AI & Election Interference: Local Experts Weigh In
Part 3: AI, Art and Human Creativity
Interview with Konstantina Kapanidou
Practicing Artist and Art Teacher, Pinewood American International School of Thessaloniki
By Linda Manney
Konstantina Kapanidou is an IB Visual Arts teacher and Arts Department Chair at Pinewood American International School and Anatolia College, Thessaloniki. As a practicing artist and a children’s book illustrator, Konstantina has also offered workshops as a visiting artist in institutions such as the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the University of the Arts London.
LM: In recent years, AI image-generators, like Midjourney or DALL- E3, have been used to mass produce images that are derived from original artwork created by human artists. For practicing artists, do you think this is this a positive or detrimental development?
KK: There are always two sides to every story. On the one hand, people have always been fascinated by shortcuts to create something of their own that looks good, according to their own criteria. Practicing artists, on the other hand, will probably not use AI blindly to create art, but they might explore its possibilities. For example, they could make a number of edits to their prompts, or add original sketches to the AI tool in order to explore new possibilities, or see how their art interacts with the new medium. But I think that humans will lead AI, and not the other way around.
However, I definitely think that AI could be detrimental for graphic designers and possibly illustrators. But then again, AI generated work clearly does not have the depth that art has, and it doesn’t influence people in the deep way that quality art can. So, it doesn’t have the impact, it doesn’t have the skill, it doesn’t have the originality, it simply has a fast pace.
Ultimately, though, the human factor, with all its complexities, experiences and vast tapestry of emotions which affect the creation of art, this cannot be replaced or replicated to its core; there is a uniquely human quality to art work.
LM: How can artists as a group respond to the misuse of their work by AI image generators?
KK: That is a very good question. I think we are all taken aback by the fast pace that AI is developing and affecting the production of art, and this might prompt an organised response by groups of artists. If I had to recommend something, that would possibly be artists’ unions collaborating with big art institutions/museums along with legal representatives in order to prepare viable proposals which honour their intellectual property rights. These should then be communicated to the respective governments or other agencies.
LM: Could you describe a project you’ve done with students to tap into their creativity or help them become creative, as part of their uniquely human potential?
KK: Well, we recently did an activity in one of my classes that was inspired by Alexander Calder, an American sculptor. I was trying to help students see how different materials can impact the representation of the same object. So, we first created continuous line drawings of one another, and then we transferred that into a continuous wire sculpture, inspired by Alexander Calder, as we were looking at the drawing, and then, we translated the continuous wire sculpture into a solid clay sculpture that imitated the wire sculpture, that imitated the drawing, and then we drew the clay sculpture, which imitated the wire sculpture, and so on. This was fun, and it helped the students see how using a different material or technique can give different results in representing the same subject. The students also learned technical skills, and they learned to observe, and came to realize that there are very different approaches for expressing artistic creativity.
LM: What forces in your life have shaped your own artistic creativity?
KK: Well in general, any kind of experience we have in our own culture or community, with our food, its smells, our family, our friends, all this collectively, it affects the way we look at the world. Personally, if I were pressed to identify something more specific, I’d say that I’ve always been interested in what is fair and what is unfair, and I realize as I get older and I look back on my work,
I’ve always wanted to make sure there is a balance brought in my work to make sure that things are made to be fair, for example, the representation of women in popular culture. The work I create aims to bring a balance, to show something different from the mainstream view, to try to make things more fair and equal.
LM: I remember work that you were doing with students at Pinewood, a project you were doing that had to do with refugee children and how these children are represented.
KM: Yes, I still do that. It started with a teaching unit I designed on the means of representation in the arts, and the question I was exploring was if people across time and around the world have been equally represented in the arts. The answer, of course, is “No.”
So I had the students look at different pictures of people from different backgrounds, and we began our study of how to paint a portrait. We started with how to paint a portrait, how to mix paint to represent a particular skin tone correctly, in other words, how do you mix color to represent the skin tone of someone who is of Caucasian, African, or Asian descent, so it ties in with a more important humanistic point that the basic colors we use to represent different skin tones are the same, but the quantities we use for each color are different.
We created a series of portraits and made a video of our work. I also began a collaboration with the Memory Project organization, which supports children in need around the world, and also works with Children’s Home orphanages around the world.
Initially we expressed our interest in painting the portraits of some of the children associated with this organization. Once the children agreed, the organization provided personal information and a picture of each child whose portrait was to be painted. When my students finished their work, we sent these portraits to the organization, and members of the organization went to the respective orphanages to deliver the original portraits of the children done by our students.
It went well, so I decided to take this project a step further, from a global level to a local community. I got in touch with the IHA, the Inter-European Human Aid Association, an organization that promotes the idea of human dignity in refugee communities. This was fairly easy since they are located about 40 minutes from Thessaloniki.
The IHA is doing great work to support people who transition here in Greece from other parts of the world and pass through Greece in the process. So, we did the same portrait project for some of these children living close to Thessaloniki. We went to the refugee camps to meet the children, and we created their portraits. We also created portraits for many of the staff and volunteers at the IHA as a way to honor them as well. After we gave them our finished portraits, they put them on display, so we now have a close connection with them.
LM: And this sense you have of what is fair and what is not fair, do you think this would set you apart from a machine or a robot?
KK: Oh yes, of course! In art, we celebrate who you are; there’s only one you in the world, there is no other one like you.
No matter how well educated an AI robot is, no matter how much data you give it, there is always an aspect that is missing. When you create an artwork, you, the creator, you’re always responding to it, every single second, it is a living being, it’s an organic thing, it’s not like moving from A to B, it’s not like moving in a straight line.
As you respond to the art you’re creating, you’re responding as a complete human being, with your entire self, with the totality of experiences you’ve had, the techniques that you know, the questions that you want to answer. That’s why the human factor in art cannot be replaced, because the process of creating is an ongoing process of responding with the entire self.
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