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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   31000 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023

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Will AI bring back beauty?

Looking at midjourney's top pieces of art I am struck by the beauty in them. They contain detail, high degrees of realism even when depicting surrealist themes. They tend to be symmetrical and often portray idealized versions of reality. AI art tends to portray archetypal depicitions of its motifs and often excludes blemmishes, dirt and grime.

Compare it with corporate memphis a primarily human generated art form that has gained significant traction in the public space in the past decade. This is the most expensive painting painted by a living woman.

Compare the buildings drawn by the AI with the best exterior of 2022 in Sweden according to architects.

AI gives people what it gets positive feedback from. It gives people what they want. People want visually stunning rather than the output of the art community.

People have these lofty ideals of what AI art will get used for. They're all wrong. AI art will be Harambe rule 34 for a decade before it starts replacing human artists in more mainstream applications. And it'll still go up the totem pole slowly. The ugly modern art that fills up the met and the Frank LLoyd Wright monstrosities will be the last things to get replaced with AI generated alternatives. Why these things are high status I don't know, but they quite clearly are.

Frank LLoyd Wright monstrosities

Are you sure you aren't thinking of someone else?

Frank LLoyd Wright monstrosities

Yeah, who hates on Lloyd Wright ? Maybe OP means the kind of boring modernist buildings that bastardized Bauhaus which was inspired by Lloyd wright.

A lot of his designs are fairly impractical (see fallingwaters enormous humidity issues) or the many toddler hazards common in many examples of his work. For example, the linked photo of the stair railing in the Francis Little house living room or Pope Leighey house' fireplace). They're still very smartly designed and look gorgeous.

Are you sure you sure you’re thinking of the right Wright house? I don’t see any stairs in the Francis Little house living room.

In any case, I’ve had to cat-proof two and help baby-proof one house, and it certainly reduced the artistic worth of both.

Oh the original linked picture is darker and I took the museum gratiting (large open metal grate work to be stair railing).

https://franklloydwright.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/francis-little-house-ii-living-room-reconstruction-1440x640.jpg

The railing appears to be restricting museum patrons to a viewing area not part of the original design.

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