"Late last year, cyberethnographer Ruby Justice Thelot wrote an insightful ARTnews article pondering the effect of AI on digital folk art. In it, he describes online content creation as a type of folk art born of the Internet, defining such work-from Ally Sheehan's Taylor Swift video tributes, to Natalie Wynn's theatrical sociopolitical commentary -as "a devotional act" to a niche online community, sometimes "for no or little compensation." Such work, he says, has "the authentic and personal feel" characteristic of folk art in other media."
"But he wonders: will this digital folk become endangered as AI "lowers the barrier" both to creating and optimizing content? No doubt, this optimization has already begun to creep in. And yet, our feeds maintain a cornucopia of folk art-from NFTs, to Skibidi toilet videos, to 67 memes-suggesting creators are for now undeterred, or perhaps clinging to a sense of authenticity increasingly under threat."
"Kissick's Spike article "The Vulgar Image" garnered less attention than his controversial late 2024 Harper's screed, "The Painted Protest," but was more perceptive about the state of contemporary culture. The article enumerates the aesthetic qualities of what he calls the "Vulgar Image": "figurative, tasteless, illegible, stupid, fake, disembodied, grotesque, transformed." Such images, which encompass things like Wojaks, mutant ape NFTs, and memes of JD Vance's bloated head, circulate widely online because"
Digital folk art consists of internet-born content created as devotional acts to niche communities, often for little or no compensation. These creations display an authentic, personal feel akin to traditional folk art and include tributes, theatrical sociopolitical commentary, memes, NFTs, and viral videos. AI is lowering barriers to creation and optimization, introducing tools that may standardize or threaten grassroots authenticity. Despite optimization pressures, feeds continue to feature diverse folk artifacts, suggesting ongoing creator resilience. The concept of the "Vulgar Image" captures a set of aesthetic traits—figurative, tasteless, illegible, grotesque—that dominate large swaths of online visual culture.
Read at ARTnews.com
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