Comment by AlexandrB
2 days ago
Music is art, code is engineering. "Hackers and painters"[1] was always wishful fluff, unfortunately.
When it comes to code, I don't think anyone cares how the sausage is made, and only very rarely do people care by whom. The only question is "does it work well?"
Art is totally different. Provenance is much more important - sometimes essential. David is a beautiful work, but you could 3d print or cast a replica of "David". No one would pretend that the copy is the same as the original though - even if they're indistinguishable to the untrained eye - because one was painstakingly hand sculpted and the others were cheaply produced. This sense of provenance is the property that NFTs were (unsuccessfully) trying to capture.
If someone painstakingly hand sculpted an exact replica of "David", does it make it art, or a forgery? Is hand written code to produce generative art not art?
It's difficult to pin down the line. Ultimately it's up to the individual to define them. "The relationship to art, and this kind of painting, to their work, varied with the person entirely."[1]
[1]: https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/03/31/berkeley-voices-transfo...
> If someone painstakingly hand sculpted an exact replica of "David", does it make it art, or a forgery? Is hand written code to produce generative art not art?
No and no.
If you raise and teach a child and they generate a painting, are you the artist?