It's The Real Thing
Charlotte Booth • 2 August 2023
Why choose the original over a print?
This week I was listening to a fascinating podcast
about one of Van Gogh's paintings, the portrait of Dr Gachet, and what happened to it after it was sold for $82.5m.
What was so fascinating was that since the sale in the 1990s the painting has not been seen, and it is thought to be housed in a warehouse, for want of a better word, along with many other famous and important art works. And there it is likely to remain.
Personally, I find this outcome thoroughly tragic. Although it could have been worse as the private buyer is rumoured to have threatened to take it to the crematorium with him when he died - luckily he was joking.
It got me thinking about what I would do if I owned an original Van Gogh. My only response would be to enjoy it, put it on the wall and look at it. Appreciate it as it was meant to be appreciated.
But then I thought about insurance, and not having it near windows where people could potentially see it from the street, or preventing it from fading in the sun.
Obviously, all these considerations are irrelevant as I don't have $82.5m (plus thirty years inflation) to buy one, but I was fascinated at why I would like to own an original. More than anything actually.
It's not for the value (as that brings its own issues), but for having a connection to the past, and a direct connection with Van Gogh, knowing he had painted every single stroke with his own hand. Of course I can get a print of every painting he ever made, but it really isn't the same.
This idea of connection with a creator, having a direct link with them and their creativity is an important one, and one that we are potentially losing with our online world.
AI and AI generated copy and artwork is moving us away from the creativity of humans and that connection to their experiences, emotions and way of thinking.
In the same way that a print of a Van Gogh painting is nice, it pales to insignificance in the face of a real one. I feel the same about AI generated copy.
Would I read a book written by AI? Probably not. Would I rather read a book which has experiences, pain, emotion and creativity behind it? Absolutely.
An AI generated text may be technically perfect, follow all the writing and grammar rules to the letter but it lacks soul, it lacks the humanity a life lived presents when a writer creates. An AI generated novel (or art work) to me, almost negates the point of a novel or artwork. These are creative outputs for people who have these skills - they are not things that need to be churned out for the sake of it.
In business AI does have a value, but it should never replace the experience of a human creative. Of course an AI bot may be able to perfectly produce a manual for putting together some furniture without fault BUT can it do it in a way a 'user' will understand?
Will the average user know the difference between a GN56 and GN76 screw? Probably not, but a human writer will question these terms and ensure the text answers the questions every user of the manual has. If the content is for humans to ingest, then it makes sense for a human to be involved in its creation.
AI is currently rocking the business world, saving money and time but at what cost? By removing the human element in your content creation how do you hope to actually connect with your human buyers?
If you want to connect with algorithms and bots use AI but if you want to connect with real humans then contact me
for your content.
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There is nothing more amusing than checking out mediaeval artistic renditions of lions and other heraldic creatures. These beasts, grimacing and gurning are a strange juxtaposition of human, animal and demon and as far from the cute image of Alex from the Madagascar franchise or in fact a real lion as you could possibly get. There are three main reasons mediaeval lions are so ‘bad’ and un-representational; The artists were following a very tight brief. Some of the artists may never have seen a lion, and were following the descriptions they were given. These lions were representing heraldic principals of bravery, nobility and authority; all very human characteristics. When viewed through this lens it becomes more understandable why they look the way they do, but they are still ‘not right’ and not a great tool for learning about lions. Generative AI is very similar to an uninformed but talented mediaeval artist. There is a element of intelligence but at the end of the day it is following a brief, with no actual ‘knowledge’ of the thing it is producing. As an example, if you prompt your generative AI (ChatGPT and the like) to produce a blog for your new product or service, aimed at your ideal customer avatar you will in all likelihood get a mediaeval lion out the other end. Sort of recognisable, and sort of not. This is because AI doesn’t know what a customer is (ideal or otherwise), has no idea what your product or service is and does, and has no true understanding of how this service or product will serve your ideal customer and their needs. Of course, AI is pulling all the information available from the internet to help with its answer but there is no understanding there. There is no determining fact from falsehoods or even which websites are trustworthy and which are not. So, it skims the internet and puts together content which suits the brief as it understands it. This is then when the actual work should start as this content shouldn’t be used in the raw. It should be edited and tweaked by a human who DOES understand the brief, has been a customer (ideal or otherwise) and can imagine what your ideal customer will feel when using your product or services. We are in a world now, where we have generative AI promoting products and services to humans, when it has no concept of what a human is and how it thinks, meaning the marketing department are in fact more important than ever for ensuring content and copy is aimed at humans and human emotions. You could argue that the world would be a more entertaining place if there were more mediaeval lions in it, but it wouldn’t be a great environment for learning, or for basing purchasing decisions on. If you want to maintain the human element in your content, then I would love to help . Explain the brief, your CTA and your ideal client and I will know what I need to ask to get a clear idea before writing. Then you can rest assured your content was written by a human for a human and we can leave the mediaeval lions to the museums.
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