#more fractal art compositions >:)

[itswilliamleonard]

don't be late for your sake. time is gold, your watch is a fake.

[technician-the]

Magnemite, No!

I started modeling Porygon, for some low effort fan art, and it turned into this. I only had the idea of making Magnemite after starting the computer, (because magnet+computer). Magnemite has always been one of my favorite Pokemon though, so that might have had something to do with it.

Porygon is rendered in workbench, then composited into a screen designed in affinity designer.

the magnet/crt effect is a fractal animation rendered in Jwildfire, controlling a distortion in blenders compositor, and an aggressive application of the lens distortion node for color distortion.

Then I used that composit as an animated texture on the computer screen. Magnemite and the computer/desk were rendered in one pass, with some light post-processing (mostly glare)

The computer is based on the old "computer search" pokemon card, but I've made it beige for extra nostalgia.

Ive used the new Khronos color mapper (in blender), which has avoided the progressive de-saturation that Agx always added, very useful for a scene like this. It really is shockingly more saturated tho, I had to be much more careful when picking colors.

[bonesy-doodles]

hi hello I am indeed curious about Prism and would love to read you yap about them pretty pretty please, I love them already you did the iridescence so well

I love getting to yap about them!!! For you, I have decided to yap about my design choices specifically. I’m including their art so everyone can reference what I’m talking about.

So, basically, my approach to Prism started out with thinking about their Elemental Composition, which elements are most present in their design, so I could figure out the features I wanted to include, cause all my ghoul types are unique.

So their order of elements is, Quintessence, Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. So, they have the most Quint features, and only one or two Water features.

For Quintessence, they get their coloration, their swirling horns, partially their ear shape, and hair color and texture. Most Quint ghouls are shades of magenta, purple, and indigo, which Prism is, just much lighter in complexion compared to Aether, Phantom, and Aurora. Their horns are spiraling, as you can see on the larger set, there is three overlapping layers. Their ears are harder to tell, simply because of their hair blocking it, but they do have a very similar shape to Phantom’s ears, with another element in combination. Finally, their hair. Quint ghouls commonly have very light hair that is straight or with a slight wave to it (which you can also see in Aether and Phantom.

For their Air features, it can be found in their horns, ears, and of course the presence of wings. Air ghouls will often have two sets of horns, and Prism has a smaller, unicorn like horn (which I love so much!) Their ears also have some bat ear elements to them, as they are a mixture of Quint and Air ear features. And then their wings!! Their wingsssss!!! I have to thank my buddy Coffin for the idea of making their wings insect like, like prism fractals in way. It turned out so fun. The bat like part is the Air element’s presence, but mixed with another element is what gave them the insect-like fractals.

Now onto Fire. Fire for them manifests in a few small ways. Their horns are more geometric due to Fire and another element, their ears are much longer than usual because of it too. But the main thing can be seen in the gem like scales on their cheeks and shoulders (which are also influenced by another element) as well as their eyes! Fire ghouls often don’t have defined pupils or irises, so their eyes usually appear as one continuous color!

Now onto Earth. The whole gem like appearance comes from Earth mixing with other elements. The horns are crystalline, the scales are small gems, and the wings are insect-like fractals.

And then, finally, Water. There’s barely any indication of water in their designs. Except for the fact that they can glow. Water ghouls are often bioluminescent, and Prism takes that to another level.

[oviraptoridae]

steel towers grow like corals at the edge of the end of the world

detailed process breakdown under the cut:

this is a location from silversea, the (inhales) work-in-progress troika-compatible post-apocalyptic science-fantasy TTRPG slash worldbuilding project i'm developing + running for a few of my friends. i've posted a drawing of this landscape before! someone asked for me to go into my process for digital collage in gimp, so i made sure to document the creation of this piece.

usually i start by gathering a bunch of images from wikimedia commons and by searching on duckduckgo images & filtering for creative commons licensed images. i wanted to start with a surreal landscape that looked more wrong the longer you inspected it, so this time i started by generating a background with commoncanvas (the stable diffusion model trained entirely on creative commons images, more on that here)

this was the final result. i didn't tweak it too much because i wanted the geometry to look unrealistic and warped. through the upscaling process it lost some of the early cgi look, which was sad, so i'll have to work more on trying to retain that.

interesting tangent: at 20% desert and 80% coral reef, a smooth cone briefly turns into a pyramid.

anyway, i decided i wanted it to look like you were on the edge of this environment, not in the middle, so i made some terrain in blender:

this was just a plane that i subdivided a bunch, pulled some vertices around with proportional editing to make dune shapes, and then decimated the faces to get back to a low poly look. i prefer that method to staying low poly the whole time, i feel as though i have more control over the shape.

