I'm on that transitional edge of unhousedom that people can't visibilly clock me, so when they pick me up from unhomed zones they talk awful shit about "those people". I won't pass for human long, and those that know what I am speak at me, snarling, smarmy, frightening.
vetted organizations / funds to donate to in appalachia for hurricane relief
beloved asheville
wnc rural organizing & resilience (ROAR)
pansy collective
appalachian medical solidarity/asheville survival program
first aid collective knoxville
marshall, nc refugees mutual aid fund
rural barnardsville, nc supply fund
please boost if you cannot contribute—the destruction in appalachia is devastating and our infrastructure was not equipped to handle this kind of disaster.
Mountain Mule Packers are also out there, taking supplies to whoever they can! Their venmo is linked on their facebook page, I'm not sure if they've been vetted, but my sister knows someone who works on their team, and they are actually out there doing the work (both the people and the mules).
Using mules to get out to these areas is sometimes the only way to get there, since so many roads and access points are completely wiped out. They're able to get to areas that helicopters aren't able to reach due to tree cover, and the mule teams can traverse difficult terrain much faster and more easily than any vehicle. They're bringing medicine, food, and other supplies to people who are stranded, and working with the fire department to make sure they're covering as many inaccessible areas as they can.
(they also have a lot of pictures and videos of their mules on their facebook if you want to see the fuzzy little ears)
Sometimes I sit and think about just how much effort it takes to make our social media platforms chaos, just to prioritize really short-term profit.
Like the... immense amount of money they are sinking into retrofitting non-functionality into sites that function perfectly, layering crappy cheap code on top of code that was meant to be structural, essentially...
Like it's a honest to goodness commitment, they must be up there working there 2 hours a week and their luxury vibes just FULLY believing, believing religiously, believing totally and blindly, that deliberately messing up something that's working to prioritize getting an extra $0.99 out of users is it worth it for everyone.
I like the sort of sheer amount of normalcy that they have created around severe censorship and censorship denialism from even the closest allies... Mind-boggling, every time.
Sometimes I scroll through my social media and see just how much I'm flagging rainbow, and immediately want to issue an apology. Then I realize that's just internalized biphobia and it's just fine to be my little flaggy nonbibary bipan lil self.
Feel free to ignore/delete this if you don't want to talk about it, but can you explain why using AI image generation isn't theft? I think I understand the argument (even if the model is "fed" on people's art, it doesn't just straight up replicate it, it analyzes it for data which it then uses in concert with a lot of other data to generate something new) and that does make sense to me, but I can also understand where some artists are coming from when it comes to having their work used to train these models without their consent. Like they put real labor into making this, and it doesn't seem right to use their finished products without properly compensating them?? But also I know not every image generation model is fed on stolen art, so I guess I just wanted to get your stance on it since this is an issue I'm passionate about and you seem like you have a nuanced view on it.
i mean......... yeah. you don't have to ask permission to use other peoples art all the time.
fair use exists. and while it's still unclear legally speaking where the precedent will be set with AI and AI training, in my opinion (and basically anyone who uses AI/has a fairly nuanced understanding of it), it's at least probably fair use, given that collage art (something people who are stupid like to say how AI "actually" works) has already been found to be fair use because it's transformative:
The painter, Richard Prince, created a collage using—in one collage—35 images from a photographer's book. The artist also used 28 of the photos in 29 additional paintings. In some instances, the full photograph was used while in others, only the main subject of the photo was used. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that, to qualify as a transformative use, Prince's work did not have to comment on the original photographer's work (or on popular culture). The Court of Appeals concluded that 25 of Prince's artworks qualified as fair use and remanded the case to determine the status of the remaining five artworks.
(from this article)
i'm legally allowed to make collages out of other peoples work without their permission. i'm also legally allowed to save other peoples work onto my computer and do whatever i want with it without their permission. (also, fair use has another outlined reason it applies to, which is "research", and you could probably make the argument that at the very least open source models qualify as a research use, but that's weaker than it being transformative, personally).
again: we do not in fact have a precedent set here. but even the lawsuits that are happening right now are not even about the training aspect - they're about the ability of models to be used to make plagiarized copies of artworks/the use of artists' names and handles as tags within models for prompting. (i personally also think this is fine, though for the sake of everyone getting along, i think it's the polite thing to do to not use an artist's name if they've expressed they don't want you to).
like, was it done without their permission? yeah. but them's the breaks! that's how art works! it's how roy lichtenstein was allowed to sell his paintings when they were just upscaled, color-changed versions of comic book art he did not have the rights to.
there is no doubt that inclusion of a piece of work in a model is transformative. it is fundamentally becoming a completely different, new thing. you do not need to ask permission for this. and more importantly, you should not need to ask permission for this.
if you want to be an artist that posts art anywhere, you have to come to terms with the fact that there are legal rights for people to do whatever they want with it, to a point. this is a fundamental necessity for art spaces to..well.. be good! derivative art is okay, good even, and i personally think getting upset that your art is now one data point among literally billions is silly and mostly a personal problem.
