Reading the McAlester architecture book triggered a pointless new thought, which no human will read.
The book carefully distinguishes between folk and non-folk styles. Non-folk is the unmarked default. Victorian vs Folk Victorian, Italianate vs Folk Italianate.
New thought for me, undoubtedly old for others…
This distinction is clearcut in all realms of creative products. Folk art vs Art, Folk music vs Music, Folk literature vs Literature.
The prefix Folk means not credited to a single creator. In other words, public domain.
Unmarked non-folk means the creator is named and known, and may have a copyright.
AI can be slotted into the Folk category.
= = = = =
Later and better thought. AI is more like the authors and composers who formalized or parodied real folk creations. In music, Bach’s Peasant Cantata was intentional parody. Dvorak and Gottschalk formalized folk rhythms. In literature, Eugene Field and other versifiers tried unsuccessfully to sound like hillbillies or black folks. Movies and radio later cruelly parodied both colors of rural people.
AI picks up a style and formalizes or cruelly parodies it.
Polistra's Mill 