catgirlhell

its official: tumblr is selling our data to Midjourney

we'd been hearing rumors about this for a bit but now its open and out there. some details from this article

it goes without saying, but if @staff goes through with this its going to be an utter shitshow and im all but certain the website will not survive it.

evilwizard

everyone go enable this immediately. it can be a bit hard to find because “visibility” is under blog settings instead of general settings or privacy. you have to do this individually for each separate side-blog

if you can’t find it on the app then the update probably hasn’t rolled out to you, and you’ll have to go through the web browser. what a truly wild way/time to implement this

chaumas-deactivated20240115

went to a queer art festival this afternoon and not to be a pretentious hater but if I see one more enamel pin or cutesy sticker proclaiming CAT MOM or COFFEEMANCER I’m going to hurl

the only thing in the entire show that didn’t feel like it was trying to sell me an identity advertisement mass-produced in an overseas factory was a print of a hazy original painting that might have been a tangle of human viscera, or a coral reef, or both, which the artist couldn’t remember painting and which I bought immediately out of desperation

chaumas-deactivated20240115

That’s really not what I’m complaining about. Those are both mainstream famous paintings that have been replicated and referenced as cultural staples for generations. I’m sure you could find either painting as an enamel pin or a button a dozen times over with a quick Etsy search.

Hell, if anything, I’m complaining about “can I get that as a pin?” and the inescapable ubiquity of impersonal self-advertising merch. I like pins! I buy pins! But it’s so de-inspiring to go to an event meant to showcase the creative output of a diverse swath of my local community and it’s all just the same indistinguishable shit I can find a dozen times over on Etsy.

And like…. again, I like pins, and patches, and if I owned things I could put stickers on without damaging them I’m sure I’d like stickers. But when that’s all there fuckin is, when it’s all rendered into easy shapes and colors and slogans, at a certain point it stops feeling like queer art is meant to be thought about or appreciated or do anything other than advertise.

megpie71

As a former humanities student, I feel it is my duty to reblog this one.

tbosas

"if i was orpheus i would simply not turn around" yes you would. if you were orpheus and you loved eurydice, you would. to love someone is to turn around. to love someone is to look at them. whichever version of the myth — he hears her stumble, he can't hear her at all, he thinks he's been tricked — he turns around because he loves her. that's why it's a tragedy. because he loves her enough to save her. because he loves her so much he can't save her. because he will always, always turn around. "if i was orpheus i would simply —" you wouldn't be orpheus. you wouldn't be brave enough to walk into the underworld and save the person you love. be serious

caputvulpinum

"if i was orpheus i would simply not turn around" as a sign of love? thats nice i guess. but we can do better.

caputvulpinum

if i was eurydice i would tell him i forgive him when he looks back.

caputvulpinum

don't misunderstand me. there was nothing needing forgiveness. he loved me so much he had to turn around. why demand an apology for that? i'd forgive him because he wouldn't forgive himself. it isn't about me.

not-quitenormal

Rage. In my heart. All-consuming. FUCK AI.

neveragainfools

For those who don't know, this piece is titled 'Unfinished Painting', by Keith Haring. He painted it about a year before his death of AIDs. I believe he actually finished other pieces between this one and his death. He left the majority of the canvas blank to represent his life and art career cut short due to HIV/AIDs. This was a deliberate choice and commentary about all that we lose (both personally and culturally) by ignoring the AIDs crisis at the time (1989). He was devastated he didn't have time to make more art. 'Finishing' Unfinished Painting is straight up spitting on Haring's grave and shows no understanding to the meaning behind the art. The AI interpretation doesn't even follow his extremely recognizable shape language and symbols. This is why people are angry about AI art. All commerce images and no meaning or humanity

not-quitenormal

Thank you for typing this out! I couldn't formulate my thoughts at the time because it really and truly goes beyond "they didn't match the pattern". There is significance behind this piece never being completed. "Unfinished Painting" is historical on at *minimum* three different layers - reflecting one person's struggle with AIDS, encapsulating a very terrifying time in the LGBT+ community (though AIDS doesn't discriminate by sexuality), and showing how the LGBT+ community was (and still is) all woven together with the same struggles. And while the completion *could be* a symbol of how even HIV can be overcome (at least two people have been cured!!!!), the fact that it was completed by a fucking computer rings this symbol as hollow. Our lives are not bits of data. We are not statistics. We never fucking were.

AI advocates, go pick up a brush.

frozenartscapes

The thing with this kind of use for AI is that it all too often is excused with something innocent. "It's so sad this was never finished! But we can now use AI to finish it! We're helping the artist!"

But you're not helping the artist. You're tacking your own name onto their work in an attempt to milk some of their credit for yourself. In one of the laziest ways possible.

Sometimes art doesn't get finished. Sometimes a song is never fully written. Sometimes a novel series isn't completed. Maybe it's because the artist died, or maybe it's because the spark they had for the art in question went out before they completed the work. But that's life. It's unfortunate, and often sad. It leaves the fans of that artist feeling empty, because they want what they'll never get. But that does not justify taking it upon yourself to "complete" a work for an artist, especially when the artist does not ask you to. Especially this painting, which was very obviously intentionally left unfinished by the artist. But even if it hadn't been, and it truly wasn't finished before he died, then that does not mean it is ok to ask a computer to finish it.

People look to AI as the big solution to completing all these things that were lost to time. They want to use actors who have died for those big, touching cameos in movies. They want to hear songs that were never completed, sung by voices who are long gone. They want to see more artwork, more creativity, by artists who aren't here anymore. But all throughout human history, people have accepted that once someone is dead, then that's it. The only way we can appreciate them is in what they have left us, not in what a computer might be able to create by stealing their work and creating a false image. It's not their work. They didn't make it. To call it theirs would be nothing short of a lie.

meduseld

Kelly Carlin, daughter of the late and all time great George Carlin, shared this statement regarding an AI-generated special imitating him:

She's right. Part of the beauty of humanity and its creations is that it is ephemeral. Death enhances our lives, not detracts for it. AI making a ghoulish reanimation of the dead should strike you with such horror that you understand why necromancy is banned by man and God.