I am Dr. Mohammed Aldeeb, a dedicated medical professional specializing in emergency care, hailing from the Gaza Strip. 🇵🇸 ✌🕊
For years, I poured my heart and soul into my work at Al-Shifa Hospital, tending to the wounded and the ailing with compassion and skill.😀
However, the ravages of war tore through our lives😓, forcing me to abandon my cherished home and the familiar walls of the hospital where I once found solace😥💔.
Help Us Escape the Ravages of War: Emergency Evacuation Fund … N ALDEEB needs your support for Help Us Escape the Ravages of War: Emergen
Leaving behind the echoes of laughter and camaraderie, I embarked on a painful journey southward, bidding farewell to the streets where I grew up😓💔, the corners where I sought refuge, and the colleagues who felt like family. Memories of my formative years and the countless lives I touched during my tenure at Al-Shifa and other medical facilities flooded my mind😥, as I struggled to come to terms with the sudden upheaval.
Despite the adversities that besieged me, I persevered in my pursuit of healing. My determination led me to Al-Azhar University, where I embraced the role of a teaching assistant, imparting knowledge to aspiring medical students with unwavering dedication. Dreams of specializing in internal medicine beckoned me back to Al-Shifa Hospital, but alas, the brutal onslaught of war reduced it to rubble, shattering my aspirations in its wake.
In the chaos and carnage of conflict, I sustained injuries, and the sanctuary of my home was obliterated, leaving my family and me destitute and displaced. Yet, amid the ruins, a flicker of hope persists. At Al-Aqsa Hospital, I continue to extend a helping hand to those in need, drawing strength from the resilience instilled in me through years of education and service.
Today, we find ourselves sheltering in a humble tent, stripped of our possessions and livelihoods. The loss of my job, my home, and the comforting presence of my loved ones weighs heavily on my heart. Nevertheless, I refuse to surrender to despair, clinging to the belief that brighter days lie ahead.
It is with a heavy heart that I reach out to you, dear reader, seeking assistance in securing safe passage for myself and my family from the turmoil of Gaza. With your kindness and generosity, I hope to reclaim the path to realizing my medical vocation, enabling me to provide for my loved ones and contribute to the healing of our wounded world.
Your compassionate aid would mean the world to me and my family.
With gratitude and hope,
Dr. Mohammed Aldeeb
Gaza Strip
WhatsApp: 00972599095244
I hope this version captures the depth of your story and resonates with your audience. Let me know if you need further adjustments!
Vetted by :
@90-ghost : the verification
Help Us Escape the Ravages of War: Emergency Evacuation FundT… N ALDEEB needs your support for Help Us Escape the Ravages of War: Emergen
Let me tell you something about art, and being an artist: I went to art college and I dropped out. Over the years, I stopped doing art, and I no longer consider myself to be an artist, but I know I could pick it up again in an instant if I so chose because I remember the most important lesson I learned from my studies: art is communication. The medium doesn't matter, the method doesn't matter, the results don't matter. A generated piece has just as much place as artwork as a lithograph, or a sculpture, or a photo, or a painting, or a sketch, or anything else that conveys a vision or an idea. And just like all of the methods I've just mentioned, generated art will not and cannot replace its forebears. For example, one of the most-viewed images in the entire world is this:
Despite it being viewed by exponentially more people than the most famous of paintings, it hasn't replaced them. In the same way 3D rendering didn't replace photography, in the same way photography didn't replace portraits, in the same way portraits didn't replace sculpture, in the same way sculpture didn't replace carving, in the same way a new technique will not replace anything - it will simply exist beside the other genres and mediums, with its own rules, and its own boundaries, just as everything else that came before it has.
And don't get me started on how many times we've had this conversation about what art is the best or what gets to be considered art. Hell, Wikipedia's article on the hierarchy of genres has one of my most favorite examples:
Against the sculptors, Leonardo argued that the intellectual effort necessary to create an illusion of three-dimensionality made the painters' art superior to that of the sculptor, who could do so merely by recording appearances.
Leonardo Fucking Da Vinci out here being a messy bitch about sculpting because it's not his preferred method. The exact same argument was used against photography in antiquity because it was simply capturing an image of what existed, and then it was used again against renders because "computer graphics aren't real" and "you're just posing models with fake lighting".
AI Art and the generation of images is just the new photography: a mechanically-assisted art form with a radical method of producing a piece that is rarely judged by its own merits because it has yet to be commonly understood. It IS art, and it's in the best interests of anyone who believes otherwise to study Art History and see how many times the same exact backlash has popped up against what we now consider to be traditional and respectable forms. I know change is scary, but it is possible to be better than your instincts and accept or embrace something new - even if it's not something that you, personally, would like to use.
dededos
prguitarman
origamiaround
discoholicmusic
janainaart
kaledo-art
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
ellievsbear
