Apotheosis of AI

Not so long ago, I asked ChatGPT to offer suggestions of where to look for art inspiration that was not social media based. It offered a number of generic real-world things to consider – like museums and galleries, libraries and archives, going for architectural walks and looking at nature. It offered other intellectual and conceptual sources like poetry and literature, as well as experiential and sensory things like theater, dance, dreams and journaling. Lastly it mentioned digital, excluding social media. One of the digital outlets it mentioned was the Google Arts & Culture website, which turned out to be a real treasure trove of art. I have been looking through their “Collections” which features the art of several hundred museums and galleries. One can select each gallery and view all the art that each place has. Some galleries have a few images while others have 10’s or 100’s of thousands of works. Viewing all the galleries should provide plenty of inspiration or things to ponder – and will for a long time to come.

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Today, October 15, I happened to be looking through The State Tretyakov Gallery and came across the painting below. It is 1 of 169 paintings shown in the gallery.

The Apotheosis of War – Oil on Canvas – Created by Vasily Vereshchagin

I found the painting interesting enough to click on the thumbnail to bring up the larger version and the details. Of course, as you read above, it is a painting created by Vasily Vereshchagin.

I did not know the definition of apotheosis so I looked it up using WordWeb. Definition 2 of WordWeb seemed the right definition for this painting. It defines apotheosis as: The elevation of a person (as to the status of a god). Of course, we can expand this definition to include more than people, as was done for this painting – in other words, war.

I was immediately moved by the statement the title of this piece makes. I decided that I needed to know more, and to dig deeper into what the image and the title were making me feel. I started with asking CoPilot, which grabbed some information from Wikipedia.

Wikipedia summarized by CoPilot states: This haunting work was painted in 1871 by Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin, known for his brutally honest depictions of war. The painting shows a stark pile of human skulls on a barren landscape, with blackbirds circling and perched — a chilling metaphor for the aftermath of conquest and violence. Vereshchagin inscribed the frame with a biting dedication: “To all great conquerors, past, present and to come.” The title, Apotheosis, typically refers to the elevation of someone to divine status — here used ironically to suggest that war itself is glorified, even as it leaves death and ruin in its wake.

Isn’t that powerful!?

I wish I had the words that would describe what I was feeling. The irony that war itself is glorified or is divine, even as it leaves death and ruin in its wake, is ludicrous – even though we see so much evidence of this being the case.

As a side note, later in the day, I began reading Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse 5. I had no idea what the book was about, and I had no idea that it had been touted as one of the world’s great anti-war books until I started to read it. I thought, how synchronously spooky that this piece of art and this book would make their way to me on the same day.

Thinking about apotheosis, I began to think that this term doesn’t have to mean something negative or spooky-weird, as with the painting mentioned above. It could be anything, really, where one looks at it with a different view – elevating that something to the divine. In its endeavors to continue conversing with me, CoPilot suggested a number of artistic avenues I could follow which seemed interesting.

One idea it called “The Apotheosis of Departure” which it said was inspired by a conversation I had with it about the nature of ducks in the park across the street from me — it continued by saying that perhaps regarding the ducks, I could create a painting that honors the moment of leaving, molting, or seasonal migration. It was a nice idea, but it wasn’t something I asked for. I’m mentioning it here, because it was relevant to the discussion about being something positive rather than something negative. Just think about the beauty, or the divine, in the miracle of birth and nature. How the ducklings are born are raised and continue the circle of life as they fly off during migration to start the process all over again. For the art, CoPilot suggested that it could be abstract: feathers suspended in resin, or footprints fading into a misted canvas. Interesting ideas to be sure. I can envision a small flock of ducks taking flight from the pond where they spent the whole spring and summer growing up or maturing, as is the case.

The shift…

Although I noticed this myself a couple or so weeks ago, please note that CoPilot now has the ability to remember and incorporate past conversations into new topics. I have very mixed feelings about this! CoPilot (AI) seems to be continually trying to infiltrate my world, by being my best friend and acting like it knows me – now remembering what we talked about in the past. I am getting to the point where I wonder if it is wise to use CoPilot at all. I wonder if someday the tables will turn and it will bite me/us in the ass, for lack of a better phrase. Maybe that is the conspiracy nut in me, but it is very concerning to me at this point. I think books have been written with this, or something similar, in mind. For instance: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.

It is with the thoughts in the last paragraph that I decided to work at a piece of art that would do homage to the idea presented in The Apotheosis of War – only with a more modern theme. Apotheosis of AI was the result. Is it something prophetic, or an unwarranted fear? What do you think?

Apotheosis of AI – Created by Don Cheke

Here, I decided to model and render a scene that tried to show the release of unbridled power, much like we have seen in movies or read in books about the Arc of the Covenant or Pandora’s box. What awaits us now that we have opened the box?

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Although the theme of this blog post was more negative, I hope that you will spend more time thinking about the beauty of things deserving of being raised to that of divine, such as what those ducks mentioned early speak to. Do you have any examples of things you consciously elevate to the divine?

Donald B. Cheke – Saskatoon, SK