#art ethics

[guoldu]

Can I Use That Art? A Guide to Approaching Artists and Cartoonists Online

My friends and fellow coop members made this amazing prep guide for you, an online art appreciator, and I genuinely am so grateful for it. It's an AMAZING resource, whether you are looking to buy art or simply want to respectfully share your love for a piece of art you found online.

It's not a definitive answer to everything, but at least you'll get a sense for the artist perspective and know what other questions you'll need to ask.

[ic-napology]

The audacity of calling me RUDE when someone doesn't credit the artists who work for them when posting their work. (Granted it's true.)

This user's posts were art about the same ship, but drawn in different styles. There was no credit to any other artist in any of these, so I've asked what you can read.

Even in case of posting commissioned work, you have to credit the artist.

Now they've blocked me. Very mature. (And now it allows me to deem them sus as well)

[7frogsspeaks]

Getting up on my soapbox for a minute but artists who outsource all of their labor to an overseas factory do not belong at makers markets. You did not make that, you just designed it. In all likelihood someone you've never met who's getting paid $2 an hour in working conditions you almost certainly haven't verified made that.

If you can't tell me with absolute confidence that you've checked the labor standards of the factory that makes the stuff you sell I am not touching it. I don't care if you made the art printed on it, you're no better than Walmart at that point. Do better.

This is not to say that it's possible to have a 100% ethical supply chain because, in our current world, it's usually not (unless you're out there mining ore and spinning fiber from scratch). But if you are not physically involved in making the products you sell you don't get to call yourself a "maker". You're a designer, and if you work with a manufacturer you have a duty to make sure the people working for you are being treated and compensated properly.

ETA: Did you know that in the US it's a legal requirement for all imported products to have the country of origin conspicuously displayed on the packaging? You know where I've never once seen it? The tags on an independent artist's enamel pins, acrylic keychains, lanyards, etc. Obscuring the origin of your products so customers who don't know any better think you made everything yourself is fraud. Stop it.

[fibrielsolaer]

"Ethical AI" activists are making artwork AI-proof

Hello dreamers!

Art thieves have been infamously claiming that AI illustration "thinks just like a human" and that an AI copying an artist's image is as noble and righteous as a human artist taking inspiration.

It turns out this is - surprise! - factually and provably not true. In fact, some people who have experience working with AI models are developing a technology that can make AI art theft no longer possible by exploiting a fatal, and unfixable, flaw in their algorithms.

They have published an early version of this technology called Glaze.

https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu

Glaze works by altering an image so that it looks only a little different to the human eye but very different to an AI. This produces what is called an adversarial example. Adversarial examples are a known vulnerability of all current AI models that have been written on extensively since 2014, and it isn't possible to "fix" it without inventing a whole new AI technology, because it's a consequence of the basic way that modern AIs work.

This "glaze" will persist through screenshotting, cropping, rotating, and any other mundane transformation to an image that keeps it the same image from the human perspective.

The web site gives a hypothetical example of the consequences - poisoned with enough adversarial examples, AIs asked to copy an artist's style will end up combining several different art styles together. Perhaps they might even stop being able to tell hands from mouths or otherwise devolve into eldritch slops of colors and shapes.

Techbros are attempting to discourage people from using this by lying and claiming that it can be bypassed, or is only a temporary solution, or most desperately that they already have all the data they need so it wouldn't matter. However, if this glaze technology works, using it will retroactively damage their existing data unless they completely cease automatically scalping images.

Give it a try and see if it works. Can't hurt, right?

[possumcollege]

AI prompters don't understand that the cruelty of art isn't just that people have ideas and images they struggle to realize. Sometimes it's that you receive an image, you know exactly what it should look like, and how you'd bring it to life, but the image itself is deeply abhorrent to you.

For me this week, it's what Sonic the Hedgehog's sidekick, Knuckles would look like if his name had instead been "Knipples."

[thana-topsy]

Hey so 1. Please don’t answer this publicly bc I really don’t want to start shit by sending this to you, you can do whatever you want with this info, and 2. I don’t want to upset you I just noticed this and thought it might be worth commenting on?

https://at.tumblr.com/simo0n/happy-valentines-day/vuu0tkabuotm <- this art is remarkably similar in pose to one of your drawings of your OCs from Halfway to the Sky— maybe they just used your art as a reference? Or maybe you both used the same reference? Whatever the reason, t’s just *so* similar that I thought you might want to know— Feel free to also completely disregard this!! Drama sucks and it’s not fun to be a part of.

Anyway, I adore your art and your writing and I hope you have a good rest of your day!

Anon you are very sweet, and I know you requested I not answer this publicly, but this is a good learning opportunity so please forgive me as I do so anyways (because, don't worry, this isn't starting shit at all!!).

The pose in this piece that you mentioned (which is STUNNING omg) is remarkably similar because we both used the same reference! And it's a VERY famous reference:

Dante and Virgile, by William Bouguereau

Hands down one of the most homoerotic paintings of the 19th century hahaha. And perfect for vampire lovers everywhere. I mentioned on my instagram post of the Aiden/Harukar drawing that I referenced this painting, but I didn't mention it on Tumblr.

And don't feel bad for messaging me and pointing this out. This happens a lot -- especially as a lot of us artists all flock to Pinterest to use the same gay reference poses over and over and over. I always find it very sweet when people do take the time to reach out, though, so thank you for looking out.

That being said, if anyone ever uses my art for pose references, I really don't mind. I'd only take umbrage with someone who would completely copy my piece, detail for detail, including using my own character designs, or trace and claim it's their original art. Otherwise it's like a fun game of Art Telephone to see different people interpret poses differently.

My love to you, anon! I hope you have a good day.

[h0neyfreak]

I keep seeing tags/posts about the gay sex cats ai art thing that are like “deciding what art is good is elitist and weird” and “more effort doesn’t mean better art” and these people really Egalitarian Politic-ed their way right out of any meaningful interaction with art. Art being made by a human does matter and that’s okay!!! Van Gogh’s paintings are better when you read his letters and a drawing made for you by a friend will always be more beautiful than clip art and that’s the whole point!!!! “Worth” in art is not just monetary and art can be good or bad in a million different ways and that’s (fundamentally) what experiencing art is all about to me. Understanding why is the fun part!!

I think people get it more with writing so I’m gonna reanimate the corpse of Gabbie Hanna’s poetry book that was Not Very Good in terms of poetry meant to be purchased and read by other people. She went on a tirade about how it was cathartic to write for her and that’s wonderful (and I really mean that I’m not being snarky. that’s a beautiful thing) but you cannot charge people money for your unedited notes app excerpts and then get mad when they critique it for not being “worth” the money they paid. That writing is “worth” so much to the person who wrote it but it is not worth anything to the audience paying for it. And that’s art babey!!!! Duchamp’s fountain was never meant to be placed in a museum and gazed upon without context it was a physical manifestation against fascism tied to particular people in a particular time. A photorealistic drawing of a crumpled playing card on a white background is infinitely more impressive and artistic than the picture on my camera roll of the exact same thing both from a technical skill aspect and because it has entered the artist and emerged as art.

Basically please don’t let hand wringing theory about capitalism and commodification flatten your experience with art into some sort of disjointed morass of shapes and colors.