Apr 30, 2023ยทedited Apr 30, 2023Liked by Andy Adams
What confuses me is that AI creation is being called "photography" and it is nothing like photography in any manner whatsoever.
When someone asks me why I am not messing around with AI, I let them know that I am also not messing around with sculpting, watercolor, wood carving, or Batik.
Those are unique forms of artistic expression. I choose a camera and words.
Choosing AI is just another form of expression.
So they should own it and call it what it is: Prompted Digital Art.
Nothing wrong with Prompted Digital Art, but I am not interested in it or painting with acrylics.
Pen and ink does catch my attention every once in a while...
It's puzzling to me why anyone would unsubscribe/unfollow just for having a different thought. It's healthy and progressive to have discussions and debates respectfully. I try to keep an open mind as well. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful insight and ideas.
Apr 29, 2023ยทedited Apr 30, 2023Liked by Andy Adams
Great article. Iโve been messing around with Ai as a designer who has a photography background and itโs been dope because for me itโs a way to start but not the finish line. I bring my ai images into photoshop / illustrator and use the images as a reference for further exploration and when Iโm done it looks nothing like the original which I love. Iโm writing a newsletter Monday about Ai and how I use it.
Looked at Roope Rainistoโs gallery and the images are interesting and captivating. But the images of disfiguration, deformation and body parts communicate this artists sense of dystopia. Thatโs understandable in a world that is so drastically deformed and changed from when this senior was a kid. Thereโs a sense of trying to live with โradical uncertaintyโ, which is the state that every non-human animal lives in. So this mediaum of AI is capable of letting us envision a feral and wild self, or going back to the evolutionary egg..Certainly the usage of AI or any other medium is worth looking at and considering at least the โwhyโ.
I donโt share the fascination with the conversation about AIโs intersection with photography... yet. Perhaps some day I will but for the moment I find it all a bit boring, for a couple of reasons: one, nothing Iโve seen that was AI generated looks interesting. It either looks โoutrageousโ (like the image of three beings in a car that you shared), which is a style that I donโt find visually appealing, or if itโs more โrealisticโ it lacks soul (which is an expression I like that Iโve heard several people use); and two, because I feel like weโve been here a few times before and moved through those disruptions intact.
The one thing I DO find interesting is how the discussion has highlighted our continued social acceptance of photographs as being โtruthfulโ. This is a hangover that has lingered from the earliest days of the medium, when it was no doubt seen as a slayer of bias in the existing media of the time. Of course, we should all know by now that photographs represent what their photographers present to us, no differently than etchings & paintings of old, or of course words. โWhat is truth?โ is probably the biggest social question of the past decade and this current obsession with the influence of AI is just the latest chapter.
While the AI rabbit hole doesnโt personally interest me, I appreciate that it greatly interests you. I always find it valuable to keep an eye on the obsessions of those I respect and for that reason I have absolutely no intention of unfollowing you! Iโll just be here waiting for you to come back to your senses. ๐
I believe that every new invention comes with inherent problems of purpose. We just need to identify that and resolve how it fits into our tool box or not. Enjoy your approach of an open mind and the newsletter!!!!!!
I think itโs awesome to be curious and learn about AI. Whether any of us likes it or not, itโs here. Why not try to make the best of it? Same with NFTs. Hopefully experimenting and learning puts artists in a better position to shape the future of these technologies for the better.
While Iโm certain that AI has a future of some kind, I wonโt be pursuing it. I think many of the AI images are interesting and worthy of display, and the technical problems with it will probably be worked out eventually, but it simply doesnโt satisfy any of the reasons why I went into the arts and why I make pictures. To that end, I donโt resent AI, and I donโt care if you or everyone else loves it. Iโm a real person who uses art to express myself in the real world. I believe the real world deserves to be looked at by real people, no matter how great our machines become. And I choose to do my own work and collaborate with like-minded artists.
AI is great for creating surrealist dreamscapes and nightmares. When looked at for what it is, a complicated machine that has been taught to match complex words with images and return reasonable approximations, it is truly incredible. But its about as similar to a dog as a pet rock. We bring meaning to it, or in the terms of โstudium & punctumโ, engineers have built something that can copy studium, but once again viewers bring the punctum themselves. You see depth because you are looking for depth and you want to find it. Thats not a bad thingโฆ but as a tool its more like a dazzling kaleidoscope than a camera.
