By all accounts, Burning Man was particularly good this year. The weather in Black Rock City was perfect, except for a couple of white-out dust storms that added to the sense of adventure. There wasn’t an exodus traffic jam, and the art was top notch. God knows the burners that …
Read More »‘Should Art Be Regulated by the SEC?’: NFT Artists’ New Lawsuit Seeks Answers
Since around 2013, Jonathan Mann’s sole job has been writing and posting a song online each day. With titles ranging from “Yeah, I’m Rocking a Headband” to “Joe Biden, Retire” (posted July 1), his pop tunes are at turns whimsical and topical. Some go viral. Still, says the Connecticut-based Mann …
Read More »A Popular iOS Illustration App Is Saying No to Generative AI
On Sunday, Procreate announced that it will not incorporate generative AI into its popular iPad illustration app. The decision comes in response to an ongoing backlash from some parts of the art community, which has raised concerns about the ethical implications and potential consequences of AI use in creative industries. …
Read More »The Sensations of Slime Are Serious Business
On its earnings call at the end of April, Newell Brands, which owns the 70-year-old Elmer's Glue business, reported historically positive numbers for the first quarter of 2024. It was Elmer’s first cash-flow-positive Q1 in four years, and only its second positive quarter since 2016. This growth is mostly thanks …
Read More »His Galaxy Wolf Art Kept Getting Ripped Off. So He Sued—and Bought a Home
It took Berlin artist Jonas Jödicke only a few hours to create the artwork that would change his life. He didn’t know it then, of course. He didn’t even know whether he wanted to post it online. “It was really just a test,” Jödicke says. It was a painting, made …
Read More »Adobe Says It Won’t Train AI Using Artists’ Work. Creatives Aren’t Convinced
When users first found out about Adobe’s new terms of service (which were quietly updated in February), there was an uproar. Adobe told users it could access their content “through both automated and manual methods” and use “techniques such as machine learning in order to improve [Adobe’s] Services and Software.” …
Read More »Meet the Photographer Behind the Social Media App for Everyone Sick of Meta’s AI
“I was about to go to bed and then realized we had this interview,” Jingna Zhang tells me. It’s 9 am in Seattle, where she’s currently living. The photographer and art director has been pulling all-nighters trying to keep up with demand for her social platform for artists, Cara, which …
Read More »The Dark Side of Open Source AI Image Generators
Whether through the frowning high-definition face of a chimpanzee or a psychedelic, pink-and-red-hued doppelganger of himself, Reuven Cohen uses AI-generated images to catch people’s attention. "I've always been interested in art and design and video and enjoy pushing boundaries,” he says—but the Toronto-based consultant, who helps companies develop AI tools, …
Read More »Help, My Friend Got Me a Dumb AI-Generated Present
“An artist friend of mine got me an AI-generated painting as a gift. I can see she tried to personalize the concept, and it’s nicely framed, but part of me still feels a little cheated. Is that fair?” —No Returns Dear No Returns, There’s something implicitly paradoxical about feeling “cheated” …
Read More »Nick Hornby’s Brain-Bending Sculptures Twist History Into New Shapes
You can get a crash course in Nick Hornby’s work in the span of an hour-long London walk. The artist has three permanent sculptures installed across the city, metal silhouettes that start off familiar but transform depending on your vantage point. In St. James, his conquering equestrian, modeled on Richard …
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