Where do we go from here?
My first love has always been art. I always knew it was what I wanted to spend my time doing in life. I was also drawn to technology. These two passions led me to a career as a Technical Artist for games, which allowed me to express myself both artistically and technically. As a Technical Artist, I became relatively adept at solving problems through systems creation. My job generally speaking has always been to make it easier for artists to create within the limited constraints of game engines and hardware. Oddly enough, advances in technology have lead to the ultimate expression of efficiency, AI generated art. Artists and Creatives have long been exploited in the current online ecosystem, everyone has really. Call me crazy, but I'm certain there's something we can do about it.
I was drawn to being an artist, primarily because I have a drive to bring my active imagination to life. I've always found that creating a good system, was just as satisfying as drawing a cool picture. For me they represent the same thing really. In the case of drawing picture, I always have the image in my head first. It isn't crystal clear, I can only 'see' it in a fuzzy sense... Much like a memory. Through the process of putting pencil to paper, I'm able to solidify my vision. Seeing it finally finished on the page is extremely satisfying. When creating a system, the fuzzy image is the solution to the problem. I usually have a rough idea of how I might solve it from the outset, arriving at the solution is cumulative, much like drawing lines on paper... Instead, it's lines of code in an editor. When I complete some system, it's immensely satisfying to see it work as intended.
What's been missing from any online communities from the outset, is real community. Current systems are designed to be generic, so as to reach the largest amount of people possible, and extract value from them. For any 'user' of such a system, this is a losing proposition. You are literally a mechanism for value extraction, how could using any of these platforms ever be beneficial, they are parasitic by nature. To compete in these ecosystems creators must produce quick low quality content. Some people are creating AI Avatars of themselves for video creation... which when you really think about it, is absurd. These things are directly related to the chokehold platform algorithms have in the ecosystem. People are forced to perform for the algorithm, so how can ANY content be truly authentic?
The fear and uncertainty artists and creators are feeling with regard to AI, while understandable, is the wrong energy to embrace. I'm convinced that people are not really seeing the forest for the trees.As for me, I am going to do what I've always done, create tools for Artists... I am convinced that, together we can build new systems where we create the value, instead of having value extracted from us. So where do we go from here? To the beginning, or is it the end? :)