What confuses me is that AI creation is being called "photography" and it is nothing like photography in any manner whatsoever.
When someone asks me why I am not messing around with AI, I let them know that I am also not messing around with sculpting, watercolor, wood carving, or Batik.
Those are unique forms of artistic expression. I choose a camera and words.
Choosing AI is just another form of expression.
So they should own it and call it what it is: Prompted Digital Art.
Nothing wrong with Prompted Digital Art, but I am not interested in it or painting with acrylics.
Pen and ink does catch my attention every once in a while...
It's puzzling to me why anyone would unsubscribe/unfollow just for having a different thought. It's healthy and progressive to have discussions and debates respectfully. I try to keep an open mind as well. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful insight and ideas.
Great article. Iโve been messing around with Ai as a designer who has a photography background and itโs been dope because for me itโs a way to start but not the finish line. I bring my ai images into photoshop / illustrator and use the images as a reference for further exploration and when Iโm done it looks nothing like the original which I love. Iโm writing a newsletter Monday about Ai and how I use it.
Dude, enjoy looking if you like, but itโs machine generated clip-art.
Looked at Roope Rainistoโs gallery and the images are interesting and captivating. But the images of disfiguration, deformation and body parts communicate this artists sense of dystopia. Thatโs understandable in a world that is so drastically deformed and changed from when this senior was a kid. Thereโs a sense of trying to live with โradical uncertaintyโ, which is the state that every non-human animal lives in. So this mediaum of AI is capable of letting us envision a feral and wild self, or going back to the evolutionary egg..Certainly the usage of AI or any other medium is worth looking at and considering at least the โwhyโ.
I donโt share the fascination with the conversation about AIโs intersection with photography... yet. Perhaps some day I will but for the moment I find it all a bit boring, for a couple of reasons: one, nothing Iโve seen that was AI generated looks interesting. It either looks โoutrageousโ (like the image of three beings in a car that you shared), which is a style that I donโt find visually appealing, or if itโs more โrealisticโ it lacks soul (which is an expression I like that Iโve heard several people use); and two, because I feel like weโve been here a few times before and moved through those disruptions intact.
The one thing I DO find interesting is how the discussion has highlighted our continued social acceptance of photographs as being โtruthfulโ. This is a hangover that has lingered from the earliest days of the medium, when it was no doubt seen as a slayer of bias in the existing media of the time. Of course, we should all know by now that photographs represent what their photographers present to us, no differently than etchings & paintings of old, or of course words. โWhat is truth?โ is probably the biggest social question of the past decade and this current obsession with the influence of AI is just the latest chapter.
While the AI rabbit hole doesnโt personally interest me, I appreciate that it greatly interests you. I always find it valuable to keep an eye on the obsessions of those I respect and for that reason I have absolutely no intention of unfollowing you! Iโll just be here waiting for you to come back to your senses. ๐
โ๏ธ
I believe that every new invention comes with inherent problems of purpose. We just need to identify that and resolve how it fits into our tool box or not. Enjoy your approach of an open mind and the newsletter!!!!!!
I think itโs awesome to be curious and learn about AI. Whether any of us likes it or not, itโs here. Why not try to make the best of it? Same with NFTs. Hopefully experimenting and learning puts artists in a better position to shape the future of these technologies for the better.
While Iโm certain that AI has a future of some kind, I wonโt be pursuing it. I think many of the AI images are interesting and worthy of display, and the technical problems with it will probably be worked out eventually, but it simply doesnโt satisfy any of the reasons why I went into the arts and why I make pictures. To that end, I donโt resent AI, and I donโt care if you or everyone else loves it. Iโm a real person who uses art to express myself in the real world. I believe the real world deserves to be looked at by real people, no matter how great our machines become. And I choose to do my own work and collaborate with like-minded artists.
Loving these AI/photography posts!
AI is great for creating surrealist dreamscapes and nightmares. When looked at for what it is, a complicated machine that has been taught to match complex words with images and return reasonable approximations, it is truly incredible. But its about as similar to a dog as a pet rock. We bring meaning to it, or in the terms of โstudium & punctumโ, engineers have built something that can copy studium, but once again viewers bring the punctum themselves. You see depth because you are looking for depth and you want to find it. Thats not a bad thingโฆ but as a tool its more like a dazzling kaleidoscope than a camera.
You've revealed something here. AI is inspiring artists in a way that the 24 hours news cycle can't and never will.