Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 22

Inflation

Seeing inflation charts and thinking that no matter the chart, the people, the poor get smashed. So after trillions went to the markets and the rich over the past few years, we get "tight labor market" (re beat the workers down, they're getting uppity) and a need to bring that down when, all the evidence shows it's supply line issues that are causing the inflation. Sigh. Good breakdown here. 
Also, for all the China bashing, and sure there's plenty to bash, there's this piece of info on how good they can do a thing when needed. Cutting as much pollution in 7 years as we did in 30 is impressive. 
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10 years back

Remember writing about this a while back. Here's the wiki on it. Not sure if that picture is worth it, tbf. Should be all in a line, or something else. Can you do better?



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Another Art Piece. Also, I"m cold

Seems that I now have another piece getting Published by Twyckenham Notes. Actually got two acceptances for this piece (non-digital) and as it were, they were minutes apart. Good times. Email if you want it, though it might go on my wall sometime soon. I'll share the link when I get the link. 
Also, I'm currently in Seattle and dammit all if it isn't cold af. The temps are barely peaking above 60. This aggression by the weather gods will not stand. Join me if you can. 
Peace. 
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Burning

Well well, still thinking about this movie and how great it is and was. Its ambiguity was only something I learned after the fact. Anyways, check out the link as it has a decent discussion about the movie. Sometimes I think that is the best thing to read, people's discussions of the movie online instead of the review. Funny how that works.  
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Flash Fiction

You know how I like that flash fiction, boy, so this thread hits on some ones I've yet to read. will post about them as I get to em.  Of course, someone mentioned Kincaid and she's just brilliant. Bottom of the River is just filled with hits. Trying to think of another great set of flash fiction out there.... 🤔 Maybe I have to read more
Edit: I like this one. 


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Should one be scared of AI Art?

That's the current question: should one be scared of it? People are talking, you know... I think this mainly goes for the digital kind, though I'm sure it will reach into the real world with great results soon enough. But it could be a tool, which is something to think about:

AI art is mostly going to devour churn and burn type of work (a lot of which is already being replaced by stock assets), which I'm fine with because I hate doing that stuff anyway, so it's either just going to reduce the amount of that kind of work clients want or it's going to become a tool I can use to eliminate work I don't like doing.

Sort of like I used to spend HOURS and HOURS in photoshop creating realistic print textures in my illustrations and then someone showed me a Ps plugin that did that exact thing. At first I was put off by the idea of just automating that process, like me doing it manually was somehow more "authentic"... and then I gave it a try and realized I can literally eliminate hours of work from my schedule by using the plugin to set some custom texture settings. 

There will ALWAYS be stuff AI can't do, so I'll focus on that as my main work and use AI to my advantage where applicable.

this is AI art from https://hotpot.ai/gallery/8/ai-art-maker and I'm not sure it's all that impressive or interesting to me. Like a madman or child with photoshop. 
 

But of course, some think even if they're just tools, they'll eat up plenty of artists:

Anyone doing art professionally not scared by it is just fooling themselves. The AI may not completely replace our industry, but it will replace need for 90%. 

I have been working in animation for many many years. When I started back in the day the in a studio with for example with 20 people When the advance of animation programs came, they reduced that need to 10 people. The "C" quality artists were let go...
Than not many years ago, internet gave way to outsourced work. SO many developing countries and freelance people joined with very competitive prices. Now same studio employed 3 people only, mostly Art director and most experienced people for final fixes. "B" quality artists were let go.
The future now will reduce this number to 1. Just one person to supervise the final result.
And it will be best of the best. 

The need for creators will diminish to the point that finding work will be extremely hard. Not to joke that its easy now, but it will be much much harder. And perhaps you ( especially young among us ) think they are the best of the best. But believe me, competition will get fierce. But compensation will not, because you will be even more replaceable. 

.... 

But how about illustrators, artists that are self employed? 

Imagine that average person will now have at his fingers software that can make pictures.
So imagine people that were for example making money by commission painting RPG characters for people on demand? Well now that same person can say "Make me an female elf with my face, fighting dragon in style of old school D&D art" ... maybe the first result will not be perfect. But he can generate thousand. One of them will be good, and free, and no need to wait, hire artists online ... no fuss. 

So even here just best of the best will be able to still get commissions.

....

Not good outlook.

However, art is not the only thing replaced by AI Drivers, accountants, teachers, doctors, programmers, service people, sales ... In following years you will start to realise this crisis as more and more jobs will erode - and not be replaced ( that is a fairy tale proven wrong many times over )

The big crisis is coming and art is just a small part of it.

So this isn't good and at best it might just devalue all the digital art that I do. So I went here to try it out. Input smell. Well it took so long I stopped caring. 

Then I went here. Input "That smell"

Not even sure what to think. Like a desert with a hint of nose and mouth to it. I dunno, does that make sense? I wonder. So will Ai art take over? I'm not sure. Maybe when it's backed by people willing to use it as a financial instrument or some kind of status symbol (when AIs with weapons decide to be kinder to those who have AI art because they are more cultured in their view), then we'll have AI art truly take over.

To that end I decided to look at my pandemic detritus art print. It's digital. 

I run the AI generator with pandemic detritus (cubist style):

Meh. 🫤 I mean, it's not bad, but is it anything worthwhile? Even if, tbf, the one I created didn't have the title until after it was created (the title being a kind of thought that sums up what went into it). And maybe someone has an AI gen that has a collage style that will blow this thing I created out of the water (the other thing is you probably have to generate 1000s for a single good one, so maybe that too will create something better than I did. 

 Your thoughts?

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My B

sent the wrong story to a mag, but they were nice about it:

Your writing may sparkle with wit and snap with insight, but no matter how much we may love it, if it doesn't have an obvious connection to our theme, we can't say yes to you. This doesn't mean we don't love it, just that we don't feel it would work with the issue. 

Well, as nice as it gets and not a form letter. Another said I was on a shortlist. Been a rough year for short story acceptances, so I'll keep you informed on what happens. 
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My piece is out now

Just so you know, my piece is now out on Zoetic Press so go over there and show some love. Many good writers and poets and artists on that issue. Only 5$, which is basically a medium fancy latte these days. So seriously, go and check it out. If you like my piece check out the prints here. 




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Interesting.

More thoughts on this coming, but a good article looking at the fiction world in China. Mainly it's a way to escape the state censors, and the increasingly authoritarian ways of the government. Makes me think of what I have been writing about in terms of fiction and about fiction. 
Because there's more to life than state censors, and there are more than just the usual oligarchic censors we have in America. Mainly, I'm thinking about how fiction is used as a Trojan horse. many ideas presented in a clear and concise and non-fiction way, find themselves outside of a person's defenses. A person's censors, if you will. So in that sense, using fiction to say something is worthwhile. 
Most of all, I would think that it's the only way fiction has some staying power. Now that might be our times talking (and comfy times might call for entertaining reading), but that's all I have on that. 
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Pretty cool stuff here.

okay, the internet shared this with me. That's one in the pretty cool column. But the entire edifice is still on my SL. 
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