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rynlingWhy reblog machine-generated art?
https://ms-demeanor.tumblr.com/post/734136970463313920/why-reblog-machine-generated-art
I don’t think that all AI art is ugly. I don’t think that AI art is all soulless (i actually think that ‘having soul’ is a bizarre descriptor for art and that lacking soul is an equally bizarre criticism). I don’t think that AI art is bad for artists. I think the problem that people have with AI art is capitalism and I don’t think that’s a problem that can really be laid at the feet of people curating an aesthetic AI art blog on tumblr.
This is an interesting and well-written perspective on AI art. I disagree with the first half of the excerpted paragraph, as I think 100% of AI art looks overly processed and dumb as fuck, but the main problem with AI art is definitely capitalism, by which I mean the main problem with AI art has less to do with AI and more to do with human artists not being paid, compensated, or otherwise able to make a living. Also:
Not everyone wants to make good art that’s creative. Even fewer people want to put the effort into making bad art for something that they aren’t passionate about. Some people want filler to go on the cover of their YouTube video.
This is a perfect way to put it, because:
(1) Human artists make garbage art too.
(2) Human artists are often treated like crap even when they are paid.
(3) You don't don't need a human artist to draw mindless bullshit.
(4) You don't need a human artist to draw fetish porn either.
True story: I actually deleted my first Patreon account because someone from the Zelda fandom followed a lot of the same artists I did and was constantly requesting borderline-pedo illustrations. I was uncomfortable with this, and it was clear the artists were uncomfortable with it too, but nobody wanted to alienate this person. I have a low tolerance for that sort of thing, so the easiest course of action was ultimately to leave Patreon altogether. I don't want to judge people's fetishes, but I also wish that person had just used AI to illustrate their fantasies instead of asking non-fetish artists to draw them by hand.
And in the same way, something that made me feel deeply and truly guilty is when I made a cringe art request via Patreon. There was a dumb meme pulling in serious numbers on Twitter at the time, and I requested an artist to draw a character in the form of that meme. It was just a stupid joke, and I thought it would be something they could draw quickly and we could all laugh about. The artist emailed the drawing to me two years later (after I'd left Patreon) with a sincere apology for how it had taken so long. When I realized that my request for this meme had been hovering over the artist's head for two solid years, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
By the same logic, Disney doesn't need human artists to hand-draw the illustrations of princesses they put on all of the merch they continually ship out to Walmart and Target. Maybe you actually love Disney princesses, and drawing official Disney merch is your dream job, but artists have been very open in the past about how working for Disney doesn't pay. Other artists have been very open about how most of the art and animation at Disney has been outsourced to other countries, and not in a cool and fun and "culturally diverse" way.
So when I say "the problem is capitalism," what I mean is that large corporations like Disney aren't putting sufficient resources into supporting, nurturing, and developing talent. Multinational publishing giants don't put money into supporting comic artists or the creators of graphic novels. It's very difficult to make a living as an artist, which is why most people burn out (or can't afford to keep going) in their twenties.
And nobody is supporting writers, most of whom aren't just giving their work away for free but are actually paying to get their work out there. Maybe you can imagine why a writer appreciates the value of images in the current social media attention economy but is also super fucking broke and open to experimentation. And honestly, when a writer is brainstorming ideas for what something might look like, I don't see much difference between referencing a set of free online images posted by humans and referencing a set of free online images generated by a machine. On DeviantArt and ArtStation these days, it can actually be difficult to tell the difference sometimes.
I personally don't like AI art, but it feels reductive to say it's all bad all the time. I wish the corporate resources potentially saved by using AI art for disposable graphics were used to support human artists engaged in more meaningful projects, but that feels like a different conversation.
https://ms-demeanor.tumblr.com/post/734136970463313920/why-reblog-machine-generated-art
I don’t think that all AI art is ugly. I don’t think that AI art is all soulless (i actually think that ‘having soul’ is a bizarre descriptor for art and that lacking soul is an equally bizarre criticism). I don’t think that AI art is bad for artists. I think the problem that people have with AI art is capitalism and I don’t think that’s a problem that can really be laid at the feet of people curating an aesthetic AI art blog on tumblr.
This is an interesting and well-written perspective on AI art. I disagree with the first half of the excerpted paragraph, as I think 100% of AI art looks overly processed and dumb as fuck, but the main problem with AI art is definitely capitalism, by which I mean the main problem with AI art has less to do with AI and more to do with human artists not being paid, compensated, or otherwise able to make a living. Also:
Not everyone wants to make good art that’s creative. Even fewer people want to put the effort into making bad art for something that they aren’t passionate about. Some people want filler to go on the cover of their YouTube video.
This is a perfect way to put it, because:
(1) Human artists make garbage art too.
(2) Human artists are often treated like crap even when they are paid.
(3) You don't don't need a human artist to draw mindless bullshit.
(4) You don't need a human artist to draw fetish porn either.
True story: I actually deleted my first Patreon account because someone from the Zelda fandom followed a lot of the same artists I did and was constantly requesting borderline-pedo illustrations. I was uncomfortable with this, and it was clear the artists were uncomfortable with it too, but nobody wanted to alienate this person. I have a low tolerance for that sort of thing, so the easiest course of action was ultimately to leave Patreon altogether. I don't want to judge people's fetishes, but I also wish that person had just used AI to illustrate their fantasies instead of asking non-fetish artists to draw them by hand.
And in the same way, something that made me feel deeply and truly guilty is when I made a cringe art request via Patreon. There was a dumb meme pulling in serious numbers on Twitter at the time, and I requested an artist to draw a character in the form of that meme. It was just a stupid joke, and I thought it would be something they could draw quickly and we could all laugh about. The artist emailed the drawing to me two years later (after I'd left Patreon) with a sincere apology for how it had taken so long. When I realized that my request for this meme had been hovering over the artist's head for two solid years, I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
By the same logic, Disney doesn't need human artists to hand-draw the illustrations of princesses they put on all of the merch they continually ship out to Walmart and Target. Maybe you actually love Disney princesses, and drawing official Disney merch is your dream job, but artists have been very open in the past about how working for Disney doesn't pay. Other artists have been very open about how most of the art and animation at Disney has been outsourced to other countries, and not in a cool and fun and "culturally diverse" way.
So when I say "the problem is capitalism," what I mean is that large corporations like Disney aren't putting sufficient resources into supporting, nurturing, and developing talent. Multinational publishing giants don't put money into supporting comic artists or the creators of graphic novels. It's very difficult to make a living as an artist, which is why most people burn out (or can't afford to keep going) in their twenties.
And nobody is supporting writers, most of whom aren't just giving their work away for free but are actually paying to get their work out there. Maybe you can imagine why a writer appreciates the value of images in the current social media attention economy but is also super fucking broke and open to experimentation. And honestly, when a writer is brainstorming ideas for what something might look like, I don't see much difference between referencing a set of free online images posted by humans and referencing a set of free online images generated by a machine. On DeviantArt and ArtStation these days, it can actually be difficult to tell the difference sometimes.
I personally don't like AI art, but it feels reductive to say it's all bad all the time. I wish the corporate resources potentially saved by using AI art for disposable graphics were used to support human artists engaged in more meaningful projects, but that feels like a different conversation.
