The first time I heard the term Mixed Media, I thought it was a cocktail.
One of those served in a bar where the bartender wears augmented reality glasses.
Then AI arrived.
And the cocktail started generating the olives too.
Today, the contemporary artist walks into the studio with a tablet, a camera, three prompts, and an existential crisis, and walks out with an artwork containing algorithms.
“It’s a dialogue between man and machine,” they explain.
Meanwhile, the machine doesn’t dialogue. It produces something that isn’t you.
Digital creativity is no longer just a tool. It has become a search for the perfect prompts that take you in directions you never had in your head.
“Try making this more tactile.”
Prompt.
“Now make it more organic.”
Prompt.
“Less perfect.”
Prompt.
And here we reach the ultimate paradox: we use artificial intelligence to create something that looks human, while spending hours correcting what the algorithm has made inhuman.
It’s the new Dadaism, but with Wi-Fi.
The art of the future is here: one gigantic collage in which no one will be able to tell the artist’s hand from the AI’s hand.
All you have to say is:
“I don’t know what it means, but it moves me.”
Then a selfie with the artwork, then AI to improve the selfie, while the followers hit the like button.
And humanity, finally, will have come full circle.
With a prompt.