My son suggested I share this one, which he characterizes as “handception” . The sketch I’m highlighting is the lower one, but it doesn’t make sense without the context of the larger page, so here you go:
Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin: Tom Hanks
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t always agree with Rubin’s choice of guests. But when this show is good, it’s really, really good. This episode with Tom Hanks is a really good one. I always love listening to accomplished craftsmen discuss craft (as I’ve said before, if there was a documentary interviewing accomplished old plumbers called “Talking Toilets,” I’d be there). In part, I just enjoy hearing the intricacies of any craft. But I also like the consistency that I hear across crafts and craftspeople, and it boils down to something like this:
In order to be good at a craft, we need to accept and embrace the fact that we are an intelligent conduit for that craft. We are nothing more, and certainly nothing less.
Hanks says basically that in a gajillion little different ways here, and each is worth hearing.
OK, those scare quotes are unfair; this is indeed art, even if the creator is phoning in bits where he or she could certainly have applied a small amount and greatly improved their work.
Yes, “Pooky Park” is credited like so:
This is an AI-generated 1950s TV commercial for a family theme park called Pooky Park, where customers are chased by giant, somewhat terrifying puppets. Script: ChatGPT Photos: Midjourney Video: PikaLabs, Runway
That leaves the impression that someone typed “Make a 1950s TV commercial for a family theme park called Pooky Park, where customers are chased by giant, somewhat terrifying puppets” into ArtGT, hit the GO! button, and it pooped out this short, festive romp whole.
But that’s not how any of these tools work. For example, I can tell you from experience that Runway only gives you three or so seconds of footage at a time. The creator is eliding the fact that a lot has gone into editing the visuals and creating the audio. Yes, the script sounds like it’s straight ChatGPT (“Colossal howdy-doody-type puppets”? 🙄), and us thus hella week. But this is still an excellent creative application of new artistic tools—evidenced by the fact that I watched it and shared it not because of the gimmick (“AI made this!!!1!“), but because it captivated me and entertained me and unsettled me and made me want to share it with other people so they could be captivated and entertained and unsettled, too. And that, my best belovéd, is what art is all about.
I write horror, SF, and DIY stuff—occasionally in book form. If you want autographed/personalized copies for your lovelies this holiday season, I can help!
Here’s the rundown on what I’ve got on hand:
Another fun little online visual toy: click and swirl!
(Aside: I really sorta love the way this guy explodes into motion when you click the link.)
Awesome. It’s clearly awesome. 😂🤣 (for context, see this earlier post: “Is this Presumably Bot-Designed Product Awesome, or in Remarkably Poor Taste?”
As an aside, the artist (Heinrich Lossow) deserves props for the best two-sentence bio on all of Wikipedia:
“Heinrich Lossow (10 March 1843 in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria – 19 May 1897 in Schleissheim, Austria-Hungary) was a German genre painter and illustrator. He was a prolific pornographer in his spare time with an emphasis on analingus.”
Wikipedia
Of course, not to be outdone, Ali Express has likewise charged into this brave new world of fully automated product creation:
“Your Black Friend” by Ben Passmore
This is a situation where I want to grab frame or two to put here, to entice you to click through and read the whole thing. But at the same time, I don’t wanna grab a full frame, b/c every frame of it—and the way the entire thing locks together—is So. Damn. Perfect, and such a perfect presentation of the thing it’s trying to talk about.
I love it. There’s nothing left to say. It’s 100% perfect for me. It is MAUS for this moment.
“A Short Trip,” a game (of sorts) by Alexander Perrin
Please note that the cock-lion’s “tail” is itself another phallus. *fingertip kiss* Magnifique!
Anyway, the next time you hear someone sounding off about how hopelessly depraved and perverted the present is, just remember this 2,000-year-old ding-a-ling and laugh in their prudish faces.
I would like to make Yoichi Kobayashi’s cold-flaming crystal skull the executor of my estate.
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