Untimely Reflections #26: Andrei Georgescu (Artiexus) - Seedless Flowers & Materialist Theories of Creativity

I'd originally planned to launch into Deleuze this week, but I'm busy playing shows all weekend and decided to release this instead. I think this was a great episode, perhaps one of the best Untimely Reflections yet.

Andrei Georgescu is an old friend of the show. He's a writer, a graphic designer, and a podcaster. A few months ago, he published an essay called, "Seedless Flowers: Artificial Intelligence and Creativity Fetishism", in which he analyzes the public reaction to art created by artificial intelligence, and the popular prejudices about creativity. Artists tend to believe that creativity is something which has to come from a being with a soul, treating it as a magical happening that is somehow beyond the material reality. A.I. art challenges that viewpoint, demonstrating the possibility of creativity coming from a collection of metal and wires. We discuss the "ugly duckling" theory of art, in which we value the effort that went into the piece over the final product or the quality of the piece. Such ideas compel us to dismiss beautiful works that were produced or aided by artificial intelligence, while holding up sub-par works as 'true art'. Our conversation about art takes us into my theories about art as communication, the origins of linguistic communication, the possibility of mapping the logical structures of languages. Towards the end of the episode, we take a look at the passage of Nietzsche's from The Gay Science, entitled, "The Genius of the Species", and argue over the importance of consciousness.

We originally recorded a discussion about the article a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, fate was unkind and our first conversation about it was lost. I really kicked myself over that one, since it was my fault. Nevertheless, the timing was right to attempt it again, and I think we had a fascinating conversation.
You can find some excellent video essays on his Youtube Channel, @Artiexus: https://www.youtube.com/@artiexus
Andrei's article, the jumping-off point for this conversation: https://andreigeorgescu.ca/seedless-flowers-artificial-intelligence-and-creativity-fetishism/

Episode art: Prayer by Andrei Georgescu