Bay Area music venue bans AI-generated art: ‘Not very punk’

While the Bay Area may be home to the world’s leading artificial intelligence innovations, one Oakland music venue has moved to ban it outright, asserting that the technology is giving “the ick.” 

Thee Stork Club is now requiring all fliers for shows at its venue to be made by humans, effectively prohibiting the use of AI to create promotional artwork for gigs. 

“As an independent alt venue we feel the poster art for a show has always been an essential part of the creative process of the live shows,” Thee Stork Club posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Sept. 10. “Many graphic artists have cut their professional chops by (creating) poster art for live music and we wanna keep supporting that by not undercutting artists just to save a few bucks.”

To that end, Thee Stork Club will be partnering with a handful of local graphic artists to assist acts that may not have the means to abide by the new rule. These artists will offer a “homies prices” to musicians for going through the venue. 

Thee Stork Club is owned and operated by Billy Joe Agan as well as Marc Ribak and Amy Carver of Total Trash Productions and Mosswood Meltdown.

The group noted in the statement that this decision was spurred by the recent influx in AI-generated flyers that it has noticed both in-house and at other establishments. 

“It’s not very punk,” they wrote. 

“We are a small alternative bar/venue. So we are a lot closer to the local creative scene than some bigger more ‘corporate’ venues,” Agan told the Chronicle via email.

He went on to explain that the DIY “punk background” from which the owners come from “venerates the philosophy of that scene.” 

The Wednesday’s Instagram post has over 8,000 likes as of Friday, Sept. 12, with reactions to the decision “overwhelmingly positive,” Agan added.

“People are tagging other venues around the country on reposts and interestingly many people have been saying that they are less inclined to attend an event if the flyer is (AI),” he said. 

Artists, musicians and music lovers alike have also been praising the move in the comment section of the venue’s post. 

“More than happy to offer up design/art services, anything to keep the slop off the telephone poles,” an artist, who goes by the name of Bastard Content, commented. “Way to go Stork Club.” 

“Love this,” wrote Abby Landis, who performs under the name DJ Mama San.

Several other Instagram users wrote that noticing a concert poster has been generated by AI makes them less inclined to attend.  

These sentiments echo broader concerns about such technology jeopardizing the livelihood of artists, replacing their creativity with what Thee Stork Club deemed “A.I. slop”

In April, organizers of Oakland First Fridays faced community backlash over an AI-generated flyer, with critics claiming that it contradicts the series’ mission of uplifting local artists.

Whether it be the suspected AI band Velvet Sundown’s eerily rapid rise or Spotify’s AI weapons deal drawing artists away from the platform, the technology is undoubtedly changing the landscape of the arts scene on a border level.