Watched a friend's AI art win a contest and felt weird about it

Last Saturday at the county fair, my buddy entered a landscape he made with Midjourney. Took him maybe 20 minutes of tweaking prompts. It won second place and $150. Meanwhile there's a watercolor painter next to him who spent two weeks on her piece and got nothing. Just felt off. The judge said it was about 'composition and feeling' not process. But isn't the process part of what makes art art? Has anyone else seen AI work slip into traditional shows like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

beth27613d agoMost Upvoted

Last year at a local gallery show, I saw an AI piece take an award over a hand-painted portrait that took months. It stung to watch because the conversation after was all about the final look, not the work behind it. Did the contest have any rules about AI entry, or was it just left open like that?

claire_grant3413d ago

Ugh, that's SO frustrating! I actually just read an article about this exact thing happening at bigger competitions too. A lot of them are starting to require a "process statement" now where artists have to explain their workflow, which seems like a good way to separate the prompt-punchers from the real painters.

fiona_kim13d ago

Right? Process statements should be mandatory everywhere honestly lol