the texture is a free tiling sand texture i found online, recolored and scaled down to make it pixelated, and then blended with vertex colors to add a little variation. it's very simple and took me maybe 30 minutes of actual work (the rest of the time spent trying to remember how to use material nodes).

this is the point where i took it into gimp and flipped & scaled the terrain until i liked the composition. i'm not bothered about the shadows not matching up, it just adds to how out of place the surreal terrain looks.

next is color correction, but i forgot to take a screenshot of that before adding the next part. gimp has a little fractal generator hidden in the filters tab, and i used that to make a swirling pattern that i overlaid over the sky, masking it selectively so it looked like it was getting thicker with distance. going for an "annihilation" look to the whole thing.

at this point i'm happy with the image and i go on to post processing. this is the part where tumblr's image compression is not doing me any favors, but oh well. when i make glitch art, there are a bunch of filters that are my favorite, but i don't usually use all of them on an image.

first off, i scale the image to 50%, add dithering (3-4 colors per channel looks nicest to me), then scale back up to the original resolution with no interpolation.

then i add "wind" (under the "distorts" option). it makes a cool pixel-sorted effect. at high levels it looks super cool...

but i keep it pretty subtle for this one.

the "video degradation" effect makes the image either too bright or too dark. i like the lcd screen look though. so i use a mask to turn it into a vignette.

i also added bloom at some point during the process, but i don't remember when. i also took the original image before all the glitch effects and overlaid it with the "chroma" blending mode to bring back some of the color that had been lost.

this was a pretty simple collage, but i didn't want to make the post too long. most of my collages involve a lot of moving things around, testing different compositions and images before i decide on a final product.

this image took like 8 hours to make, for example. most of it was spent perfecting the grainy filter.

other gimp effects i didn't use here but i like include deinterlace (which you can use on a non-interlaced image to add deinterlacing artifacts), sample colorize (lets you use another image as a color source to gradient map onto an image), alien map (can't explain. just use it. move the sliders very slowly if you are sensitive to strobing lights), and value propagation (like a very small radius blur that you can tweak in interesting ways to soften an image without losing graininess or pixelated-ness)

i hope this was helpful/informative!

[whatt-the]

Answering some of the questions from the lovely @single-eutanasia

It really is weird isn't it? It gets even weirder when you have the full context.

Remember how I said that there are multiple of her? By multiple I mean hundreds of thousands of her. Their goal is to spread the love, sure, but no one ever tends to ask what this means to them. You see, they're the main (sentient) defense mechanism of a (thus far) type 3 civilization on the kardashev scale, higher if you count their connections to fractal and higher dimensions- though they cannot yet harvest the full potential of any such dimensions.

This civilization has the current goal to take over the milky way, which is... an odd goal. I mean, it is an average galaxy in most criteria, you wouldn't be exactly colonizing that galaxy for it's energy output.

Thing is: they're there for the humans.

The civilization does have a collective (more on that later) goal to become a type 6 civilization, but no further than a type 6, seeing as they find the prospect of reaching type 7 status to be a bore. Perhaps you can tell that they are not so obsessed with effective productivity and power, but instead with entertainment and art. Which is why they are so enthralled by humans: they're incredibly entertaining! Funny, cute, all sorts of different adjectives one of the civilization could adhere to all of mankind.

So, in come the "porcelain" dolls! They are walking makers of the fractal dimensional biochemically engineered drug/pathogen named lovesickness. It maximizes dopamine, norepinephrine, oxytocin and serotonin production in the brain when consumed by mammals. Though, due to it's fractal and subsequently varied chemical composition, it still has similar effects on all sorts of sentient beings! For example, with non biological sentient creatures, the drug induces a state of metaphysical experience of the pure concepts of love and/or pleasure. Yes, lovesickness is highly addictive.

The "dolls" are biological beings with hard shells (thus the "porcelain" bit) that synthesize the drug in their systems. They have life cycles similar to those of butterflies or beetles, considering they have a sort of "pupa" stage (which is when the patterns on their shells are developed), though their reproduction happens exclusivelly through self cloning similar to the process of a sea sponge's cloning. Their insides are quite similar to sea sponges too in the aspect that there are no true organs within them and they are a mass of biological functions with no particular organization to be spoken of. They are soldiers prepared for both war and peaceful takeover, and spreading the love is synonymous to domination.

One could say that! Their entire biological purpose is to make as much of the drug as they can, and by this point it is absolutely a fundamental aspect of their life. And it is also a big part of their sense of identity, the dolls claim that "the best way to get through any mental defense is through love", so the drug philosophically gives her "life", as well as being a big part of their physical inner workings.

