As you may have noticed, I typically use a generated image to “illustrate” these posts. Usually I generate them with a random phrase that would seem to have no visual overtones, cut-and-pasted from any of the tabs or documents I have open at the time. (The image above was generated with the prompt “a random phrase that would seem to have no visual overtones.”)
“They don’t want to do away with art’s elitism; they just want to ground social hierarchies in a different form of domination that can be implemented automatically through a totalizing technology.” - This made me reflect on capitalism’s incessant, natural movement towards removing the middle. To be radically simplistic about it - Artistic elites are fine, an army of people pumping out banner ads and producing writing prompts in contained systems are fine. That mushy middle class that includes designers and art directors and writers that expect livable incomes for that “ambiguous” performance of “making art” has, in my experience, always been positioned as a kind of “theft” from the “real” engines of capital - investments, financial “risk” and the production of material goods and extraction of labour value therein. AI is exciting for the owners of capital because of its promise to automate away much of that ambiguity into a more totalizing (if never complete) domination over social relations of which “artists” have always seemed to move through in uncomfortably uncontrollable ways.
---As a reaction to that kind of pedagogy, I am susceptible to believing that “good” writing must in some way be dysfunctional to seem truly inspired, and that straightforward presentation of information impedes the reader’s experience of “inspiration” or “artistry.”---
That's what I appreciate most about your writing. I actually have some offhand remarks (in addition to entire pieces) saved in word doc format that I open up and reread occasionally for pleasure.
We are not aligned about a lot. I truly just appreciate your writing. It's the only Substack I pay for and pay real attention to.
“They don’t want to do away with art’s elitism; they just want to ground social hierarchies in a different form of domination that can be implemented automatically through a totalizing technology.” - This made me reflect on capitalism’s incessant, natural movement towards removing the middle. To be radically simplistic about it - Artistic elites are fine, an army of people pumping out banner ads and producing writing prompts in contained systems are fine. That mushy middle class that includes designers and art directors and writers that expect livable incomes for that “ambiguous” performance of “making art” has, in my experience, always been positioned as a kind of “theft” from the “real” engines of capital - investments, financial “risk” and the production of material goods and extraction of labour value therein. AI is exciting for the owners of capital because of its promise to automate away much of that ambiguity into a more totalizing (if never complete) domination over social relations of which “artists” have always seemed to move through in uncomfortably uncontrollable ways.
---As a reaction to that kind of pedagogy, I am susceptible to believing that “good” writing must in some way be dysfunctional to seem truly inspired, and that straightforward presentation of information impedes the reader’s experience of “inspiration” or “artistry.”---
That's what I appreciate most about your writing. I actually have some offhand remarks (in addition to entire pieces) saved in word doc format that I open up and reread occasionally for pleasure.
We are not aligned about a lot. I truly just appreciate your writing. It's the only Substack I pay for and pay real attention to.