“The day you decide that thinking hard from your terrace is enough… that day, you will have chosen to let others decide for you. So speak. Express yourself. Share. Build. Awaken your children.” Henri Hiro, excerpt from Pehepehe i tā’u nūnaa (Haere Pō edition)
As digital tools become faster, more accessible, more efficient, we are overwhelmed by the cumbersome nature of machines that will find neither mirror nor echo.
Resigned, we allow ourselves to be swept away by a toxic digital colonialism dedicated to neutralizing the essence of creation. Isolated, we sink into massive consumption; what seems to be free at first is what engulfs the pricelessness of what we hold dearest.
Technological innovation has always transformed our relationship with our environment and with ourselves. To create is to express one’s being within a given environment. New technologies can also transform the fundamental drive for creation and the relationship each of us has with ourselves.
Let’s reclaim control of our creative space. Let’s create together the silences that define the beauty of our inner worlds. Let’s ignite our minds to better switch off the machines. Let’s shed light to better choose our paths. Let’s breathe, embracing these suspended moments as poetry, like verses that make us actors in the creation that unites us.
A particular reflection in the Oceania region context
The issue of AI in Oceania must be considered in an environment marked by colonial history.
The first nations cultures, primarily oral, underwent brutal transformations due to the introduction and massive dissemination of fixed and imposed cultural content.
However, generative AI, which is of particular concern to us, is programmed and trained from a hegemonic Western culture, even though its deployment is imposed and rapid.
In this context, it can constitute an additional risk to cultural particularities and local identities.
The colossal greenhouse gas emissions and significant water consumption of data centers dedicated to artificial intelligence have a considerable impact on the global climate. Due to our predominantly island lifestyles, closely tied to nature through both our livelihoods and cultural practices, we, the people of Oceania, are statistically more exposed to the consequences of climate change.
We will be the first to suffer the natural disasters that the massive use of artificial intelligence continues to generate.
Generative AI as a crutch
AI can be a crutch for creation, regardless of the artistic discipline .
It can potentially be used at certain stages of the creative process and allow, in particular, artists who live from their art, to respond to commercial or repetitive commissions, sometimes necessary to make a living from their activity, and thus clear up time for a freer, more personal or exploratory creation.
However, it is important to distinguish between the use of a tool and the act of creation itself.
An artist possesses know-how and skills that are acquired, practiced and passed on until they allow the emergence of a work that is unique to him/her.
AI generates results, leaving its user unable to develop the skills needed to achieve the same result without assistance. The widespread adoption of this practice risks leading to a loss of technical skills.
Generative AI endangers our sovereignty and independence.
“ Our culture should not be a spectacle for others; it should be a life for ourselves. It is not about imitating the past, but about making it speak for today .” Henri Hiro, televised interview of May 26, 1979 for the INA (National Audiovisual Institute)
For we are artists in an environment where tradition endures and reinvents itself in a postcolonial context, generative AI poses a risk of diluting our particularities.
It introduces a major cultural bias and can have a significant impact on identities, either by folklorising cultural elements to meet commercial expectations, or by confining artists to expected forms.
“We will be Mā’ohi or we will cease to exist. But I have faith in life. We will not die. We will exist. ” Turo a Raapoto, bulletin no. 18, Ia Mana te Nūnaa, 1979
Respect for intellectual property
Being influenced by artists, reinterpreting a work is a universal and necessary act in the world of art.
Artistic creation, however, is an intimate expression of an artist.
Generative AI does not create: it is trained from thousands of often copyrighted works, collected without the agreement, credit or remuneration of the authors.
Using a work in a generative AI without the artist’s consent is a lack of consideration for both the author and the work.
The use of works in AI must be subject to the explicit and informed consent of the artists.
Transparency regarding the use of AI in art
The use of generative AI in the creative process must always be explicit . Out of respect for the public, it is necessary to inform them of what is being proposed; the choice of accepting or rejecting an AI-generated work must remain with them.
The time and space of creation
Every major innovation shakes up the world, transforms our relationship with our environment and with ourselves, and provides an opportunity for questioning.