Remember when I said I'd get back to the collective goals of the civilization? That's right about now.

The entire civilization shares a mind.

Thousands upon millions of sensory inputs into one singular mind spread through the bodies of anything that exists within the civilization. Billions of thoughts per second, unfathomable quantities of individual actions taken every minute. All being processed by a shared mind.

The dolls share the same mind as the strategists, which share the same mind as the alchemists. Each type of bodily manifestation of this mind does interpret signals differently, so the dolls will have much different thought patterns from, say, the alchemists. This whole mind sharing thing is precisely how the civilization grew to such power in the short timespan of a few decades!

The mad alchemist, first holder of the shared mind, long before it inhabited multiple bodies, knew she'd need protection. The development of an entire species of drug synthesizing creatures was lengthy, but she'd had the plan clear as day from the moment she was in the process of developing the drug. The production of the species took even longer than it should have due to aesthetic concerns from the alchemist, but the outcome of the efforts were truly worth the wait.

Oh yeah, and..

Yes, she will absolutely marry you, she does smell like fresh strawberries and vanilla, and it won't just be one of her that will start following you around if you give any of them a ring

[kolajmag]

COLLAGE ON VIEW

Portrait Mode

Joe Rudko online only at Winston Wächter Fine Art in Seattle, Washington, USA through 4 November 2023. “Portrait Mode” is a selection of work from the past five years from Seattle-based artist Joe Rudko. Utilizing a range of found photographs, Rudko meticulously categorizes imagery into deconstructions of the portrait—both as a genre and a recognizable icon. His greyscale, gridded compositions tamper with portraiture as a concrete representation of form. Discernible snippets of faces, chairs, and silhouettes blur into an overarching fabric suggesting multiplicity, or a careful, exacting version of reality mimicking our own curated online selves. Quieter, fractal-like “Inlaid” artworks utilize single images inlaid into unfixed photo paper, thoughtfully splintering a single figure into isolated, geometric components. Rudko’s collages rely on precise calculation rendered into expressive, unexpected combinations. MORE

*****************************

Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

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[do-you-have-a-flag]

there is a lot to say about the ethical problems and blandness of AI art but also just as someone who likes digital art because it’s low maintenance low cost to pursue, i think that it’s INCREDIBLY BORING to look at ai art because the creative process is lost

like people might gripe that digital art isn’t “real” art because of the difference in craft 

but ultimately i think each individual artist shapes their workflow to suit their needs and some people are able to do a lot of design work using presets and filters and photo-bashing and generative tools in ways that are creative and using a process that takes thought and problem solving

and personally i like the process of high effort art in traditional mediums and that reflects in my digital drawings, i love painting to render texture and light to an image for example, while i do use brushes and other tools overall i think the actual act is soothing and fun

and i think the creative collaboration when working with someone else’s prompts (a process that can be immensely frustrating when one-sided) is also a valuable experience as people can ask questions and negotiate concepts you might not have thought of on your own. the immediacy of output with ai, the way it flattens composition to the most common plagiarised components, it’s fun as a what if or a starting  point but it is a creatively incomplete endeavour specifically because the ai is communicating nothing and the person creating the prompt is almost entirely removed from the creative process. one sided intentionality without the meat of creation

ALSO for contrast i was thinking about the tradition of fractal art/fractal flames dating back to the 80s but more specifically being boosted in popularity alongside the world wide web thanks to one person’s algorithm in 1992. that guy now works in AI generation but back in the 90s he created an open source code that took mathematical iteration and translated it into graphics in common software applications that anyone could use. as a result i saw so many cool abstract almost mandala-like spacey images in the 2000s on deviantart and people are still making them today. it’s an artform that can only be successfully executed thanks to computers, it i complex in the process of execution but thanks to computers the process of creation is quick and seperate from human effort, the output is also very nice to look at. 

Why do i like this form of generative computer art and not so called a.i?  Because the algorithm for fractal art is pure mathematics translated into imagery, while generative a.i/neural networks datasets inherently require an input of other people’s work. a process that requires ethical consideration in ways that mathematical inputs do not. both use data to create images but what do they feed on? how are they applied? does their implementation say anything about their process or output? 

because as far as i see it, technology is neutral and usage is where the good and bad emerge, the process of generative images is a marvel of technology and how we as people love to create. but the way that these tools synthesise what they are given is a process so seperate from the people inputing prompts i really feel like it’s people losing the most fun parts of art (emotion, communication, and participation) and receiving the worst results of commodification of art (plagiarism, formulaic content, aesthetic cowardice, narrow perspectives, exploitation)

[fettesans]

Left, Ann Veronica Janssens, Californian Blinds #2, 2015, Blinds, gold leaf 23 3/4 carats, 240 × 150 × 5 cm. Via. Right, Walter Marchetti, OBSERVATION OF THE MOVEMENTS OF A FLY ON A WINDOW PANE FROM 7 IN THE MORNING TO 8 AT NIGHT ON A LOVELY DAY IN MAY, 1967, Graphic composition in black and green on an ivory background. Via. More.

--

Images became meta images. Objects became meta images. Everything could be linked. Everything was part of a stream, then a mass. Everything became fractalized. Tags became crucially important. You could make other people’s art, you could predict what everyone was going to post next, faster than they could post it. Your ideas and personalities became brands instantly. You started viewing everything in situ with similar and related content around it, which in art always included other work that was copying it or at least was uncomfortably similar. It also included products, artifacts, architecture, and selfies. The line between the research, the idea, the art product and the resulting trend and community blurred. One image wasn’t enough. The timeline from thought to post diminished. All content sources became equalized. Resources were scarce. Memes dominated. People had their first feelings of AI. It’s a story for another time.

Kari Altmann, interviewed by Harry Burke for Rhizome, March 25, 2015. Via.

[sixty-billion]

Vash the Stampede | Composite Trigun

selective | independent | canon-observing but inclined to world build | multiverse/multiship

Details under the break.

MUN

X/Steel Precambrian internet entity (30+) Variable activity main ffvii blog: @steeleidolon wolfwood blog: @full-of-mercy fanfic/art: [AO3]

RULES

18+ themes / minors DNI

I will:

RP just about anything. This includes crossovers, duplicate muses, dark themes, sexuality/gore/violence, etc. When in doubt, please ask.

Tag NSFW content and place it under a read more.

Tag content warnings as cw: *****

I won’t: 

NSFW with underage characters or writers. Ever. Full stop. I have very few ‘hard no’ limits; this is one of them.

NOTES

I don't typically use icons/special formatting. It's perfectly cool if you do, though!

Always hunting for the sweet spot of writing length. Will attempt to match, but prefer meaty multi-paragraph for general play. Let's create something!

Askbox is always open.

Prompts are always open.

Open Starters are open unless otherwise tagged.

Answered prompts can always be turned into threads. Go ham!

Discord available for mutuals.

VERSES

Subject to change. Will be adding more notes here as these verses develop.

song of humanity || Trigun Maximum-flavored timeline. brave young world || Trigun Stampede-flavored timeline. fractals || The multiverse is a weird, wonderful place. When you look into the tesseract, it looks back. ends and beginnings || Time is a flat circle. Right? What dies is reborn anew.

[tonyhentai]

FAUXNICK - Body Hair Awareness Month

download: https://bluevelvetreview.com/

Waves Frozen in Time

‘We come down from Truckee surfing against that sun / As if off a great wave but in the / Wrong direction certainly the wave is frozen / Or just moving so slowly that no one can know / If you've done it though you know the feeling’  Robert Ashley, Foreign Experiences

‘There are no points or positions in a rhizome . . . there are only lines . . . when Glenn Gould speeds up the performance of a piece . . . he’s transforming the musical points into lines.’ Deleuze & Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus

What’s the fulcrum of modernity, the fulcrum of the so-called Western world, the fulcrum of the scientific method, the fulcrum of ostensible rationalism, the fulcrum of sanity as we generally understand it if not this notion that ‘things’ can be broken down?—and not just broken down but disassembled into a more or less infinite regression? 

To us every atom is a little explanation, every subatomic particle is a tiny special meaning for us to gossip about—to us every building block of nature is a dead frog to be dissected by high school sophomores, every single conversation is something to be recalled and divided into little apple pies of intent and cause and effect, to place on our window sills overlooking our white picket fences. Musically, this trend expresses itself, at first, through musical notes—being quote-unquote ‘noted out’—notes functioning as tone-spaces, and then, eventually, the trend graduates to a concept of microtonality, where said tone-spaces regress to infinite spectrums, infinite spectrums that still contain infinite points. 

But listen. I don't want to, you know, like, get into a whole philosophical discussion behind all of this?—other people have explained it better than I could—I don’t even understand it.  But compositionally—there’s an idea that, rather than component parts, we could compose via irreducible waves, waves frozen in time, that, yeah, maybe exhibit some attributes that we can notionally attribute to them, but these attributes, they’re attributes that don’t negate the fact that the waves themselves can’t be disassembled—that they don’t actually contain infinite points. That to disassemble them is to change their essence essentially. They contain no points at all.

