Why creatives and artists need to stop playing small

For the past two years, the world has raved about how AI will replace creative work. It’s time to move on and focus on the greater value of art and creativity and how we can bring that into society.

Aren’t we all tired of hearing how AI will replace all creative jobs? Or how capable it is at writing a human-like novel? Seriously, does any of this even matter?

When we obsess over generative AI as a stand-in for creative work, what we’re really talking about is how it can churn out ideas, language, and images on command. Sure, these tools can effectively spit out content according to our needs, but since when was that ever the real heart of artistic expression? (FYI, to make this text clear and concise, I’ll use artistic and creative expression here as synonyms.) 

Art is more than content creation. 

Art is more than an outcome.

Art is an action.

Creatives are more than content-spitting machines

I had a little Google search to find out how people define the role of an artist. Here are a few examples: 

The role of an artist is to make society aware of those elements that have not yet entered their consciousness. (Link to source)

Artists provide creative, intellectual and emotional insights into society at large, impacting the masses and challenging the status quo. (Link to source)

There are at least three ways of conceptualizing the role of the artist in society based on different ways of thinking about culture (Gaztambide--Fernández, 2008). In different contexts, artists can be seen as (1) producers of "great works" that protect the values of the social elite, (2) inciters of a public imagination that subverts the social order, and (3) entertainers that reflect public needs and wants. (Link to source) 

The last one, derived from research, states that artists can take three different roles in society, and in my opinion, only the third one is what ChatGPT and its buddies do. They can entertain the public's needs and wants when they are told what the public's needs and wants are. 

The other two jobs are really what humans should focus on (except for the elite values bit). We should be producing great work—not mediocre—but great. And even more importantly, we should encourage action and thought that challenges or undermines society's established rules, norms, and power structures.

Could it be that somewhere along the lines of capitalist wealth accumulation, we have forgotten what the purpose of our creative efforts could (and maybe even should) be?

If we mistake our value for producing a blog post, an Instagram reel or animation, I think we’re underestimating our creative capacity. 

Creatives are societal actors – if we choose to be

Last year, I had the pleasure of collaborating with the Finnish Research Impact Foundation to produce a whitepaper about why social sciences, humanities and the arts are not actively collaborating with companies in the same way as the technical, mathematical and natural sciences are – and how we could change that. 

For this work, I interviewed researchers and arts professionals across Europe and learned that these fields often lack networks outside their fields to begin collaborations. Because representatives of the arts, humanities, and social sciences are driven by a culture of solopreneurship, freelancing, and working on short-term grants, they don’t have the connections that could give them a more significant stance and voice in society. 

Artistic work is often reduced to small-scale artistic projects with little connection to other sectors in society. In other words, artists stay small because they’ve never been involved in the circles that could make them big. 

Fortunately, there are people out there who want to change this. For example, the British Academy has given these fields the new acronym SHAPE, which stands for Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy. This acronym aims to give these fields a more active role in solving social problems and interacting with the economy. 

I personally believe that artistic expression can greatly impact society if we choose to use it in this manner. For example, it can help us understand different phenomena, from the sustainability transition to social equality and healthcare, and challenge techno-centric approaches to them.

The world needs people who can understand and move humanity in a positive direction.

But we can’t do it alone. We need collaboration, connections, and the courage to see ourselves as part of a larger narrative.

Are we keeping ourselves small?

Could it be that many of us working in the creative sector also choose to keep ourselves small? Isn’t it easier to be the underdog than to take charge and start interacting with the world? Isn’t it more comfortable to shout from the sidelines than to be involved in the arena? 

Being small allows us not to take ourselves and our work too seriously. It allows us to dwell on things like imposter syndrome and never feel like we’re good enough. 

But what if we were told that the future of our planet and society is in our hands and that no one else can do anything about it? There would be no mathematicians, climate experts, or tech wizards to rely on. What if we had to use our creativity and artistic passions to create wide-scale positive change? How would that change our perception of ourselves? 

Could we use our critical thinking, ability to establish connections between seemingly disparate things, empathy and understanding of the human condition, communications capabilities, and emotional and psychological capabilities to do good in ways that have yet to be explored? 

Could we forge those connections that would allow us to take center stage?

If we had more confidence in our position in the world and started talking and connecting with each other, maybe we would be a bit prouder of our efforts and become better seen through them.

And maybe the world would become a bit more inspiring for all of us.

I’m a strong believer in saying sorry rather than asking for permission and in taking action instead of waiting for the people around us to change. 

So maybe we should stop focusing on whether AI can produce better images of unicorns than we can and focus on claiming our true power.

What could the truest expression of our creative power look like? 

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Thank you for your time and presence. 

And remember, hope is not given to us but created within and by us. So, take an active role in shaping the future.

With the warmest wishes,
Aurora

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P.S. If you’re a creative whose truest expression is debilitated by constant chaos and overwhelm, you might be interested in this new free resource I created.

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