Christian Caliandro on Why Negativity Scares Artists in the Age of AI

In a recent article on Artribune, Christian Caliandro argues that the art world's obsession with efficiency has replaced a necessary engagement with negativity. He contends that AI-generated art, using tools like DALL·E and Midjourney, exemplifies this shift, where recombination of existing works—a practice he traces back to postmodernism—is now judged by performative efficiency rather than critical depth. Caliandro draws on Carl Gustav Jung's concept of the Shadow and Philip K. Dick's notion of empathy to assert that negativity, inefficiency, and contradiction are fundamental to humanity and genuine art. He criticizes the contemporary art system for prioritizing utilitarian, economic interests over authentic relationality, leading to a reification of both art and human beings. The article is part of a series exploring AI and contemporary art, previously addressing whether AI outperforms artists and the role of suffering in art.