The compositions that comprise Body Hair Awareness Month, sure, are tethered to certain principles of measurement—namely that elements are in a more or less fractal relationship with one another, five lines per verse, 34-55 syllables per line, a mode of 377 syllables per minute—they reference concepts like word-enunciation and breath-blowing, but they don’t strictly consist of parts. These are just attributes to irreducible names. This is my understanding of macrotonality—or at least that’s how it came to me. Who am I to argue? I wrote the majority of this introduction while listening to Thou Art Lord’s “Nine Steps to Hell” on repeat.

-Nick

[sethd8]

The above inages layered built the final image ti see my workflow. cC-BY 4.0 Intl. I started with if a seth encartation map that was my studio wall. I then ysed Mirror Lab Pro to make the seperate layers. Color work done in Cheome Kav Pro. The final layered and post processed in SnapSeed on my Samsung Galaxy S23 Uktra phone. Remake rework. Injoy #sethd8

Seth Dennon's "SaD-082524 Brucehäler" is a captivating digital artwork that portrays a serene and introspective scene within a clubhouse setting. The central figure in this piece is a man who exudes a sense of relaxation and contemplation. This artwork beautifully combines Dennon's signature style of intricate fractal designs with a more grounded and relatable subject matter.

The man, positioned comfortably within the clubhouse, is depicted in a state of ease. His posture and expression suggest a moment of quiet reflection, as if he is taking a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life. The surrounding environment is rich with detail, featuring elements that evoke the cozy and inviting atmosphere of a clubhouse. Soft lighting and warm tones dominate the scene, creating a sense of comfort and tranquility.

Dennon's use of color in "SaD-082524 Brucehäler" is both soothing and vibrant. The predominant hues of earthy browns and greens are complemented by subtle accents of gold and blue, adding depth and dimension to the composition. The intricate patterns and textures that Dennon is known for are seamlessly integrated into the background, enhancing the overall aesthetic without overwhelming the central figure.

The background of the artwork features a blend of abstract and realistic elements. The walls of the clubhouse are adorned with fractal patterns that seem to pulse with energy, while the furniture and decor are rendered with meticulous attention to detail. This juxtaposition of the abstract and the concrete creates a dynamic interplay that draws the viewer's eye and invites them to explore the scene more deeply.

The title "SaD-082524 Brucehäler" adds an intriguing layer to the piece. While the exact meaning of the title is open to interpretation, it suggests a fusion of different elements, much like the artwork itself. The name "Bruce" combined with the suffix "häler" hints at a blend of the familiar and the mysterious, reflecting the dual nature of the scene.

Dennon's unique style is evident in "SaD-082524 Brucehäler," as he masterfully combines his signature fractal designs with a more personal and relatable subject. The artwork reflects his ability to create a sense of depth and movement within a static image, drawing viewers into the scene and encouraging them to linger. The serene and contemplative nature of the central figure can be seen as a metaphor for the artist's own moments of introspection and relaxation.

"SaD-082524 Brucehäler" is a beautiful fusion of complexity and simplicity, inviting viewers to find peace and meaning in the quiet moments of life. The artwork challenges the viewer to look beyond the surface and appreciate the intricate details and subtle nuances that make up the scene. It is a testament to Dennon's ability to push the boundaries of digital art and explore the dynamic interplay between technology and human experience.

What makes this piece even more remarkable is that it was created entirely on Dennon's smartphone, the Samsung S23 Ultra. This demonstrates not only his technical prowess but also the incredible potential of modern mobile technology in the realm of digital art. The ability to produce such a detailed and intricate piece on a smartphone speaks to Dennon's innovative approach and his dedication to exploring new creative possibilities.

In conclusion, Seth Dennon's "SaD-082524 Brucehäler" is a stunning example of digital art that combines intricate design, soothing colors, and profound depth. The central figure of the relaxing man, set within the inviting atmosphere of a clubhouse, is both captivating and thought-provoking. The dynamic background and nuanced color palette enhance the sense of tranquility and introspection, making "SaD-082524 Brucehäler" a truly mesmerizing piece that invites viewers to delve into its infinite possibilities.

WEBSITE: https://sethdennon.com

[raisedbyelectronics]

"Just pick up a pencil."

I honestly disagree with this sentiment.

Let's start with the collateral damage.

There is generative art out there that isn't made through GANs or other similar methods. Reddit's r/generative is home to this kind, made without either lifted training data or a prompt-based workflow. Just math, computer wizardry, and human ingenuity. You can make beautiful fractals, flowing shapes, etc., and you can take as many liberties as you want. Yet this unrelated art form happens to share the name "generative."

Then there's procedural effects in 3D digital art, animation, VFX, and CAD. I see that form of randomness as no worse than the natural imperfections that result from a pencil or paintbrush.

