Refusing to do theory is a political act

#sprout #transitionneeded

DH: “The art community already has issues with plagiarism. I don’t really want to be involved in that”

Interviewer: “I think you might be.”

DH: “I might be.”

Interview with David Holz, founder of Midjourney from NBC News

This clip is a gotcha, for sure, but throughout this and other interviews Midjourney founder David Holz has given, he attempts a sort of conceptual gerrymandering of how he thinks Midjourney fits – or should fit – into the world.

It’s not a tool for making art, it’s a tool for inspiration (for making visual art). They don’t make art, they “have a community” (of people making visual art). Even Holz backs down at the absurdity of somehow drawing a line between extant plagiarism and something something Midjourney, as if there’s some sort of pre-existing conditions clause to plagiarism.

He is at the same time trying to acknowledge how deeply embedded his technology is in the social fabric of art making and art history while explaining that it’s not technically part of that fabric so it’s not technically responsible for anything that happens to it.

At least he mentions how deeply social the images produced by his product are in their origin and experience. Any discussion of “AI Art” as an alienated phenomena – one that focuses on the images without focusing on [[ If you don’t do theory, theory does you | how they fit into the world ]] inherits the framing Holz prefers.