The value of the act of artistic creation lies particularly in the process : the trials, the accidents, the iterations, the sharing and the confrontation.
Generative AI questions the relationship to creation time , to emptiness, and to the value given to the product at the expense of the process.
It seems important to take the time to conduct this reflection collectively.
The importance of the personal approach in creation.
Artistic creation is the expression of an identity, of a critical thought process.
AI produces content designed to satisfy the user, while humans create works that are sometimes unexpected, imperfect, and therefore unique. Creation is an act of letting go in which a person exposes their vulnerabilities, imperfections, and differences.
The diversity of expressions, as well as the right to spaces of silence and emptiness, contribute to the beauty of the works.
The act of creation must be an emancipatory process.
“You must publish your story. The criticism won’t matter, and you’ll get it, make no mistake. The dream, frozen in oral tradition, is dying for lack of memory, and we must revive it through writing. Others after you will write a fragment of the dream that will eventually become reality.” Flora Devantine, tribute to Jean-Marc Pambrun
What we offer
“If we let our language die, we let the memory of our ancestors die. It is in our words that our way of seeing the world, of respecting the land and the sea, lives on. That is what we must give to the youth. ” Henri Hiro, televised interview of May 26, 1979 for the INA
To speak with a collective voice :
This opinion piece aims at highlighting the tensions between artistic creation and the unregulated and limitless use of AI by everyone. It seeks to formulate shared principles around creative autonomy, cultural sovereignty, the recognition of artistic work, and the preservation of spaces for creation and transmission.
We propose its signature by artists and cultural actors in the region in order to constitute a basis for discussions with institutions, digital actors and the public.
Revaluing humanity and the creative process by creating spaces for meetings and creation
To multiply opportunities for exchange in order to make visible and to revalue the artist’s time, the creative process, selfless encounters and the transmission of expertise.
We want to see more places and spaces where artists can share their practices, research, know-how and questions: meetings, workshops, residencies, performances, testimonies, school interventions, exchanges between disciplines and between generations.
These spaces aim to combat the isolation of artists, to promote transmission and to restore a place for long time, experimentation, doubt and exchange in the creative processes.
They are not necessarily sedentary. It is up to us to create these moments, these spaces, wherever we choose to place them. Nor are they unique to French Polynesia. A shared reflection on these various subjects must be undertaken with all of Oceania, encompassing the cultural, artistic, social, and ecological aspects of this discussion.
Preparing future generations
To forge critical thinking and transmit the creative gesture.
Our children are taught to always want more: more colors, more sounds, more performance. Artificial intelligence contributes greatly to this education of opulent consumption. Boredom, although necessary for creation and experimentation, is treated as an enemy to be banished from our homes.
The aim here is to offer them:
- to get them away from their screens and ready-made consumer thinking, and to instill in them the desire to reason for themselves; let’s raise young people’s awareness of the challenges of the world around them.
- to assert oneself by accepting divergent points of view, that they see the world differently than in the polarity of expressions and welcome the sobriety of silence,
- to draw them out of voyeurism by offering them a culture that speaks to them and to look with wonder at the environment that nurtures them,
- to encourage them to pick up a pen, a paintbrush, a musical instrument, to be proud of something they have created, without seeking to sell nor prove anything.
So that they realize that this culture is theirs, that this cry is nothing but the echo of their inner revolution.
Mobilize the institutions
« A people without culture is a people without a soul. And a people without a soul is a people that dies. Our culture is our root, it is what keeps us standing tall in the face of the world. » – Henri Hiro
To obtain institutional support to experiment with and implement the actions proposed by the collective.
Some of the proposals emerging from the workshops require material, financial, and human resources that exceed the capabilities of an informal group. The next step will be to initiate discussions with relevant institutions and stakeholders to identify existing mechanisms, adapt those that no longer meet artists’ needs, and, when necessary, develop new ones.
This approach could focus on places of creation and transmission, methods of financing, recognition of time and the artistic process, access to information and rights, regional and international exchanges and the development of arts and digital education.