When John McCarthy coined the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 1955, he defined it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.” These days, AI has advanced pretty far, allowing users to expedite writing, art-making, and other creative pursuits. AI isn’t always just prompt in/image out, although that can be fun. It can be one layer in the lasagna of your art practice: use it as part of your brainstorming process, as an interactive element in your installations, to inspire your painting color palette, to create lists that your work reacts to, or however else you see fit.
AI has come a long way, but there are still flaws to be worked out conceptually (intellectual property is part of this debate) and technically (will AI ever generate an image of a human without extra fingers?). Whatever your feelings on AI, it’s here to stay, and you might be considering using it in some form to make work for your college portfolio. SMFA at Tufts Admissions is offering up these tips so you can incorporate AI with confidence.
Feel free to use AI in tandem with other digital and analog processes.
SMFA at Tufts is an interdisciplinary art school, so we always welcome experimental and mixed media processes in your portfolio. AI meshes well with other artistic processes. Maybe you can source assets
from multiple images and collage them together to create a new narrative. Or maybe you could generate an image, then print it out and paint or screenprint on it. Maybe you could animate stories that AI generated. The possibilities are endless! Often, putting your human perspective back into AI can prompt exciting and unexpected results.
Use AI as a jumping off point.
If you’re ever in a creative rut, try bouncing some ideas off of an AI! Have a general concept for a piece but want a concrete starting point? AI is a great tool for blueprinting your projects. Struggling to put your concept into words? AI is helpful when creating clear and concise language.
Make sure your portfolio still has YOU in it.
It’s important that we can feel a student’s unique perspective in their art. The SMFA at Tufts portfolio has no restrictions or requirements so that students have the freedom to share the work which is important and exciting to them. We’d like to see your perspective and experiences show up in your work, and using AI as one of the mediums in your practice shouldn’t change that. Make sure you’re still showcasing your conceptual development in addition to all of the skills you’ve got under your belt.
Tell us that you used AI.
When submitting your portfolio, you’ll be prompted to include a description for each work of art including the medium used to create the piece. Much like you might note your use of paint, photography, or clay, it’s important to note if AI image generation was involved in your process. Transparency is key, and you wouldn’t want to try to pass AI generated art off as something you created by hand. Precision rendering isn’t always what we’re looking for in your portfolio, so don’t feel as though you have to use AI to mask where you are in your artistic journey.
We hope this list is helpful in guiding your use of AI in a portfolio. For more portfolio advice, check out these tips for a perfect portfolio, hear from SMFA faculty about AI in Art, and join us for a virtual portfolio review.