Latest news with #Al-Nakib
Kuwait Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Kuwait Times
Is it art if AI made it? Creatives in Kuwait weigh in
Local artists debate whether AI could be a helpful tool, or the end of art as we know it By Lujain Marafie KUWAIT: Anyone nowadays can turn their ideas into reality with the mere clicks of a button. Visualizing an elephant playing basketball or a basketball in the shape of an elephant? AI can do that for you. Even more abstract ideas pose no issue for these algorithms. But does this use of technology make everyone an artist? Can an elephant-shaped basketball generated with AI be considered art? If the definition of art has already been controversial, the introduction of AI into the artistic sphere has made this debate all the more heated. Definitions and distortions 'You can't really define art, it's different according to everyone,' says Omar Al-Nakib, a visual designer. 'Marcel Duchamp would say: If you call yourself an artist and you put something in a space in which it's supposed to be observed and appreciated, you've made a work of art. So, it could be anything. Art is not beauty; art is not ugliness. Art is not a descriptor.' Nasser Hussain, a videographer and graphic designer, agrees that it's difficult to define. However, the lines become even more blurred when discussing AI art. Hussain adds that 'if you're putting everything on AI, then no, it's not art. But, for example, if you have a vision that can't be drawn and you want to see it, then yes. But to fully create an art with AI is not art.' Zainab Al-Mashoor, another graphic designer, agrees. 'AI is required in my field because it really helps me. Before I would spend half an hour editing something, but AI makes it in a minute,' she says. 'But if you rely on it 100 percent, how can you be an artist? You just know how to use the tools, and that's great, but then who is the actual artist? AI.' Some artists consider AI to be helpful for retouching their works and turning their ideas into reality. 'I mostly use it to remove stuff from images or videos,' says Hussain. 'Something that needs to be cleaned, so it doesn't show. Other times, I use it if I have a vision and I don't have time.' Other artists have chosen not to incorporate AI into their art. 'I've personally never used AI for my art,' says Al-Nakib. 'I have no interest because it kills the joy. And the reason why is not because I think I'm above it or anything like that. It's because the whole point of making art is discovery. I love finding my way into this sort of creative flow state – and for me, AI takes the fun out of it.' The (basketball-playing) elephant in the room At this point in time, AI can do more than take the fun out of art – some argue that it has the potential to snatch away artists' entire livelihood. 'Concept artists are gone, people who work in creative agencies are experiencing massive layoffs,' says Al-Nakib. 'Generally, in the commercial sphere, when you're dealing with corporations, AI has already replaced artists and the people who would've made money off something.' 'I think that the artistic middle class is gone now,' continues Al-Nakib. 'You're either going to make a lot of money off your art, or you're going to make no money at all.' Hussain has similar thoughts, specifically with regards to professions like photography. With AI, a simple shot taken by a phone can be easily turned into a professional product, therefore removing the need for a professional camera — and the person behind it. 'That's a very big hit for photographers ... I can't even say it's replacing; it's just gone. The title of photographer will not be there.' Al-Mashoor does not share similar worries. 'When AI first came out, people were scared of it, saying that 'it would replace us.' But in my surroundings, it's not happening. People need AI now. This is a trend, and if you're in media work, you need the trends. If you want to reach, you need to use what people use.' Will AI truly replace artists? 'You can generate anything by AI, but can it really give you what you want? We should adapt, but we should also be creative. We should try to be better than AI,' says Hussain. Al-Mashoor isn't so sure what the future has in store, but she nonetheless holds positive views on AI integration. 'It's amazing. You know those old movies that show how the future is? AI makes you see that. It's like, we're here now, and they're showing you a better future, and better videos.' Al-Nakib has other ideas. 'Maybe I'm an optimist or maybe I'm just stupid, but I don't think AI is really going to replace artists. I think that people are always going to want human-made art,' he says. 'As humans, we always look for parasocial relationships — like how you would go to a movie if Timothée Chalamet was starring in it. The point is: you want to have that connection.' 'Maybe in the future it will be segmented. It'll be like: this is created by AI and this is created by humans,' Al-Nakib continues. 'But I think people are still always going to make art, and there will always be people who appreciate that.'
