Bakersfield College had its first Gadfly Café of the semester Feb. 7, in which students had the opportunity to learn more about art.
Philosophy professor Reggie Williams who is also director of the Levan Center, welcomed and introduced everyone to special guest Professor of Digital Media arts Jeffrey Houston and explained what this day’s discussion would be about. They focused on the purpose of art, and which is art for each of them.
The discussion began with the first question, which was what is art for you?
Art is something with which you can express yourself and make your feelings and mood known, art has the power to express things that many times you cannot express with words, according to students who were there. Art can not only be expressed with the idea of the person who makes it, but you yourself can also give it your own meaning and give it your own approach.
Many people in attendance said that AI is killing art because it can make paintings in seconds, and it does not take long; whereas, a person can take a long time to finish a painting.
One student explained that he does not believe that AI is killing art because people put their effort into creating AI, and it is considered art even if a person does not do it directly. Also because with art you can express and with AI you cannot express anything alone. He also added that AI does not have the power to connect with people through painting, while you can express yourself by painting, that is a power that the AI does not have.
In this discussion, the students had the chance to ask questions and talked a lot about AI and how it may or may not affect art as we know it today.