It seems the biggest question is how much does an actual human person have to be involved for something to count as art? The 20th century has seen a number of art movements, not only in music, which stretch the limits of what is acceptable in that regard. Do Steve Reich's tape-loop pieces count as art? What about Eno's generative music? I've worked in the ambient genre for a while, and I know it is very easy to create a system which will crank out music with minimal involvement.
I suppose it is all in the ear of the listener. If Ekfat's pieces sound good enough for someone to enjoy them, even after learning the truth about who Ekfat is, that surely counts for something. If a large corporation is profiting off of the assumption that Ekfat et al. are real artists, that is another issue . . .
Fake? Hmmm. I recall the day we first replaced a famous freak of a drummer with a sample. Expedience and economy ruled the musicians in the trenches then. Fame is its own business model defying definitions. Other adjectives are fun discussions like the one I heard from Jarrod Lanier, composer among other things, who said 1% of the new accounts on Facebook in 2020 were human beings. “Fake” looms over the digital age. And with the ones and zeroes at the wheel, this ride is going to get even wilder as meaning suns on bias beach.
It seems the biggest question is how much does an actual human person have to be involved for something to count as art? The 20th century has seen a number of art movements, not only in music, which stretch the limits of what is acceptable in that regard. Do Steve Reich's tape-loop pieces count as art? What about Eno's generative music? I've worked in the ambient genre for a while, and I know it is very easy to create a system which will crank out music with minimal involvement.
I suppose it is all in the ear of the listener. If Ekfat's pieces sound good enough for someone to enjoy them, even after learning the truth about who Ekfat is, that surely counts for something. If a large corporation is profiting off of the assumption that Ekfat et al. are real artists, that is another issue . . .
Very thought-provoking essay, thanks for writing.
Fake? Hmmm. I recall the day we first replaced a famous freak of a drummer with a sample. Expedience and economy ruled the musicians in the trenches then. Fame is its own business model defying definitions. Other adjectives are fun discussions like the one I heard from Jarrod Lanier, composer among other things, who said 1% of the new accounts on Facebook in 2020 were human beings. “Fake” looms over the digital age. And with the ones and zeroes at the wheel, this ride is going to get even wilder as meaning suns on bias beach.