'Carbon Copy'
Carbon copy | CC | Copying Carbon
Where are we?
Is 'AI art' art? Perhaps. Of course, whether AI art is art or isn't depends on what we define art to be. The purpose of 'Carbon Copy', rather than to argue whether art creation assisted by artificial intelligence is or isn't art, intends to visually portray the state of the debate - is or is not AI art art?
John William Waterhouse, the human
John William Waterhouse's art parallels AI-generated art through its blend of realism and fantasy, often portraying mythological themes with idealized beauty and ethereal detail. Both use contemporary techniques of their time to revive older artistic traditions, though AI mimics aesthetics without the emotional intent behind Waterhouse's personal vision. While visually striking, AI art lacks the narrative depth that gives human-created works lasting meaning. Carbon Copy includes seven Waterhouse works, all of which are in the public domain - The Remorse of the Emperor Nero after the Murder of his Mother, Cleopatra, The Magic Circle, Hylas and the Nymphs, Echo and Narcissus, Miranda, and Mariana in the South, which reference a now-deceased artist whose work often called on characters, places, and motifs before his time.
Convolutional neural networks
The layered, semi-transparent images resemble how convolutional neural networks (CNNs) extract features across layers, from simple textures to complex patterns. The sequential 'film strip' of Cleopatra models how CNN filters progressively refine visual details in the artificial intelligence training and process, as is depicted again in the overlaid images of 'Mariana in the South'. The fusion of different visual elements reflects how CNNs combine multiple feature maps into a unified representation and speak to how historical images are processed by neural networks.
Email and the term 'carbon copy' or CC
AI in art creation often borrows terms from traditional art methods, like "brushstroke" or "palette," even though no physical tools are used. This echoes how email adopted the term "carbon copy," referencing an obsolete manual duplication process. Both examples show how language preserves familiar concepts, bridging old practices with new technologies. The use of the term carbon copy in email may be reflective of how AI processes model themselves after human-based tasks automated by AI.
Photography as a reference
The debate over AI in art creation parallels the early reception of the camera in photography, where critics questioned whether a machine-generated image could be considered art. Like AI today, the camera initially faced skepticism for automating processes traditionally tied to human skill and creativity. Over time, both technologies challenged definitions of artistry, ultimately becoming accepted as tools that expand creative possibilities rather than diminish them.
Ai-Da Stoplights
Ai-Da is a firgurehead in the UK for artificial intelligence and has proposed using a stop-light convention to indicate the use of generative AI in visual media. Carbon Copy exhibits a 'safe' (green light) icon in the top-left of the work to signify the increasingly indiscernible lines between real and AI-generated media. Again, Carbon Copy is intended to capture the state of the debate regarding the use of AI in art.
Copying carbon
Carbon Copy is a fitting title for AI art—if AI is stealing/borrowing from humans, it's only natural to borrow from beings made mostly of carbon. But just like a carbon atom can bind in infinite ways to form something entirely new, AI reshuffles the fragments of human creativity into compositions that never existed before. What starts as imitation combusts into originality—proof that even theft, when filtered through enough layers, can become creation.