Newsletter #7
AI? In the not-too-distant past, this just stood for Allen Iverson, star of the Philadelphia 76ers. Ask anyone today, however, and 100-out-of-100 times it’s ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ a sobering reminder of where we find ourselves.
Between Google’s busted AI Overviews and the endless amount of deepfakes & seven-fingered hands that litter social media, we are unwillingly forced to acknowledge that AI is no longer a mercurial point guard, but instead the foundation in which Big Tech assumes we - society - want to build our reality on. And the biggest issue? It’s attempting to do all the things no one wants from it.
The following tweet by Joanna Maciejewska went viral because it perfectly captures the way so many of us feel about the rollout of AI, and the bleak future that it proposes if deployed incorrectly. It’s something I’m confronted with on the daily, as the account gets flooded with comments suggesting the only way I could be doing this is through AI. And it’s frustrating, on a number of levels.
Doing comparisons live for investigative journalist Pablo Torre
I have been posting comparisons well before AI was even a public thing. The account has been around since 2019.
I post multiple times a day, usually close to real-time, often using artwork that I've personally photographed at museums. My comparisons are detailed, nuanced, and sometimes reference small fractions of an overall painting. People will write in saying, ‘I asked ChatGPT to do a comparison and it came up with something similar,’ or ‘I used Google Arts & Culture to match a face, etc.’ Please take one second to look at what AI churns out vs. what I’m creating. THERE IS NO TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN COME CLOSE TO DOING THIS!
And so then, the suggestion is that me, a regular person, has somehow come up with a home-baked solution that’s miles better than anything massive tech companies have rolled out, and I’ve decided to strictly use it for matching images of Sports to Art. I don’t think people understand how ridiculous this is.
And finally, and this harkens back to Joanna’s tweet - whenever someone accuses me of using AI, what they’re actually saying is that for the last five years I’ve just been posting AI outputs, for almost no money, pretending that it was human-created, for shits and giggles. Do you know how lame someone would have to be to do that, even if there was the technology in place? It’s insulting, and my biggest frustration - AI should be a tool to help replace the mundane, and allow us to devote brainpower and resources to things that require the touch and beauty of the human mind. It’s why I love Google Lens - it gives me information about the artwork, without having to take a photo of the nameplate at the museum. It saves me phone space, time, and energy, but has no impact on the artistic nature of what I’m doing. It’s the laundry and dishes, leaving me free to create the art and writing.
The scariest part is that one day, AI might become good enough to do what I do. And it’s terrifying not because it means that I’d be replaced, but because of what it means for society. The line between truth and tech erased, and the essence of what it means to be human, to create, to think, will evaporate. There will no longer be a need for practice, because there will be no more games left to play. And on that cheerful note…
Art/Sports I’m Into
Thirsty Gallerina
I’m late to the party, as this account has been around since 2018, but glad that it finally found it’s way into my timeline (see: good uses of AI). The concept of Thirsty Gallerina is simple: detail out the NYC galleries that have openings on a given night, as well is if there’s free booze, food, music, and/or most crucial, a bathroom. Sold.
Artist of the Week
Nicholas Borelli
The art world & fairs/shows can sometimes be stuffy, pretentious, and uninviting. Part of what I think resonates with people about my account is that it’s an alternate avenue into experiencing art that allows you to bypass some of the baggage oftentimes associated with the traditional practice. And if you like the account (which, why else would you be reading this), there’s a good chance you’d see the SPRING/BREAK Art Show as a welcomed breathe-of-fresh-air. The show’s website does a great job of breaking down the premise; for me, the show boils down to two things: funky & cozy.
I first came across Nicholas Borelli’s work at the 2022 NYC edition of the show, and this piece stopped me in my tracks.
Funky, oddly cozy; the embodiment of what the show stands for and why I love art, but also unique in structure and message. Nicholas Borelli’s work builds that by playing off nostalgia and childhood whimsy, and specifically ‘Le Blob’ - as I christened it - stuck with me for the next two years. About a month ago, I tracked it down, and managed to buy it (shoutout Brent Beamon at Flowers Gallery for his help), not as an investment, or a statement, but because I wanted a constant reminder of that original feeling. There’s a Le Blob out there for you too, and the SPRING/BREAK Art Show is a great and affordable place to start looking - it’ll be sometime this fall in NYC.
Sports Photographer You Need to Follow
Steph Chambers
Steph Chambers is so good that words aren’t needed. Just go to her profile, immediately follow, and fall down a wormhole. I’ve used her work numerous times, and I’m always so excited when one of her gems hits my timeline, seemingly on a weekly basis.
This one wasn’t posted because the pairing didn’t quite do the shot justice, but in the section below I’ll briefly break down how/why I came up with the comparison: