be able to look at it whenever I want to enjoy it. It's more than a photo taken in a museum or on Wikipedia.
I asked copilot to generate this picture for me, and you can enjoy the cover image of this article. The image was generated with the following statement: "Of course, this is an artistic representation inspired by Pablo Picasso's famous painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. I hope you enjoy it". It's not a copy of the painting, nor even an inspiration, but it's a beautiful creation that I intend to keep in my catalog.
With this creative process, I can be sure that I'm not running any great risk of plagiarism or being condemned for counterfeiting. Especially since it's all for my own entertainment.
If we can't create our own works, we can ask the AI to create a tailor-made catalog for us, based on our tastes, our travel, tourism or entertainment projects. For example, the following command on the Poe.com AI gave me a list of free works: "Can you generate for me a catalog of artistic works accessible free of charge and made up of music, paintings and films? With this question, I easily discovered sites like Musopen.org and Archive.org. The more precise you are, the better the AI will help you.
In conclusion, this approach can enable people who admire certain works but don't have easy access to them, to collect their own catalog. Now with Suno, Musify, Audimee and many othermusic or soundsoftware programs , you can generate your own music; with Vimo or other video production AIs, you can now produce your own humorous vignettes etc. And who knows, it might even come to this. And who knows, your work might even find buyers. Wasn't a painting designed by Christie's robot sold for over $400,000 in 2018?
Image source: Copilote.
"Can you generate an image similar to Pablo Picasso's painting les demoiselle d'Avigon?",
References
Fomekong Narcisse, 2021, Oralidad y lirismo. Antología de literatura hispanocamerunesa, Sial Pigmalión, Madrid. - https: //amzn.to/3DxbUOK
Twist,2023, "Can AI create art? | Twist | ", ARTE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb0sjflo_Qo
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