This is pretty nifty. A toy collector is feeding photos of action figures in an AI, and it is creating new designs: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thistoydoesnotexist
Interesting stuff, I like the way they're telling us about the selection process as it progresses. Gradually building up an input library and experimenting. Surprisingly cohesive results so far!
Some of these are really great. They need to activate Prenis and Snussy settings! More Toy Story and Chucky too!
Similarly how the algo's are made for that NFT junk we see on our feeds. Only a matter of time before these start making the rounds as releases.
The work this person is doing really blows me away: https://instagram.com/creepmart?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I've also been enjoying this account--I'd buy nearly all of these! There's a part of me that fears the day we get to bespoke AI toys though. There's only one AI step between these 2-D images and a 3-D printer, and I'm guessing AI that can take a 2-D image and render a fairly good 3-D model isn't far off! Then you just click *print* and it's delivered from your local 3-D print hub or you print it right at home! It's a cool thought, but also a scary one, as an artist.
Regarding your first point, if I am not mistaken, that technology already exists, albeit not being used for the purpose you proposed and chances are it would currently be cost prohibitive to do so. Regarding the second point, there is a question whether this starts to enter into the ‘what is art’ debate and furthermore, how do we put a value on material objects, let alone art! Is it need, supply vs demand, level/amount of effort used to create the art, skill required, etc etc? Last week, I met up with an artist friend and we ended up was chatting about technology. Up to this stage, they have resisted the push toward digital content creation (aka, they still paint, draw and the like using ‘analogue’ methods) because they cannot get the level of tactility desired when using a digital pen/pad. I am inclined to agree, albeit from a layman’s perspective in terms of skill! However, perhaps it is an age thing, but the closer an object gets away from being ‘handcrafted’ the less it feels like art to me and more like a product. Typing words into a computer and an image being rendered, then 3D printed feels like a product to me, not an artist’s creation. Perhaps, and just thinking as I type, that what what could be the differentiator is not just art vs product but also price point? For instance, one person will be willing to pay $100 for a set of hand crafted pottery to eat off/drink from, where as another person would be equally happy to walk into Walmart/IKEA/etc and purchase a mass produced, factory made, set for $20. One is handcrafted art, the other a product. So, this child of the 70s, who still firmly loves analogue, will always value handmade art and I am sure I am not alone; furthermore, the constant demand for antiques, nostalgia , retro, from younger generations (cottagecore, anyone?!) leads me to believe as much as we like to buy many things cheaply, artist ‘made’ is a long way, if ever, from being meaningless.
Hey now, I made no "second point" about this being art or not, haha! I agree with everything you said--I make a living as a traditional artist. All of my toys are designed and sculpted traditionally. In my day job as a propmaker I also work with many very talented digital designers (still art/artists) to bring their designs into physical reality. I have no desire for myself to be a digital artist--just like you said, my passion lies in traditional methods. I want my fingers to be in that clay. I do not count this generative AI imagery as "art." It's somewhat an argument of semantics, but I think lines need to be drawn. One of the artists who is part of the lawsuit against an AI company spells it out quite well in this Hard Fork podcast, basically stating that there is something inherently human about creativity and art and the creation of something based on years, or a lifetime, of honed skills and knowledge. It's an interesting discussion and I'd recommend a listen: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/podcasts/20hard-fork-elon-empire-artists-ai.html These fake toys are visually interesting images that tap into a part of my toy brain that has an eye for a certain aesthetic--but that's it. I would NOT in fact be interested in printing these out for myself--I simply said that if they were toys I'd buy them. Meaning that if they were actual vintage items from the 60s or 70s, like the aesthetic suggests, then they'd be right up my alley. And appearing to be a toy of a certain time and genre is obviously the entire goal of this account's specific aesthetic and it pokes that part of my brain, and it also makes me uneasy. I really dislike faux-vintage products...modern tin toys and signs with rust digitally printed on them or intentionally shoddily crafted or ugly items attempting to replicate an aesthetic of the past I don't, however, think it would be cost prohibitive to print these at a bespoke level, at least in the collector community where $100-200 on a "toy" is not atypical. And that's the scary part. It's the watering down of actual art...basically the 'Funko Popification' of everything. It sucks. And with the combination of AI + 3-D printing, it actually can remove real artists from the equation (a thing we feared with 3-D printing but it did not really come to fruition). I get bummed out by the young bucks showing up at work with something hot off the printer saying "look at this prop I made! I'm a propmaker!" No no, you are a prop printer, my friend. Hopefully the novelty wears off and people get tired of this style of AI stuff and ideally that might make room for generative AI to become another useful tool to help with some creative endeavors, but to not be the endeavor unto itself. Circling back to the Generative AI vs art/artist semantics...I definitely do not like people calling themselves "AI artists." That's insulting. You might be good at interacting with AI and have some skill at properly wording a prompt in order to make the computer generate particularly interesting images...but that's it. I saw someone compare it to a person making a good choice off a restaurant menu--that doesn't make you a chef! I'm apparently writing a novel here... To your last point about the relationship between cost and art. I would go a little deeper and say VALUE and art are more closely aligned--small difference, but important. People willing to pay more cost are probably tuned into value and quality. There are also issues of privilege and capitalism at play, but that's another discussion. And not to mention that cost and value/quality are DEFINITELY NOT inextricably linked...there's also hype [rolling eyes emoji here] which can create the perception of value, and also a lack of hype creating a devaluation. Here I'm thinking about your very talented Etsy artist, or highly-skilled illustrator with a table in Artist Alley, who is selling their very nice work for far less than their time is worth. People who can afford to value artists and creativity might buy that hand made set of beautifully glazed ceramic dinner plates because they can, and that's awesome, and I hope the artist gets enough money for their time and skills. But I also see the art and design in nearly everything around me. For example, that set of $20 plates is also art, just like a doorknob or a bookshelf. Are many of these things products based in utility and function over form? Absolutely. But there is still someone who designed the curve of the plate, the appearance of the doorknob, the slope of the desk, etc. I think it was in that same Hard Fork episode that someone brought up the opinion of another artist who states something about AI not coming for artists' livelihoods because artists exist at the avant-garde of culture and creativity. And I think that is a very highfalutin and narrow concept of art and artistry. We don't all get to throw buckets of red paint at a giant canvas, say it's a symbolic piece about the ironic relationship between the existential fear of death and the human species' ever-constant march toward self-destruction, and sell it to a rich wanker for $1.3 million. Some artists have to design the tines of a fork for customers at Target, and that's still artistry, albeit a different kind and perhaps of a deservedly different value. Overall, I think its a squishy grey concept and it's fun and important to discuss! There's a place for both the inexpensive set of plates and the pottery-studio plates. And I guess if I'm going to say that...I also unfortunately have to admit there's a place for Funko Pops...and then we circle back to value, perceived value, different forms of art, taste, etc. Also, capitalism sucks. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
