We could blame algorithms, AI, all the usual suspects, but really it comes down to us. I don’t know that much about TikTok. I make little videos of painting progression. Clips from my sketchbook. I don’t pay that much attention to the views, or how they tag the videos. To me it seems pretty obvious of what they contain. But I was really surprised how my obvious was interpreted.
I painted a study of a woman from old portraiture. It was in practice of being loose, and allowing the woman to come to life. A gentle attempt at survival, comfort, in the act of trying to simply be. I was so shocked when I saw the tag that AI had generated for this image — “Women who want to lose weight.” What???? That was not the point at all. Not hashtag sketch, or sketchbook, or painting, or art, or woman trying to warm herself with blankets, nor woman waiting, not even bird. And I was quick to curl my lip in disgust of AI, but then the hard truth became as clear as the Magpie on her shoulder, that AI is only repeating the information that we’ve been feeding it. So telling of what we see. And I guess it’s a harder truth to understand. A harder task to change the way we see things. But soon our humanity will be hashtagged away and what will we be left with then?
I suppose it’s a good reminder though — to be aware of how we look at things. Is this why our country, our world, is so divided? Perhaps if we stopped telling each other that what we see is wrong, and started simply telling what we see, maybe we could get back to our blanket of humanity. Maybe I’m just a woman waiting, or a simple Magpie, but I’ll take comfort in that, loose and simple comfort.
