Dave McKean, Ace Staffs. Courtesy of the artist
McKean’s output may be nothing short of prolific, but after a lifetime of creativity, the artistic process still does not necessarily come easily. He explains, “I’ve tried to pay attention to my state of mind when I start a new project, but it’s a painful repeating pattern of struggling to find anything that works in the first few days, throwing most of what I do into the bin, self-doubt, anxiety, time passing, deadlines approaching, stress. But then something clicks, it always does, and I get into it, I stop worrying, I start enjoying it and see the possibilities, and then I’m in the flow, or the zone, or whatever it is, and just floating somewhere between paying attention but not overthinking it. Every time I go through this little routine, and even though I’m fully aware of it now, I can’t seem to bypass it.”
Dave McKean, 67. Courtesy of the artist
In recent years, the art world has seen the rise of images created by artificial intelligence, and with it, a plethora of questions have inevitably arisen. Understanding that he could either “retire or respond,” McKean set about creating what would become a 96-page book of short graphic stories “exploring and conversing” with the phenomenon that seems to have manifested straight from the pages of a science-fiction novel. The project was created in merely twelve days, a little over half the time it took to print and bind the subsequent book. When asked what his thoughts were on AI-created art, McKean’s response is one that any interested in, or involved with the phenomenon, should certainly take note of:
“After an intensive time working with it and getting to know its strengths and weaknesses, and researching how the algorithms work, I’ve decided AI should have no business in our creative lives, and will only have a negative effect on human culture. Science, medicine, sure, AI’s pattern recognition will bring great opportunities and advances, but creativity should remain, I believe, the domain of humans in their attempt to understand each other, and be empathic. AI will only confuse, or destroy, that. And it’s not ‘art’. It’s stuff, it doesn’t meet my definition of art. Also, we all as individuals have to understand that we either live an ethical life, or we knowingly don’t. AI uses other people’s work to mix into its imagery, you either respect that that is copyright infringement, or you choose to turn a blind eye.”