Effort in Aesthetic Appreciation: from Avant-Garde to AI

This paper starts from the debates on whether the seemingly effortless creation of AI artworks, and by extension some avant-garde pieces, diminishes their artistic value. This leads to a broader inquiry into how effort, or the lack thereof, influences our perception of an artwork’s quality and significance. Traditionally, effort in art has been seen in two ways. On the one hand, a skilled artist’s work, which may appear effortless, is often valued for its apparent ease, reflecting genius or inspiration. On the other hand, the Romantic era highlighted the artist’s internal struggle, shifting emphasis from technical proficiency to emotional and intellectual effort. Contemporary empirical research seems to confirm the existence of an “effort heuristic”, suggesting that artworks perceived as requiring more effort are generally valued higher. Finally, this paper suggests defining a notion of “distributed effort” as a category for the appreciation of content and artworks that are the product of complex influences, traditions, and technological advancements. In conclusion, this paper suggests that we must investigate the possibility of “artificial effort” in AI-generated art.