Even stabilization tools on apps like ProCreate have come under fire.

People hear about "Photoshop's plagiarism algorithms" and think the whole app uses them, or that Gaussian blur algorithms use content from Google Images.

I think a lot of the "pick up a pencil" crowd are missing the point and vilifying all computer-aided art forms as soulless, or making points tangential to the overall AI debate.

I can follow the logic behind a lot of arguments over the collection of training data for "true" AI art made with GAN and stable diffusion-based models, or the skill level of prompt engineering. (But I don't agree with banning or shaming it at all, or even with the idea that it's wrong, as enforcing the copyright of images from a Google Search would inadvertently ban many memes, and stable diffusion is way more complicated than a simple collage)

But mathematical or random models, liberties left to the computer, and digital art in general, are unfairly vilified in the process.

It's okay to pick up a pencil. But you can pick up a stylus, pick up your finger and put it on whatever control is in reach, etc., or pick up your technical intuition in one way or another.

And I also would love to see more ML-based AI that gives an artist even more liberties, and that discloses, for example, what it was trained on (perhaps consensual algorithms or mass libraries of stock photography).

Hypothetically, not all "true" AI has to be based on prompt engineering, or use it as the sole means of calling up images – and prompt engineering can also be used for finer details, etc. Perhaps as a way of generating the textures of 3D polygon animation.

But the goalposts keep moving.

This AI was trained on images in the public domain/that the company has permission to use!

Well, did the artists know at the time?

Well, this AI was trained on images expressly submitted to us!

But still, you're enabling non-artists to make fake art!

How?

Well, all you're doing is typing in a paragraph!

But this system has more areas to type in what you want, not just a single box!

But still, writing isn't making art!

Okay, this system more closely resembles a drawing program that turns your basic sketches or lasso fills into whatever you want them to be – the composition is yours!

But that's too easy!

Okay, this system just uses a really good ML algo to imitate brush strokes of a paintbrush!

Well....

"Why can't we use computers to simplify the boring stuff instead of simplifying the fun stuff?"

I've heard this so many times... implying that making art with a computer isn't fun, or that using a computer to automate or randomize anything is an insult to those who "took the time."

A few people speaking about AI music seem to also criticize things like random LFOs, random note generators, etc., that influence the sound design or composition of a production in a random way, though still ultimately on the terms of the producer. It's still a craft of love, and a great way to make cool R2D2 sounds or glitchy percussion.

Or speak of live musicians as the victims of AI music – something that as an electronic musician, I've heard about my hobby in general. That quantizing and pitch correction, or any kind of post-modification of any performance, is dishonest or disrespectful to those who "took the time" to learn to "properly" play. As if music were a sport, not an artform with many ways of practice. That gridding things in or arranging stock samples (a term that has two meanings: either arranging single notes or adding stock loops, or even bits of other songs) is dishonest. A lot of people don't even know that you can program in original melodies in electronic music, or skip samples entirely and use geometric or electronically-generated waveforms.

As if we don't take the time to develop our sounds and mix and match a variety of nonstandard, yet technical, areas, even if we leave some stuff to the computer and/or a stock loop library (or not... I tend not to use the latter).

As if people making any kind of procedural medium on a computer are only doing it because they're inartistic.

As if someone's personal opinion that 3D art with procedural FX, generative mathematical art, the music of Trovarsi, or anything with some randomization is soulless... makes it so.

As if they could do better just sitting down at the tools of the "talentless hacks'" trade.

As if anyone can sit down and make anything on r/generative, or even use Photoshop's Generative Fill, effectively on the first go.

One friend of mine thought electronic music was talentless and unoriginal, and that it was all "soulless and sterile and made from stolen loops"... I offered her 10 minutes of time with my laptop and a pair of headphones... she didn't want to try it out...

Speaking of that, when GarageBand was first announced to the general public, Steve Jobs mostly focused on the stock loops, even though you could make your own loops, record performances all the way through, or just grid things in... or use third party plugins.

I can see a similar trend happening with ML-based AI.

People will take the time to make it, and people will find it worth their time to consume it.

The opposite of "electronic" isn't "real". This is the force of thunder, thought, magnetism, chemistry, and emotion itself.

The opposite of "computer" (adj.) isn't "human." Humans designed computers.

And a lot of more "computery" art and music is very appealing to me. Am I a robot? No, but I'm of the species that designed them, and can tell you first-hand that creativity is very... complicated. Not that I don't think we should have it, but that it's ultimately in the eye of the beholder.

You didn't plan out each imperfection of your pencil line.

Nor each variation in harmonic overtone content or waveform each time you slap your bass.

Nor were you the first to draw a person, photograph the LA River, or tap out a clave rhythm.

