I have a thought about Adobe's recent actions. But I'm not thinking about the cost, because that's relative. Their pricing policy deserves a separate post, and there are probably already dozens of analyses of this frog-boiling. However, if you don't like the price, you don't have to pay.
What I mean is the direction they've taken and are stubbornly continuing, as a tool provider for creators.
For example, Savage (the creators of Procreate) focus on showcasing the creative process; the application is a tool for artists who pull beautiful things from the corners of their minds. Meanwhile, what do you see in Adobe's ads? A prompt window (text field) where you just need to type the right spell, and the program presents the result, three options to choose from so you don't have to click three times. Something went wrong? You can point to a section for correction, after all, we are demanding creators, no slacking off!
I don't know about you, but it disgusts me. Well, maybe a little less drastically: it worries me.
The art world is heading towards an abyss with the sign "you don't have to be an artist to become an artist." You don't have to know how to draw to draw something. The program will process a photo so that everyone will applaud. Look, you click in the menu, a filter here, then here, and voila! An algorithm will promote your reel, where you slowly turn, showing a 2x2m painting with a portrait redrawn from a photo.
Am I exaggerating? Of course, but pay attention to what's happening on Instagram.
You might also be wondering, for example, why are there so many crappy movies? Well, it's because 50 years ago, to become a cinematographer or director, you had to graduate from the right school, which you first had to get into, and to get in, passion and talent were helpful. After years of professional ups and downs, honing your craft and social skills, you could collect pollen from flowers. Now, all you need is a phone. Hell, let's leave these artists aside. Now, to be a tiler, all you need is to take a course on YouTube!
I am absolutely not saying that a career from YouTube is impossible; quite the opposite – access to tools is one of the most beautiful situations that could have happened. But let's not let it come with the belief, and even the insistence, that you don't need to know anything.
I have concerns about the distant future. In my beloved "The Time Machine" by Wells (I mean the 1960 film adaptation, which I watched as a child; I read the book later), the phenomenon of the disappearance of the need for culture is clearly visible. And I'm not talking about its quality, because that has been and still is varied, but about our internal desire to interact with it. Books in the library crumbled to dust. The same could become a reality sooner than we think. Images will be generated automatically, in the blink of an eye, according to our brain impulse (prompt), and displayed on the wall. Art will cease to be an intellectual challenge, sometimes something vaguely understood, a puzzle we want to solve, delve into. It will become, like ourselves, simple, accessible, like ground chicken from KFC.
Does all this seem absurd and distant to you? One hundred and twenty years ago, the Wright brothers created the first airplane. It barely held together, and the first flight covered a distance of 37 meters and lasted 12 seconds. That was literally "yesterday." Today, humanity reaches for the stars, and a manned flight to Mars seems only a matter of time. What will tomorrow bring? Maybe we will be replaced by an artificial human with artificial intelligence? It won't have to eat, drink, or sleep, and it will be able to achieve the impossible, or at least what we cannot.
Only the art will be a shame.
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