Now I am probably not the only one who has noticed the modernization of art and architecture, with more geometric and absurd designs and pieces. I find these pieces of art and design almost insulting to previous generations of art.

I just don’t believe that contemporary art and architecture are art.

Have you ever looked at a Gothic building before, or maybe the Sagrada Família that uses Gothic architecture in modern times? I think these buildings are unbelievable and beautiful, imposing themselves over their surroundings.

I think this type of beauty and innovation in architecture is lost in the modern era. Lots of modern architecture in cities has the goal of packing buildings together, mostly geometrical, and I think it’s incredibly uninspiring. I hope we can find a new style of architecture that leaves us inspired, not depressed. A lot of modern buildings look the same. I think the world that surrounds us should inspire us to make great art, but in the modern era, most of our buildings now look bland and unispiring.

Younger generations will not know what true inspiration looks like. A great example of uninspired architecture is parametricism–that is constructed of these wavy lines, also using symmetry, and white tones and is very uninspired and boring. It can be useful does not mean it is entirely good or beautiful architecture.

The majority of contemporary art is based on weak artistry and simplistic design. A solid blue color picture is a great example–even if a newly invented blue color, it’s not worth anything design-wise. Modern art has gotten so stale in areas that people even thought that glasses on the ground left by a student in San Francisco were an art piece.

Contemporary art is less inspired than any other art form. At least when people go to draw something, it is somewhat stylized or intriguing because of that human touch. But contemporary art, in some cases, is almost like AI art; it lacks the touch and feels like a soulless product mistaken for a mundane pair of glasses.

Art should be about the process and not always the product. If you are any form of artist, you would recognize and agree that most of the time it is the process that gets you to a good product–not just snapping your fingers to create simple and AI-generated design. All the artists and designers before you spent even more time than it takes you to create art, to make simple presets. Presets that can be converted into files to make a product or design a house that you have access to.

So why at this time with the most access to art and tools to make it, are AI and contemporary art popular in the discussion?

I think the only reason that AI art and poor and boring architecture are even created is corporate and margin-based interests in product. Corporations see where we live, everything we buy, and people involved in it as a cog. What takes more money than getting an architect to develop a building and a producer to make a song? Using AI to generate these things, to remove artists from the equation. If you believe this isn’t happening, it is on Spotify, a big brand most people use for streaming music.

Spotify and most streaming platforms, Netflix as well, without profitable parent companies, Amazon, or companies that make licensing easy, like Disney are not profitable. Licensing and serving royalties makes them barely break and sometimes go into the red. So if you’re Spotify and 70% of your possible revenue goes to artists, you have to beg to be on the platform for your work to be popular. To become a profitable model we need to cut out the middleman–US!–and connect the art to the platform.

I think this type of thinking, that more simple and generated designs can make margins bigger, is the complete opposite of the point of art. It’s almost dystopian. These companies don’t want humans to express themselves or even design the world that THEY live in. So I ask you, is contemporary AI art or algorithmic architecture art without human hands or human thought or human process even art? I say no. Even if humans build it or post it, it doesn’t mean it’s human and it doesn’t mean it’s art.

I don’t want to see more corporate soulless contemporary art. Do not support art that corporations want to produce to make margins. Do not support art without an artist, and do not support art without a soul.