Y’all remember in spring 2023 when it seemed every human being was physically incapable of talking about anything other than Artificial Intelligence?
Fun times. Glad that’s over!
Ha.
Ha ha.
Ha ha ha.
Oh, what’s that? You’re telling me that now, almost a year and a half later, IT’S STILL THE SAME? Sigh.
AI this, AI that. You should use AI to help you write your stories. You shouldn’t touch AI with a ten foot pole. You should put a disclaimer that you didn’t use AI to help write your novel. But how will you find the wording for that disclaimer? Hmm… maybe we should ask AI.
And I hate that I’m still here, click-clacking away on my little keyboard, desperately searching for hope while the dark, heavy AI/tech storm cloud casts a shadow overtop me.
But I was able to find hope within the original storm of AI, as evidenced by my blog ‘Since Everyone Else is Talking About It…’ published on my website on March 12, 2023:
I know I’m always endeared when I’m enjoying a piece of art and I see a mistake (a typo in a novel, for example). It is a humbling moment that reminds me: ah, yes, someone was on the other side of this art, spending hours and hours pouring their heart and soul into it. That must count for something.
Even though AI may continue to rise and grow stronger… will that ever really stop artists from creating their art? Even now, there are a million and one things you can choose to do with your evenings, yet every Wednesday night, a group of 20+ writers in Bucks County, Pennsylvania get together to work on their writing. None of the changing world has killed our spirit to create. Not yet, not ever.
Here I am, 17 months later and an ocean away from where that blog was originally written, and still I feel the healing power of those words written by Paige-from-the-past (and not by AI, thank you very much).
In fact, I feel it even more now.
Here’s why:
1.
Because 17 months later, I know that 20+ writers continue to meet in Bucks County, Pennsylvania every Wednesday to give and receive feedback on their writing.
But now, I also know that another group of 20+ writers meet in an upstairs pub in Manchester, England. Laughing and drinking and writing and critiquing.
And I also know that even MORE writers meet all throughout the city of Munich, Germany. Multiple little groups gather at various times a week on Zoom or at different cafes amongst the city, silently working alongside one another. And I know that 13 writers have responded to my call to starting our very own critique group.
In this past year, I’ve personally witnessed 100+ people across three different countries who, in a world where they could choose to do literally anything else, choose to come together. They choose to create.
2.
July was a month of music.
I spent the month bouncing around central Europe, fortunate enough to enjoy various live musical performances. Vulfpeck at a jazz festival at Lake Geneva, a Mozart quartet in Salzburg, and Taylor Swift and Adele in Munich. In fact, it was at all of these events that the seed for this blog post was planted. For it was at all of these events where I realized powerful, healing, and connective music can be.
That can be said of all art! Art can transcend time, art can transcend language, art can transcend space.
Art is a feeling. It’s a racing heartbeat. It’s a held breath. It’s the goosebumps that prickle up and down your arms when you hear that first note, or read that first line of poetry.
It is knowing that another human once held this art inside them. Wrote down those words. Pinched that paintbrush between their fingers. Opened their mouth and sang. Picked up an instrument and played.
3.
A few weeks ago, I read an essay on SubStack that totally changed the way I view this whole debacle with AI. I wish I had saved the essay in some way to link it here, but in it, the author pointed out that people create art because they have an innate desire to do so. That won’t just disappear. The essay reminded me that we humans have been creating art since the beginning of time.
It unearthed a memory I have of myself as a child, pacing around the computer room in my house. I wasn’t yet able to read. My sister sat at the big boxy computer, and I told her a story. She typed it up for me, and after, I spent the rest of the day drawing the pictures.
For many of us, AI isn’t going to replace our art, because we were creating art before we even know we were. We’ll be creating art all our lives.
After I read that essay, I came across this quote while working my way through Week 8 of The Artist’s Way1. And, well, it simply says it all:
“Creativity lies not in the done, but in the doing.”
There you go, my friends. Hope. 💛
To end, I hope you’ll enjoy these videos of people loving live music. Really, truly loving it. I dare you to tell me that one day we will feel this level of excitement over AI produced art.
(In the last video, the musician left the stage and then suddenly appeared from the balcony of this apartment building????? I’m still trying to figure that one out lol)
Full post about this experience definitely coming later this month!
Lovely, and also is that a sneaky little announcement of the formation of Paige's Writer's Group. 👀 😁
Well done, Paige! Loved the reading/the way you write...a true gift.