Nor do comic book artists generally spend the same time on a single frame as a realist painter does on a whole painting... but that just lets them make more and create a whole new art form. And some comic book artists do slave away on each detail – or draw stick figures and still make effective comics. Or just take pictures for a photo comic. Or use stabilization. Or generative (mathematical) backgrounds.

Not too long ago, calculators were controversial in STEM classrooms. Now, many classes outright require them.

Not too long ago, spell check was lamented by English teachers. Now, many will outright encourage its use in typed essays, or have students do assignments on Canvas with it turned on.

The general attitude for using Wikipedia for research has evolved from "never use" to "use with skepticism and don't cite directly for school, but it's a great 'springboard' to find more info".

And typing has pretty much replaced cursive's role in high schools.

It's all how you look at it.

I will not be convinced that my computer is evil or unhealthy.

[technician-the]

I started modeling Porygon, for some low effort fan art, and it turned into this. I only had the idea of making Magnemite after starting the computer, (because magnet+computer). Magnemite has always been one of my favorite Pokemon though, so that might have had something to do with it.

Porygon is rendered in workbench, then composited into a screen designed in affinity designer.

the magnet/crt effect is a fractal animation rendered in Jwildfire, controlling a distortion in blenders compositor, and an aggressive application of the lens distortion node for color distortion.

Then I used that composit as an animated texture on the computer screen. Magnemite and the computer/desk were rendered in one pass, with some light post-processing (mostly glare)

The computer is based on the old "computer search" pokemon card, but I've made it beige for extra nostalgia.

Ive used the new Khronos color mapper (in blender), which has avoided the progressive de-saturation that Agx always added, very useful for a scene like this. It really is shockingly more saturated tho, I had to be much more careful when picking colors.

[seriously-mike]

Midjourney Is Full Of Shit

Last December, some guys from the IEEE newsletter, IEEE Spectrum whined about "plagiarism problem" in generative AI. No shit, guys, what did you expect?

But, let's get specific for a moment: they noticed that Midjourney generated very specific images from very general keywords like "dune movie 2021 trailer screencap" or "the matrix, 1999, screenshot from a movie". You'd expect that the outcome would be some kind of random clusterfuck making no sense. See for yourself:

In most of the examples depicted, Midjourney takes the general composition of an existing image, which is interesting and troubling in its own right, but you can see that for example Thanos or Ellie were assembled from some other data. But the shot from Dune is too good. It's like you asked not Midjourney, but Google Images to pull it up.

Of course, when IEEE Spectrum started asking Midjourney uncomfortable questions, they got huffy and banned the researchers from the service. Great going, you dumb fucks, you're just proving yourself guilty here. But anyway, I tried the exact same set of keywords for the Matrix one, minus Midjourney-specific commands, in Stable Diffusion (setting aspect ratio given in the MJ prompt as well). I tried four or five different data models to be sure, including LAION's useless base models for SD 1.5. I got... things like this.

It's certainly curious, for the lack of a better word. Generated by one of newer SDXL models that apparently has several concepts related to The Matrix defined, like the color palette, digital patterns, bald people and leather coats. But none of the attempts, using none of the models, got anywhere near the quality or similarity to the real thing as Midjourney output. I got male characters with Neo hair but no similarity to Keanu Reeves whatsoever. I got weird blends of Neo and Trinity. I got multiplied low-detail Neo figures on black and green digital pattern background. I got high-resolution fucky hands from an user-built SDXL model, a scenario that should be highly unlikely. It's as if the data models were confused by the lack of a solid description of even the basics. So how does Midjourney avoid it?

IEEE Spectrum was more focused on crying over the obvious fact that the data models for all the fucking image generators out there were originally put together in a quick and dirty way that flagrantly disregarded intellectual property laws and weren't cleared and sanitized for public use. But what I want to know is the technical side: how the fuck Midjourney pulls an actual high-resolution screenshot from its database and keeps iterating on it without any deviation until it produces an exact copy? This should be impossible with only a few generic keywords, even treated as a group as I noticed Midjourney doing a few months ago. As you can see, Stable Diffusion is tripping absolute motherfucking balls in such a scenario, most probably due to having a lot of images described with those keywords and trying to fit elements of them into the output image. But, you can pull up Stable Diffusion's code and research papers any time if you wish. Midjourney violently refuses to reveal the inner workings of their algorithm - probably less because it's so state-of-the-art that it recreates existing images without distortions and more because recreating existing images exactly is some extra function coded outside of the main algorithm and aimed at reeling in more schmucks and their dollars. Otherwise, there wouldn't be that much of a quality jump between movie screenshots and original concepts that just fall apart into a pile of blorpy bits. Even more coherent images like the grocery store aisle still bear minor but noticeable imperfections caused by having the input images pounded into the mathemagical fairy dust of random noise. But the faces of Dora Milaje in the Infinity War screenshot recreations don't devolve into rounded, fractal blorps despite their low resolution. Tubes from nasal plugs in the Dune shot run like they should and don't get tangled with the hairlines and stitches on the hood. This has to be some kind of scam, some trick to serve the customers hot images they want and not the predictable train wrecks. And the reason is fairly transparent: money. Rig the game, turn people into unwitting shills, fleece the schmucks as they run to you with their money hoping that they'll always get something as good as the handful of rigged results.

