What is Art? - Can This AI Algorithm Answer the Age-Old Question

The philosophy of the Baskia project lies in the area of solving the problem of overflowing the market with low-quality art and devaluation of the skills and efforts taken in order to create an artwork. Baskia aims to create an ecosystem, where the true art is valued over the commercialism, while at the same time creating the marketplace with the most unique and valuable works.

The project is planning on selecting the artworks for its marketplace by implementing an artificial intelligence-based algorithm of verification which is basically playing a role of filter for the pieces of art which can be listed on the marketplace.

Art is the flight of a soul, it addresses issues, unleashes the inner world of a person and aims to convey an either subtle, or heavily metaphorical sense. Art is the definition of an aesthetic activity of a free spirit, and even though many tried defining the concept of art, it is truly unclear where boundaries between real and fake art lie, but what can clearly be said, is that art is, by all means, free from any barriers.

So what is the purpose of the algorithm if art is free from all the laws and rules of making?

Art is free indeed. But there are certain rules which are applied only to Baskia marketplace in order to provide the best product to the customer and to work with reliable and trusted artists.

Baskia Algorithm doesn’t neutralize the creative value of an art object — it just checks if a piece of art is non-plagiarized, an artist has the rights for using the images and other components of an artwork, the price is adequate and not over-exaggerated, and finally — artist puts some effort into the creation of an artwork.

So what is an artistic value, and what exactly does the Baskia algorithm do?

The answer is simple — it verifies if the piece of art is worth being placed on the Baskia Marketplace. Nothing more, nothing less.

Citing the official website:

“Baskia Algorithm is a technology that allows the platform to select creative products according to certain criteria. The selection process is automated and operates on the principle of a neural network, which is constantly in the learning process and applies the laws of combinatorics and variability of various types of images. The algorithm is used by the platform for partial verification of the artist, as well as checking the uploaded image according to certain criteria”

(//baskia.io/algorithm web source).

Artistic value, being an absolutely subjective unit, cannot really be defined by the rules or laws. There is no way to check if the piece is valid in terms of considering it art — instead of trying to verify the value in the global sense of this word, Baskia algorithm sets several entering barriers, the grounding of which stands on the basics of intellectual rights, non-plagiarism, and applying the skill-based efforts as well as artistic techniques and approach to the creation of the piece.

Baskia isn’t here to decide what is art and what is not, the project doesn’t take this kind of responsibility — it just decides whether the piece is worth placing on the marketplace, or not, and this action is concluded to be the platform’s contribution to the culture. Baskia is a place with a strict face control for the pieces, and there is no possibility of passing through the entering gate unnoticed by the algorithm.

There is a great difference between sampling a beat and taking someone’s beat completely — and plagiarism is exactly taking the melody and just re-doing it for your own profits. Sampling is the taking of a sample or samples, in the music production “chopping” the particular fragments.

Plagiarism, however, is the practice of taking someone else’s pieces or ideas and trying to pass them as your own, and this is where the artificial intelligence of the Baskia Algorithm is stepping in. With the usage of neural networks and a unique system of search for the similar images and their fragments — AI of the Baskia Algorithm lays out an image in order to find the possible components and a starting point of an art piece.

By defining the components and analyzing their usage, algorithm can decide on whether an artwork is one-of-a-kind and unique, or it is “inspired” by the other materials and pieces of art. Baskia Algorithm also systemizes the components in the chronological order, while at the same time checking the possible software or artistic techniques of executing the artworks to verify the efforts which were put into the creation of an art piece.

All these actions are taken by the Baskia platform in order to fulfill the purpose of the philosophy of a project — to set up a market, where the demand for NFT art is supplied with the high-quality pieces, a gallery, where the cultural value of an art piece is as equally important as the investment potential. This is how Baskia contributes to the culture — by selecting the gems from the stones.

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