#PlatformRealism, as I define it in this essay, is a second-order aesthetic of generic images optimized to match textual descriptions, consumer expectations, and, ultimately, images from the past. This definition thus points to three aspects that I have explored in this essay: First, AI images, not unlike stock photos, are visualizations of pre-formulated concepts, images aligned with slogans. Second, the look of AI images is aligned with the predictable aesthetic expectations of a very specific demographic - predominantly white, young, male, and Western. Their reactions to the images are quantified, aggregated, and analyzed, resulting in a recursive algorithmization of taste. Third and finally, #genAI can be seen as a kind of backward prediction: Based on visual patterns from the past, it makes plausible guesses about what might have been. So #PlatformRealism is structurally nostalgic. It is a technology for curating the vibes of a «pastness» disconnected from history.
2/
#PlatformRealism
Finally online: My essay on #PlatformRealism for #Transbordeur. There couldn't be a more appropriate week to publish it, even though when I wrote it last year I couldn't have imagined the extent to which AI slop would become the aesthetic of a new fascism. This essay is a kind of summary of the ideas about #PlatformRealism that I've been mainly developing on various online platforms over the past few years. Reading it now feels a little weird: I think most of the ideas are still valid, but only now are their political implications becoming clear.
1/
https://journals.openedition.org/transbordeur/2299?lang=en
Warum die radikale Rechte generative KI liebt und wie Midjourney & Co. die Ästhetik des gegenwärtigen digitalen Faschismus prägen, darüber durfte ich für «Geschichte der Gegenwart» @g_der_gegenwart
schreiben
#PlatformRealism #ImageGeneration
https://geschichtedergegenwart.ch/echte-emotionen-generative-ki-und-rechte-weltbilder/
This campaign, which can now be seen all over Zurich, is one of the most irritating uses of AI imagery I have encountered so far: In different variations, we see generic, more or less 'photo-realistic' images of smiling children in front of badly damaged buildings, transformed into QR codes with the help of ControlNet. The slogan «This QR code creates real Christmas miracles» seems to be an almost cynical comment on the obvious fake «miracles» in the image, both the synthetic, AI-generated smiles of the children and the «miraculous» transformation of ruins into digital code. This kind of fundraising campaign has always relied on fairly generic stock images, and perhaps the use of AI for this purpose is only a logical consequence. But the obvious artificiality on display here, the shameless blend of sappy sentimentality and digital trickery, seems to me to take it to a new level
#PlatformRealism
AI image synthesis proves to be the perfect tool for fascist propaganda: by recombining and merging visual clichés, it allows mere slogans to be transformed into visible scenarios and reality to be customised to one's own preconceived ideological description
#PlatformRealism #ImageGeneration
Feeling very honored to have been invited by Hito Steyerl (@hito) and Francis Hunger (@databasecultures) to give a lecture on »Dreamworlds of Platform Capitalism« for their »Emergent Digital Media« class (@generativemedia) at AdBK Munich. Join us if you are in Munich on May 14!
#PlatformRealism
An aesthetic of continuous flow unites many of today's most prominent visual phenomena, be it drone footage, video games, digital SFX, and now AI videos. Each image glides almost effortlessly into the next. Spatial control seems unrestricted, every conceivable viewpoint can be taken, and gravity no longer plays a role. Time can be stretched, reversed, looped, and modulated without consequences; visual coherence trumps the logic of cause and effect, and any temporal sequence can be seamlessly connected to any other sequence. It's the dreamworld of platform capitalism
#PlatformRealism #ImageGeneration #Sora
Recently, discourse on #genAI and #copyright has shifted. It has become less about artistic creativity, individual authorship, and the appropriation of styles and more about corporate intellectual property. More precisely, these issues seem to be lumped together under the term »plagiarism.« As many have already noticed, when prompted for »famous video game characters,« recent versions of #Midjourney and #Dall-E routinely produce the likeness of a certain Italian plumber copyrighted by the Nintendo Corporation. Similarly, unspecified AI generated »famous superheroes« sport a well-known logo on their chest.
Of course, this suggests that copyrighted material has been used en masse to train these models. Still, I'm not sure we should call this »plagiarism.« While copyright infringement is a matter for the courts to decide, talk of #plagiarism suggests a moral dimension beyond purely legal issues. Plagiarism means passing off someone else's creative work as your own. But no one would ever think I invented Super Mario or Superman. When Midjourney reproduces these characters, just as it reproduces famous corporate logos, what's at stake is not art or authorship but brand management.
1/2
#PlatformRealism #ImageGeneration
KI-generierte, synthetische Bildwelten sind mittlerweile allgegenwärtig und werden passgenau vermarktet, für Unternehmensvideos, E-Commerce-Plattformen und vieles mehr. Alexandra Ketterer hat darüber in der Süddeutschen Zeitung geschrieben, ich durfte meine Einschätzungen zur »Ästhetik des Generischen« beisteuern
#PlatformRealism #ImageGeneration
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/projekte/artikel/wirtschaft/kuenstliche-intelligenz-synthetische-medien-e312196/
Indeed, what ChatGPT presents as the ultimate level of »hyper-realism« amounts to a strange blend of exaggerated photographic effects and a generic illustration style that turns every face into a caricature of itself. In #PlatformRealism, it seems, the photographic ceases to be the benchmark for visual realism – it has become just a vibe among vibes …
3/3
#PlatformRealism is not an aesthetic of authenticity but of plausibility. Interestingly, plausibility and applause have the same origin: plausible is that which deserves the applause and approval of an audience. AI images are optimized for plausibility – they aim for the broadest approval
1/4
Next month, on October 13, I'll be in Rome at the Bibliotheca Hertziana to talk about AI image synthesis. I am very grateful for the invitation and looking forward to this event! Join us online if you like, it'll also be streamed ...
#ImageGeneration #PlatformRealism
https://www.biblhertz.it/events/35511/2598514
»The ideology of attention seeking and sales pitches are built into how the images are produced, interpreted, and characterized. ... In that way, they are always advertisements for themselves.« Rob Horning with some important thoughts on #ImageGeneration & #PlatformRealism https://robhorning.substack.com/p/the-preponderance-of-the-object