The hottest Visual Culture Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Art & Illustration Topics

AI Art Turing Test

Astral Codex Ten • 10048 implied HN points • 14 Oct 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Digital Art AI Art Visual Culture Art Criticism Interactive art
  1. There's an AI Art Turing Test happening, which is a fun way to see if you can tell the difference between AI-generated art and human-made art.
  2. Participants can take part by filling out a form, which takes about twenty minutes, and the results will be shared the following week.
  3. Don't peek at the comments until you're done with the test, as they might give away answers.

An Ocean of Pain and Death

Looking Through the Past • 178 implied HN points • 06 Oct 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Art history Visual Culture Cultural Commentary
  1. Ernst Friedrich's book 'War Against War!' aimed to show the harsh realities of war, pushing people to rethink their views on conflict. He believed that by confronting the true impacts of war, society could work towards lasting peace.
  2. Artists throughout history, like Goya and Picasso, have used their work to express the horrors of war, presenting it not as glorious but as tragic. Their art serves as a reminder of the suffering that war brings to individuals and communities.
  3. The anti-war art movement highlights the need to see the brutal consequences of conflict, encouraging people to think critically about war and its effects on humanity. Recognizing these realities can help prevent future wars.

Imitation Games

Counter Craft • 542 implied HN points • 22 Nov 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Contemporary Art Art Theory Digital Art Art Criticism Visual Culture
  1. AI art can imitate famous styles, but it often lacks originality and creativity. Just copying styles doesn't make it as good as the original.
  2. People unfamiliar with art may prefer simple or amateur pieces over professional ones. Knowing more about art can help us appreciate it better.
  3. The value of art comes from creativity and effort, not just the ability to copy. Real art involves developing unique styles and perspectives.

The Definitive Handbook For Spotting AI Art

The Algorithmic Bridge • 265 implied HN points • 27 Nov 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Art history AI Art Visual Culture Art Critique Creative Process
  1. Art has two layers: a visible surface like colors and shapes, and a hidden layer that includes history and culture. AI art usually lacks this deeper meaning.
  2. People often struggle to tell AI art from human-made art because they focus only on the surface. They can learn to spot AI art by asking if it has that deeper history and consistency.
  3. Human creativity is stronger because it connects to real experiences and truths. AI can mimic but it doesn't understand the world or the meaning behind art.

Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees

Austin Kleon • 2078 implied HN points • 07 Nov 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Contemporary Art Art history Art Criticism Visual Culture
  1. Robert Irwin was an artist who focused on creating experiences rather than traditional paintings. He wanted people to think about how they perceive the world.
  2. Lawrence Weschler wrote a book about Irwin called 'Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees'. It dives into Irwin's ideas and art philosophy.
  3. David Hockney and Robert Irwin had different views on art, but their conversation through Weschler's writing shows how meaningful discussions can happen even without direct contact.
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Another clueless person attempts to defend generative AI "art"

Top Carbon Chauvinist • 19 implied HN points • 08 Sep 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Generative Art Art Criticism Contemporary Art Visual Culture Creative Process
  1. Generative AI art lacks true artistic intent because it does not involve a person making conscious creative decisions.
  2. Many famous art movements involved randomness, but they still required an artist's direction and vision.
  3. Using AI to create art can lead to results that are very different from what the person intended, making it hard to consider those results as true art.

Critical Making Reflections, 2D Packing, and Grids in R

Generative Arts Collective • 65 implied HN points • 24 Nov 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Art Theory Creative Process Generative Art Art Education Visual Culture
  1. Creativity is about balancing rules and imagination. Understanding the rules helps you know when to break them and innovate.
  2. Making art is a journey that involves exploration. It's important to try new things and take steps, even if you don't know where they will lead.
  3. Looking deeper into things can reveal their true complexity. Just like knowing more about birds goes beyond their colors, understanding art involves seeing beyond the surface.

Letter from the field #3 - The anthropology of illustration

On Looking • 339 implied HN points • 10 Jan 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Anthropology Visual Culture
  1. The lives of NYC creatives in the illustration field are rich and complex, often intertwining personal identity with creative work.
  2. Illustrators create images that reflect their unique styles, which are not just for commercial purposes but also a form of personal expression.
  3. Art directors play a pivotal role in matching visuals with text, acting as 'image brokers' who translate language into visual art, influencing how people interact with images in everyday life.

Spotlight: Space Artist Michael Najjar

Space Ambition • 99 implied HN points • 12 Apr 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Contemporary Art Visual Culture Digital Art
  1. Art can connect people to space science, making complex topics more relatable and exciting. It invites everyone to explore the wonders of the cosmos.
  2. Michael Najjar merges technology and art to visualize the future of space exploration. His works reflect both current scientific realities and imagined possibilities.
  3. Collaboration with scientists and engineers enriches his art, helping bridge the gap between public understanding and advanced technological concepts in space exploration.

