posted 21 july 2023
re: synthetic meta images
using ai to generate images for articles
edit: this article seems to be offline in gemini now, but here it is over on the web
https://alextheuxguy.com/articles/using-ai-generate-images
disclaimer upfront: i have no qualms with synthetic images themselves. quite the contrary lmao i've been interested on "ai art" for a couple years now. i've used a lot of digital ink on it. also physical ink and acrylic paint and stuff on my thesis. i am critical of several things, yes, but that's just what art is like. not gonna go into it rn.
anyway all this to say i don't mean this as an attack or whatever it's nothing personal i'm literally just being annoying online because i hate the ubiquity of useless stock images <3
anyway i find meta images (and hero images and stock images within articles in general) *fascinating*. they're so so useless but also not? what does a stock photo of a guy in a suit communicate? it's just filler, a waste of everyone's time and bandwidth. but also it communicates very well that you're not really trying to say anything. like brightly colored poisonous animals. [1]
it's like they fulfill a ritualistic purpose. the existence of the image has to be observed but the contents themselves are rather irrelevant. an entirely automated meta image is only natural. if you're gonna whisper sweet interchangeable nothings might as well not waste your own time with it. cajoling an actually good image takes time, but you don't really need 'good', you just need 'existing'.
honestly i have a certain admiration for the way synthetic imagery reveals such artifices. there's no illusion that anyone cares. maybe that's what pisses people off, being confronted with the waste of it all. also they're often hideous.
it's the same thing with trending on artstation sludge
um. that's it. it's literally 1:30 in the morning and i'm watching ultrakill videos. buh bye bye :peace:
[1] i'm being facetious. there's a lot more subtext from these images. they say 'professionalism' and 'sleekness' and 'the underpaid designer opened a stock website and typed "office" for the third time this week. they strive for ~diverse images~ but it feels utterly disingenuous. their wrist hurts. they take a painkiller knowing full well that pain is a warning and ignoring it has dire consequences. they're an artist working as an ux designer and hoping they don't completely destroy their body doing meaningless shit. they wish they were drawing lesbian knights instead'