and i don't mean that as a "buy my art" self-promo ad-- i think its far cooler to find a local craft fair or small gallery and show up, talk to people about what they're making even if you can't buy stuff. get to know and care about the folks within arm's reach more than internet randos like me

if you simply prefer bespoke slop, there are a fuckload of un/under employed artists out there ~like me~ who are not beholden to algorithms or markets and are at least Trying to make Real Art. find some way to habitually give money to these people. divert your attention from industries that hate you

tl;dr: if you say you care about "art" but won't crack open an art theory book, won't engage w/ art that requires you to get off the couch, etc then i'm sorry but i dont believe you. if what you want is to save creative industries from AI, simply invent a time machine and unionize them c1970-90

they have the white-collar upper-middle-class brain worm fantasy: im successful bc my work is intrinsically valuable. i have a job bc i deserve it, not bc i am a convenient tool to my employer. i've no good reason to think abt how my industry treats those outside of it bc i am not one of them etc

the thought leaders in this arena are largely people who don't understand their own position as artists OR as workers. they don't get that the industry was rotten before AI and my solidarity ~as an artist~ would only mean anything real if i was also employed and in a union with them

but i see many others trying to fill that gap with vibes rather than education. and its making me insane. im out here trying to make sense of our situation & how to respond to it by reading books from the '70s & ppl w/ salaried jobs & huge audiences are like, "guess i'll just riff! solidarity pls?🥺"

its not a moral failure for artists or audiences to be the product of our circumstances but i feel strongly that i have been denied the tools to understand art or many opportunities to seriously engage with it-- to really be able to differentiate between "art" and "slop" by any consistent standard.

i keep switching btwn but tbc im in this group! as a commission artist i'm 100% in the surplus labor pool for creative industries, aka Real Jobs. i'm also part of the millennial generation that grew up after decades of defunding arts education, public art projects, galleries & institutions, etc.

so we keep going off about AI as if it is a creative scourge rather than a labor issue, and it isn't working! bc ppl already love slop and don't care if its ~bespoke~ or not. we are unequipped to convince anyone to love art more than convenience, bc we ourselves already don't act or think that way

i think this is bc the most authoritative voices criticizing AI are mostly digital illustrators who care about "art" only as far as it affects their career. their idea of art is entirely contained in creative industry products-- cartoons, instagram posts, their own portfolios, etc.

i would love for this to be an opportunity for people to get curious about what exactly makes a painting or a sculpture into Great Art. aesthetic philosophy is really fascinating! but that is not happening and its making me insane lmfao

we really want to square the fact that we hate AI, but the nature of machine learning is that AI learned it by watching us. we keep looking for some artistic justification for hating it bc the most obvious conclusion is that it makes slop bc it was trained on slop

thats a good point

you could write MEAT VAPE on your knuckles

bc necessarily, the ultimate goal to make something nice for the client, if it ends up having some personal touches in there then that's good, but. i'm not going to go out of my way to challenge a client the way that i would like to challenge the audience w/ my personal art

i do actually remember that one bc i really liked working on it heheheh 🌞 but its true, the rate i have to make stuff means that i'm sort of pushed away from having like, a more personal relationship with the things i make for people, even though i know they're sometimes v personal to the client!!

which is fine, but like. i've had friends be v self-conscious abt suggesting that my work is akin to factory work, more product than work-of-art, and i'm just like. lol u don't have to apologize, that is what it is!! thats not an insult, the difference is in the intention of why the thing exists