Kuwait Times
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Kuwait Times
Memory, belonging and the power of storytelling
In a literary landscape often dominated by narratives from elsewhere, Mai Al-Nakib has emerged as a distinctly original and resonant voice from the Gulf. A Kuwaiti writer and academic, Al-Nakib bridges the personal and the political, the local and the global, with rare finesse. With a PhD in postcolonial studies from Brown University and two decades of teaching English and comparative literature at Kuwait University, her scholarly foundation is as formidable as her creative one. Her debut short story collection, 'The Hidden Light of Objects', earned international acclaim and won the Edinburgh International Book Festival's First Book Award. Her novel, 'An Unlasting Home', is an ambitious and layered exploration of identity, memory and the impermanence of belonging — an urgent meditation in today's increasingly fragmented world. In this interview with Kuwait Times, Al-Nakib opens up about her early discovery of storytelling, the intellectual traditions that shaped her voice and the creative architecture behind her fiction. As she prepares to reintroduce 'The Hidden Light of Objects' to a new generation of readers, we delve into the themes that define her work: Displacement, legacy, language and the ever-elusive idea of home. Kuwait Times: When did you first realize you wanted to become a writer? Mai Al-Nakib: I've always been a voracious reader, and there came a point — around the age of nine — when I realized that I, too, could make words do interesting, unusual, even powerful things. I started keeping a diary, writing everything down. But more than simply recording daily events, I began narrating them — turning them into first-person tales, with dialogue, description and plot. That was the start of my writing life, and it never stopped. Mai Al-Nakib KT: Why did you choose fiction — specifically short stories and novels — as your medium of expression? Al-Nakib: Fiction allows writers to invent and imagine alternatives to the present and makes it possible for readers to inhabit versions of life other than their own. This experience can remind us of our shared humanity. Short stories and novels each do this differently, but both offer powerful ways to experiment with possibilities and connect with others. KT: Which writers or thinkers have most influenced your voice and worldview as a storyteller? Al-Nakib: Literary writers who shaped me early on include Kundera, Kafka, Anais Nin, Rushdie, Joyce and Marquez. In my early twenties, it was Woolf, Beckett, Proust, Assia Djebar and Kanafani. Philosophers and intellectuals who influenced me include Bergson, Deleuze, Barthes, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Benjamin and Edward Said. These — and many others — have made me the person I am. KT: What does home mean to you? Do you feel rooted in a particular place, or does your sense of belonging shift with time and context? Al-Nakib: I recently wrote an essay on exactly this question titled 'Home Is Elsewhere: On the Fictions of Return', published in The Markaz Review. For some of us, the notion of home is a moving target, changing over time. For far too many, the physical persistence of home is not guaranteed. It can disappear overnight. How we respond in the face of such precarity determines our sense of home. For me, home has to do with the people I love and my sense of care for others and for our planet. What else is there? KT: How does 'An Unlasting Home' explore the idea of belonging through family, memory and identity? Al-Nakib: As the title suggests — and as is the case for most of the characters in the novel — homes can sometimes be unlasting. As a result, we may be forced to reckon with a sense of displacement and not belonging. There can be value in this, difficult as it is. The protagonist, Sara, is who she is because of the women who came before her. Their pasts are mirrored in her present. In her quest to reconnect with her geographical and genetic inheritance, Sara weaves their memories and experiences together and comes to better understand her own fraught relationship to home. KT: What were the biggest challenges you faced — creatively and logistically — when writing and publishing this novel, especially considering its themes and scope? Al-Nakib: The biggest challenge in writing 'An Unlasting Home' was figuring out the best form to accommodate the sprawl of the story: Seven women, many family lines, various places, different historical periods and so on. Once I decided to divide the novel into three parts, narrated polyphonically and shifting between past and present, I had found the solution. In terms of publication, I was lucky to have interest from publishers in the US and UK. KT: You're republishing 'The Hidden Light of Objects' — can you share the story behind its original creation and why you decided to bring it back now? Al-Nakib: 'The Hidden Light of Objects' was published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation in 2014. It won the Edinburgh International Book Festival's First Book Award that year. After Bloomsbury UK and Qatar Foundation dissolved their publishing agreement, my book went out of print. Happily, Saqi Books — who also published 'An Unlasting Home' in the UK — decided to republish 'The Hidden Light of Objects'. It will be released on June 5th with a beautiful new cover. I'm thrilled to have this book out in the world again. The stories — set mainly in the Middle East and focused on quiet, overlooked moments in a region often overwhelmed by geopolitics — remain timely.