Artt in the Age of Artifficial Intelligence

Donkeyspace • 18 implied HN points • 09 Dec 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Contemporary Art AI Art Art Theory Art Criticism Visual Culture
  1. Art is not just pretty pictures; it's a project deeply connected to its context and history. Each piece of art tells a story influenced by the time and place it was created.
  2. Many people struggle with modern and contemporary art because they don't want to engage with the complicated ideas behind it. They just want nice visuals to enjoy without any deep thinking.
  3. The relationship between art and public taste can be messy. People may like things not because they are genuinely good, but because they want to fit in or impress others.

SWIM

Cybernetic Forests • 179 implied HN points • 14 Jan 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Archives Memory Training Data AI Visual Culture
  1. SWIM is a piece that visualizes the relationship between archives, memory, and training data. It explores the impact of training AI models on images and the implications for memory and synthetic images.
  2. The artist behind SWIM finds creating pieces as a way to think through ideas that might not work well with words. The process often clarifies thoughts or raises questions that are hard to articulate.
  3. The deduction of memory through photography or AI analysis is highlighted in SWIM, where a swimmer dissolves into training data, shifting the remembrance process to a mechanized model and potentially losing the essence of being remembered.

Letters from the field #5 - Season 2 announcement + Call for participation

On Looking • 79 implied HN points • 19 Apr 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Research Industry Creativity Visual Culture Design
  1. Season 2 of the research will focus on exploring the perspectives of designers, art directors, editors, and production managers in the creative industry.
  2. The research involves conducting in-person interviews as well as observations within magazines, design studios, and advertising agencies in New York to understand how creative professionals work and make decisions.
  3. The researcher is seeking New York-based creatives to participate in the study, emphasizing the importance of observations in workspaces to gather insights for the research.

And we're back...

On Looking • 279 implied HN points • 05 Nov 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Creative industry Visual Culture
  1. Julien Posture is exploring the relationship between language, perception, value, and styles in the creative industry through his PhD research.
  2. Aesthetic judgments in the creative industry have social, economic, and moral impacts on individuals, shaping identities and relationships.
  3. The research aims to understand how visual styles are associated with different values and how these evaluations impact the creative industry and its stakeholders.

1 year of visual culture, and a new name !

On Looking • 139 implied HN points • 05 Apr 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Visual Culture Creative industry Anthropology
  1. Julien Posture's newsletter 'The (Im)posture' is rebranding and broadening its focus to discuss visual culture matters beyond just the creative industry.
  2. The newsletter reflects Julien's transition from being an anthropologist doing illustration to an illustrator engaging with anthropology, exploring a wide range of topics from AI in illustration to language perception in VFX.
  3. The aim of the newsletter is to deepen visual literacy, encouraging readers to think profoundly about living in an image-saturated world as both creators and viewers.

Some news about The (Im)Posture

On Looking • 139 implied HN points • 25 Aug 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Community Career Creativity Visual Culture Academia
  1. The newsletter will continue with an anthropological focus as the author starts a PhD in anthropology at the University of Cambridge, providing insights into research and discussions.
  2. Paying subscribers will have more interactive and experimental content, while the core essays will remain free for everyone.
  3. There will be a hiatus in the newsletter from mid-September to mid-October due to the author's relocation and academic commitments.

P.S. The Likeness - Gizem Vural : Edweard Muybridge

On Looking • 39 implied HN points • 02 Sep 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Analysis Technique Time Visual Culture Medium
  1. The illustration 'The Likeness' by Gizem Vural is paired with a series of photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, showing the interconnectedness of different art forms and their exploration of perception.
  2. Both Vural's illustration and Muybridge's photographs capture moments that challenge our perception of time, demonstrating how visual art can manipulate time and space in unique ways.
  3. The juxtaposition of a static butterfly in Vural's illustration against the dynamic grid conveys the impact of human development on nature, showcasing how artists can push the limits of medium to convey powerful messages.

Everything Dall-e share all at once

escape the algorithm • 39 implied HN points • 21 Jun 22
🎨 Art & Illustration AI Art Visual Culture
  1. Text-based image generators are becoming advanced, creating unique visual outputs from simple descriptions.
  2. Creating AI-generated images can be a mesmerizing and addictive experience, channeling thoughts into visual form effortlessly.
  3. In a world where image creation is easy and abundant, the value of art and the essence of self-expression can be questioned.

Alex Both: Landforms

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Painting Geography Visual Culture Digital Art
  1. The artwork 'Landforms' is an oil painting that depicts a geographical diagram of landforms on a continent, created by merging images from Instagram and Google.
  2. This piece by Alex Both explores capturing attention in a visually busy culture by combining memes and personal photos to form a coherent image.
  3. The artist's process involved using Photoshop to blend and paint various images together in a way that reflects the visual information sharing prevalent in social media.

Rachel Jackson: Hypertext Monuments

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 15 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Art Design Visual Culture Political art
  1. Artistic works can lose their original meaning when shared online and are often repurposed for commercial use.
  2. The concept of image aggregation raises questions about the politics of image distribution and how it impacts art and brand creation.
  3. There is a shift in the demographic of image collectors from curating personal aesthetics to focusing on creating marketable brand identities with visual references.