[thedojoofintellect]

Information Concerning The Red Mage

“Fire up the old quantum computer, Gabriel. It is high time we act as the primary saboteurs behind undermining, tampering with, and meddling in the affairs of the Cosmic Order’s integrity as well as the space-time curvature’s underlying, inner machinations,” said General Andarion Liberium, father of the fractal Machine Elves’ First Lieutenant.

The extraterrestrial, hyperdimensional beings who are the focus of this composition were elite strategists and tacticians. They understood more than most, even within their set of paramilitary groups and/or unified militias, the nuances of logistics, infantry units, scorched earth policy, grand strategy, total war, and the art of war in general, which rendered them well-equipped to succeed in exploits of psychological warfare, waged entirely via their space-age ultra complex algorithms of reverse-engineering the neuronal reuptake that typically reinforced the morale of their adversaries.

Behind the scenes, the Clockwork Elves assured chronic disarray in the nervous systems of the truly morally abominable humans of Earth. One fractal elf, named Baruniome Larkiphmun, effectively disorganized the brain function of infamous National Socialist Reinhardt Heydrich, who has been called “the man with the iron heart”.

It was the archaic Democratic-Republican molecule augmenter Professor Irving Verruchius of the Interdimensional Natural Sciences Institute who masterminded the supernova explosion which created the elements human bodies are composed of. It is to the credit of Dr. Verruchius that we are made of stardust. He blessed us with the following molecular key:

C28H27FN4O2

also known as the atypical antipsychotic medication called Risperidone.

Risperdal - The Sanity Molecule

[dustedmagazine]

Jordan Martins — Fogery Nagles (Astral Spirits)

Photo by Stephen Garrett

Fogery Nagles arrives, from seemingly out of nowhere, but at just the right time. It is a solo pedal steel guitar album by the Chicago-based musician Jordan Martins. There’s a good chance that you could know Martins and not know even know that he plays music. He’s a visual artist whose works are frequently shown in galleries around Chicago and more distantly in Brazil. He’s also an arts educator and administrator who has guided the transformation of Comfort Station, a former Chicago Park District storage facility, into a robust multidisciplinary art venue, and has also participated in the programming committee the Chicago Jazz Festival. But every now and then, you might catch him playing steel with the singer / songwriter Angela James.

With James, Martins’ playing has been supportive and idiomatically apropos; he’s a diligent side-person, not a spotlight hog. But during the pandemic he, like so many others, found himself cut off from his usual social outlets, and he set about seeing what he could do with his instrument on his own. It’s reasonable to suppose that the forms of his other creative work exerted a shaping influence on what came next. Martins is a collage artist, attentive to the effects of layering and juxtaposition. And in his previous musical work, he’s applied himself to making sounds that enhance the effects of a song. Thus, what emerged from his episode of locked-down experimentation was not a set of hot licks, but a handful of carefully tailored compositions made from scrupulously layered parts that flower and subside around strong core melodies.

“Incantation” opens the record with a solitary, yearning theme. Over time, that theme varies, shrinking and growing as he reworks it while resonant sound waves and a subtle synthetic pulse rise up and flow around the central action. The pace is deliberate, which affords the listener plenty of opportunity to notice and settle into the peripheral action, and then prepares them to have their ears pointed in the right direction as the music opens up into a growing vista of fractal cells. The subsequent tracks each set up a distinct audio environment, and then explore it at length, building up to something that is more complex, but carefully balanced. The prevailing vibe trends towards a melancholic low on “Budlong Dirge,” which starts off side two with a descent into dubby unease, and then angles gradually back up to a closing note of redemptive comfort with a cover of the gospel chestnut, “A Closer Walk With Thee.”

This record may end up being an on-ramp to a new musical road, as Martins has begun to play around town with other pedal steel players in 2023. If so, it’s an auspicious beginning. By dint of his careful placement of sound, he has carved out a personal space in the currently growing field of musicians who are putting the pedal steel guitar to work outside its historic idiomatic confines.

Bill Meyer