make slop art
the vaudeville ghost house's make bad art has me thinking that, with how many consider slop to be such bad art, doesn't the post make the case for making slop too?
Take this paragraph:
The best part about this sort of DIY ethos is it's viral. Making art appeals to some primal part of our beings; there is nothing that feels better than going out there and creating something, loudly and unapologetically. Art is play; art is expressing your soul; art is connection. And this is what makes what humans make valuable; not that it's more aesthetically pleasing than what the slop armies can produce, but because it is human. Every bad drawing, every shitty haiku, every poem that doesn't scan, every stupid melody we hum to our cats, is participating in the great conversation that has been ongoing since we started telling each other stories and painting in caves.
Them mentioning "slop armies" makes me wonder about the many exchanges in which participants see making slop as making art.
Take this paragraph:
Because this is how we win: get out there and make bad art. Write a poem just for fun. Be loud and unapologetic; make that fucking noise. Participate in the joyful experiment that is art: creating it, sharing it, experiencing it. Look for cool artists and follow them, tell them they rule, share it with your friends. Make bad art. There is so much beauty out there, being made by real humans, as messy and complicated and diverse as humans are. Celebrate that. Never stop celebrating that. The slopmongers are powerless against our joy.
Adding "Get AI to" before "Write a poem just for fun." then replacing "slopmongers" with "tradmongers" doesn't appear to add any contradictions.
Take this sentence:
No, my issue is with the sneering contempt for lesser art forms.
I agree in that bemoaning "slop" takes precious time away from mastering beautiful skills and appreciating art you find valid, worthy, and valuable. It's as some---things' crab haiku goes:
“crab mentality”
crabs in a barrel,
but since when did crabs ever,
belong in barrels?
I agree with this sentiment of the vaudeville ghost house too:
I'm thinking about how much power there is in a movement which doesn't care if you're "good". All you need is three chords and a guitar and the desire to go tell the truth. That's it. That's enough. No one cares if you do it right, you just have to go out there and do it.
That can apply just as much to making AI art as it can to making art with other tools. For that matter, AI is just another tool you can infuse into a mixed media workflow. Also, their focus on doing over doing it right or being "good" reminds me of Sharif's self-explanatory Willingness to look stupid is a genuine moat in creative work:
Just this: are you willing to look stupid today? That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
As for artists with aphantasia like the vaudeville ghost house, them creating visual art and teaching themselves to draw with or without AI is awesome. I can be pretty happy with their progress no matter how they managed it.