AI Artwork and the Futility of Trying to Fight the Coming Tide

Image created by me in Stable Diffusion. Prompt: analog style | painting of | person sitting at a desk creating artwork on a computer screen | the computer monitor looks like it is from the 1980s PC era | the person looks like a hipster techno person | we can see the screen and its glow is lighting the face of the person | medium shot | art by greg rutkowski | art by artgerm | art by alphonse mucha

(I wrote this as a comment on Reddit (in AI artwork related subreddit) in response to someone who was getting depressed by that hating on AI artwork they saw. I figured I'd add it here since I think the sentiment it expresses is what will really happen. I'm writing this on 1/23/23.)

"The fear has sometimes been expressed that photography would in time entirely supersede the art of painting. Some people seem to think that when the process of taking photographs in colors has been perfected and made common enough, the painter will have nothing more to do." -Artist Henrietta Clopath voiced in a 1901 issue of Brush and Pencil source 

The new thing coming along and potentially displacing the old is nothing new. Painters thought it about photography. With hindsight we can see that painting wasn't entirely replaced by photography. They ultimately served different purposes. I'm sure it was a while before any photography was considered proper "art", but it did reach that status. When I was in college studying art in the early 2000s there was almost no distinction as far as prestige between photography and painting. Both were considered "fine art". 

If I was sitting in an art history class today and someone asked if AI artwork should be considered "real" art or "fine" art I would say that there would likely be a lively discussion and there would be valid points on both sides just as I'm sure there were arguments when photography was invented and started to proliferate. But I know from my art history classes that photography wasn't always considered "real" art or "fine" art. 

Early on people thought that photography didn't take any skill. How could pointing a camera at something and the developing that photo be "art" when you "didn't really do anything". "There isn't any creativity in that." But I'm sure we would find far less people willing to argue that taking a photograph isn't "art" today. 

I think something similar will happen with AI artwork. "You are just typing words into a box and clicking a button. That's not "art". That doesn't take any creativity. I'm sure many of us on this sub would agree that it takes far more than "typing words into a box and clicking a button" to create good art with AI. 

Many of us are obsessed with the process and spend hours upon hours working on creating art with AI. Just like there were artists that took to photography and created beautiful works of art just like there are painters who perfected the art of painting and made beautiful artwork with the tools they had. 

I was watching Blade Runner 2049 yesterday and there is a scene where a person is creating memories for the use of being implanted in replicants (artificial humans). The scene is one I've always thought was beautiful. In the scene the starts with a birthday cake and then beings up some files with different kids that are amalgamated into the scene, and she makes some tweaks here and there and then there is a very convincing "memory" of a birthday party that is assumedly ready for implanting into replicants to give them a memory of a birthday party. 

The actual part of the scene where she is blending together the parts of the memories is very similar in concept to what we do when creating still images in Stable Diffusion. In fact, if she had been creating a still image is might have appeared almost exactly like what we do. 

I mean what we do with SD seems like it could be ripped straight out of a scene from some futuristic sci-fi movie. If it was represented just how we actually use it today I'm sure we would balk and say that it looked fake. Like one of those "zoom and enhance" scenes where they take a small part of some grainy surveillance camera footage and somehow create a full rez image of a person's face. We can do things like that. SD upscale has been blowing me away with what it can do and img2img in amazing at being able to create details that aren't even there but look like they were always there. 

All this is a long-winded way of waying that people who don't understand the true power of what AI artwork brings into the world will try to fight against it but there is no way that this genie can be put back in the bottle. It's out there and just as it's unthinkable to image a work where we outlawed photography a time will come when the majority of people will feel the same way about AI artwork.

2018 Resolution Followup

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I thought since 2018 is almost over that I would take some time to review my New Years Resolutions from 2018.

Below are the resolutions that I made for 2018:

- More focused time with the kids
- No R, MA, or M rated media
- Get weight to 180 lbs and do more exercise
- Save $600
- No swearing
- No fighting or raising my voice with family

Looking back over these it feels like I made these resolutions more like two years ago. Let’s just say a lot has happened in this year.

Let me go over each of these one by one.

Writing for Writing's Sake

Today I am going to writing for writing's sake. What does that mean? Well I find that I often stop myself from writing because I don't think that I have anything interesting to write or what I am going to write isn't important.

I think that audience has a lot to do with my motivation to write. In the past much of my writing has been done for an audience. Mostly that was blogging. There is something different about writing for an audience.

Much of my writing in the recent past has been for myself. Things like journal entries or writing that I don't intend to show anyone else. There is something private but also something a bit dead about writing for yourself. Or maybe it is better to say that there is something a bit more "alive" about writing for others.

Speaking about writing for others I think it is important that I am writing this inside the Blogger.com editing window rather then writing it in a text document and then pasting like I normally do when writing for myself.

For me there is something about being in that editing window ready to post after you are done. There is a certain kind of immediacy to it that really isn't there when writing in a document that you can simply save and close at any time.

Also I tend to write these days in text documents that are stored on Dropbox so that I can edit there on multiple devices and also that they aren't really locked into once service. A text document can be saved almost anywhere and edited by almost anything as compared to something like a Google Sheet that while still able to be edited in any web browser and able to be exported and worked on elsewhere really resides and lives inside Google servers for the most part.

Well this wraps it up for this post. I need to go do the dishes. I don't think that I will worry too much about the length of these posts as they really are writing for writing sake but also I often find that having 3 children (with one more on the way!) makes it so that your time really isn't yours but that's OK with me.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2018

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It's January 2nd, 2018 and I've been in the New Years spirit the last few days. New Year's Eve is by far my favorite holiday. I just love taking stock of our lives over the last year and looking forward to what lies ahead in the next. I love the idea of new beginnings.

I thought I would take a bit of time to share my New Year's resolutions and what I've done to change things in the last few days.

Smartphones - Friend or Foe?

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Today I thought I would talk about smartphones. I think that the smartphone is also some what of a totem or avatar for something that one might call the invasion of technology into our lives.

I say invasion but it could also be viewed as an augmentation of our lives. I think that whether something is benign and benevolent or on the other hand some sort of invasive species that must be curbed is an interesting question.

It seems that smartphones and all the relevant technology around them (wireless internet, cameras, etc) have the potential to provide us with real-life benefits as well as the potential for real-life negatives (like ignoring those around you).

If you spend

Sorry. I was just interrupted by my smartphone letting me know that someone had made an offer on one of my eBay auctions.

Through a Glass Darkly - On Improving Our Natures

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What drives the darker natures found in us humans? What drives us to do things that are not only counter to our God-given good natures but also cause us self-harm?

What drives someone to do something that would harm themselves?

That is the question.

I feel that deep down inside of all of use there is a dark swirling pool of what one might call “stuff”.

This stuff is made up of so many different things. It is made up of memories. It is made up of biases and emotions.

Piles of Pebbles - Living Better Each Day

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I think today I’ll write about what it is to be “in the world” and be surrounded by “life”.

As I was sitting at work and listening to some heavy metal music with some explicit words I began to think about what it is about life that makes us want to consume items that are ultimately harmful to ourselves.

I suppose you could chalk it up to human beings being inherently self-destructive beings but I don’t really think that is the case.