"Never Brushed Once" How This Artwork Won 1st Place at a US Art Competition and How It Was Created

At the art competition held last month at the Colorado State Fair in the United States, game planner Jason M. Allen's "Theatre D'opera Spatial" won first place in the digital art category. This work was created using the AI image generator Midjourney.
[Photo by YouTube capture]

[Asia Economy Reporter Sumi Hwang] Controversy has arisen after an artwork created by artificial intelligence (AI) won first place at an art competition in the United States. Among the art community and netizens, opinions clash between those who argue that "a painting never touched by human brushstrokes cannot be considered a work of art" and those who believe that "artworks created using technology also hold artistic value."

According to CNN on the 3rd (local time), at the art competition held last month at the Colorado State Fair in the United States, game planner Jason M. Allen's "Theatre D'opera Spatial" took first place in the digital art category.

This piece was created using Midjourney, an AI image generator. Midjourney is an AI program that converts text commands into images. Allen selected three works created using this method to submit to the competition, and one of them won first place.

A competition official explained that, according to the competition rules, artistic acts such as image editing using digital technology during the creative process are recognized.

Allen stated, "While experimenting with Midjourney, I was fascinated by the realistic images generated by AI," and added, "I wanted to show people how amazing this kind of art is," explaining his motivation for participating in the competition.

However, a debate erupted among netizens over Allen's work. The main issue was whether a painting generated by AI rather than a human can be considered a work of art. Some netizens responded with comments such as "I believe it can definitely fall within the artistic realm" and "paintings created using technology also have artistic value."

On the other hand, there were claims that it is not appropriate for a work that the creator never once touched with a brush to win first place. Some artists even criticized, saying, "Winning with a painting created by AI is clearly cheating."

In response, Allen defended himself by stating that he clearly indicated "Jason M. Allen via Midjourney" on the artwork. Since he disclosed that the work was generated by AI when submitting it to the competition, he argued that there is no problem with misrepresenting the origin of the piece. Allen emphasized, "I won, and I did not break any rules." He added, "Instead of hating technology, we need to recognize it as a powerful tool and use it well to move forward."

An AI image generator, Midjourney, was given the command "a cat watching alien forces invading Earth," and this is the image Midjourney produced based on that command. [Photo by Discord Midjourney channel capture]

Meanwhile, text-based image generation programs have previously attracted attention. Representative examples include DALL-E 2 provided by OpenAI and Imagen by Google. In particular, AI is being utilized beyond technical fields into creative areas, drawing interest from artists and designers. Some predict that illustrators may be the most affected profession due to the rise of image-generating AI.