Can Spirituality be Realized in making AI Art? Artist Jeff Perkins Shares His Experience

Join podcast host Christopher Miller as he explores the philosophical and spiritual implications of making AI art with artist Jeff Perkins. 

Jeff is an AI artist who seeks to use artificial intelligence to create stunning artwork. Blending technology with creativity, Jeff would like to be part of the movement to expand the art world's horizons using artificial intelligence. 

Chris challenges Jeff to answer, "Do you believe that when you make a digital image, there is a spiritual reflection of who you are contained in the final work?" 

Jeff explains that he feels the presence of something other than himself in his process and defines the experience as a form of co-creation. He does find himself experiencing flow when working on an image. 

Jeff begins the interview by presenting the term Digital Perspectivism. Digital Perspectivism is the view that reality is an abstraction; we perceive it from our perspective. In essence, this term means that all realities are valid, but all are different. 

He suggests that when we deal with others in life, we can be more compassionate and understanding toward them if we accept the idea of perspectivism. 

AI art can democratize art-making because it is now available to everyone with or without traditional training. However, he cautions that there is much to be discussed regarding ownership and copywriting of original work but believes that by using AI to create, we can expand the horizons of the art world. AI is forcing us to question what identity is. What is the ethical way of handling someone's digital persona? How do we address these concerns? 

Jeff briefly explains the process of entering a prompt, regenerating the results, and experiencing random effects. Randomness is built into the AI logarithm. According to Jeff, with every regeneration, we see the results mutating. However, each time we decide to regenerate an image, we are bringing ourselves into the creation of the project. We co-create with artificial intelligence.  

Jeff has found himself exploring gender and sexuality roles in his imagery because he wants to see images affirming his identity. LGBTQ themes are a significant area of focus for Jeff, who lives with his husband, artist Michael Duncan, in Dallas, Texas. He takes a digital perspectivist approach to AI art that seeks to validate diverse experiences mediated through digital technology. 

Chris and Jeff discuss the variable of randomness built into AI systems. They don't respond to the same prompt the same way each time. If your prompt is too specific, it can hinder the AI's ability to make adaptations. Learning to be open to random results is another trait of a spiritual artist. 

At the conclusion of the interview, Chris and Jeff reviewed the experience of making digital art. They noted many spiritual similarities between traditional and artificial intelligence systems when creating new work.

You can find examples of Jeff’s work on Instagram by visiting: jeffperkins_1452.