AI Art and Kitsch

Prodigies and abominations stalk cyberspace: images of Trump as a professional wrestler; of Trump as Rambo; of alligators wearing ICE hats; of prominent men in ill-fitting suits and prominent women in clownish makeup. Such things were born beneath the confluence of three ill-fortuned stars. Two, high in the heavens, have already been frequently remarked upon: the personal tackiness of Trump the man and populism’s innate affinity for kitsch. The third has just crept up into place in this syzygy: AI-generated art, which facilitates the effortless production of tacky pictures on a new scale.