Indelible Art
If there are humans, there must be human expression.
This story is courtesy of the Mini-Challenge at Creative.Inspired.Happy with Evelyn Skye. Thank you, Evelyn, for allowing me to share these little quick writings. The only prompt given for this story was the image below. Enjoy!
"PROCESS IS PRODUCTIVE" declared subway signs, sides of buses, billboards, classroom blackboards, and even government buildings. Once Leadership.Ai was voted in to power, everything got streamlined, more efficient. Menus were governed by growing seasons and crop conditions. Schoolwork was dictated towards society's needs, which led to plummeting unemployment and skyrocketing test scores. Eventually, even romantic pairings were designed through genetic comparisons and maximized trait desirability. For reproductive purposes, of course. And naturally, creativity and art fell away as unnecessary and thus inefficient. It made sense to everyone. Well, there were probably a few 'staving artists' who complained initially, but no one remembered them, and they weren't mentioned in the textbooks. It had been a very smooth transition to a happier, more efficient society.
Then, one day, paint showed up on a wall. Paint that caught the attention of those walking by. Paint that was beyond the control of the efficient Leadership.Ai. Paint that carried a message. And, somehow, without programming, without supervision, without efficiency studies, that message spoke to people. Privately, as privately as one can be in an AiSociety, paint found itself on the walls of bedrooms and bathrooms. Not normal house paint, but paint with messages, with feelings, with life. And then it showed up on living room walls and kitchen cabinets. Then the neat little rows of houses with four walls could no longer contain it, and the paint exploded onto sidewalks, and buildings, and stairsteps, and doghouses.
Despite the paint having no productive purpose, suddenly, somehow, beyond the comprehension of Leadership.Ai, the society began to smile again.
Music, drawing, stories, sculpture, what art speaks to you? Let’s chat in the comments.
