I think I’ve made long-winded posts in favor of AI art (not on this blog) that people “liked“ because they didn’t read far enough & assumed I was part of the popular hate train for it. I’m in favor of AI art, in case you didn’t know.
(Side note: I may reiterate the “debate” civilly in my comments, but I’ll block you if I’m at all annoyed by how it’s going. Don’t come with your fingers in your ears, hot to regurgitate the hot takes you’ve ingested elsewhere.)
I don’t see myself using it for much more than a laugh right now (see Spooktober 2022), but if I ever get back into making art in earnest? I’ll probably use it as a tool. In a survey on Midjourney 40% of the thousands of people using that AI said they work as or have worked as professional artists. They’re using it as a tool, like we all did when we all learned Photoshop and whatnot.
Anyway, pro-AI art thought for the day: I’ve made the case before that opposing AI art can be ableist, because it allows people to create art who would be otherwise unable to do so. So as I reflect on that tonight, I’m thinking, that just might be the most exciting thing about AI art right now.
A lot of people who use it are either dabbling, or are already artists in their own right by older means. But some people are approaching this as artists, who have never been able to make art before. How might their work be different from the rest of us? What are they going to do with it? When they’re new, versus when they’re more developed?
Outsider art is a very interesting realm. The postmodern embrace of it was one of a few inarguably good things to come out of that school of thought. Ideas from the untrained help keep the world of art fresh and interesting, and balance the elitism inherent to its sadly ever-present class association.
AI art is, in a very abstract way, a descendant of the art of collage, which is a very common form for outsider art to take. Where my outsiders at? What have you done with this new tool today?
– ps: enjoy some abject AI foolery
I enjoy it myself and have done a large number of images myself (MinimumMaus on Ello) but one thing that annoys me are people who call themselves artists for plugging in prompts, but artists using it as a tool? Hell yeah. It’s a great way to create reference images, and one result I got is seriously tempting me to try something I’ve never done before and go beyond sketches.
Without actively looking for AI art, the main place I’ve seen it is in fan cards. The official playing cards have art on them, so people want their fan cards to have art too, but not many are willing to commission an artist just for a little board game fandom. So the most common practice is to search for art in the public domain. And now some use AI.
I also know someone who uses AI to create music videos. I think he puts a lot of work into it. But to make animated video like this by traditional means… that would not merely be a lot of work, it would be a prohibitive amount of work for a small-time solo musician.
So the theme of both of these examples, is that AI is making it easier for projects with few resources to become multimedia art.
Siggy – interesting info there.
Tabby – i would contest somebody can self-identify as an artist off plugging in prompts. it depends on how they go about it. if they’re just putting in random foolery for laughs, less so. if they’re rejimmying the phrasing over and over, picking the best of hundred of results, constructing narratives or pursuing a refined aesthetic or trying to communicate something emotional or intellectual? maybe that’s an artist.
Dear Great American Satan,
I just wanted to thank you for your significant contributions to the ‘podish sorta-casts’ and this blog. I see a lot of thoughtful comments about sanity. I think, based on what you write that you are more sane than most of the sheople in this world. I hope that you can feel good about yourself for what you contribute to this community and not be too self-critical. As I have always thought, ‘being a little crazy is what keeps us from going completely insane”.
best wishes,
Sherman J
thanks for the kind words sherman. i haven’t done a podish sortacast since, like, june? nice to be remembered.
it occurs to me my pictures could make me look slightly like abbey “impossible me” cadabra, the usual host of the podish sorta-cast. if your vision is blurry or something. hope this isn’t a case of that.