#is it unethical to share photos of unethical artworks? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

therealraeweber · 1 year

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Logging on to Tumblr last night and seeing the hashtag "AI art" was trending was an experience. I expected to click on it and see a flood of those "me if I was a Greek Goddess, AI generated" posts (which... by the way... none of those posts ever look like the op, or a Greek Goddess... just saying). Instead, I saw people talking about the ethics of AI art and MAN WAS THAT REFRESHING! We haven't been talking about this enough. Here's my little rant for the day.

I'm going to preface this by saying, yes I have used AI to generate images. I used to do it for fun when DALLE was first gaining popularity, because who wouldn't want to make a silly little picture of Gonzo from the Muppets at a pride parade, or the 11th Doctor working as a Walmart cashier. I have also been using AI a LOT recently, but not of my own volition, but because we had not one, but TWO AI ART PROJECTS that were mandatory for the Digital Media class I took this semester at university. Being an art student is frustrating some times.

I also want to say, yes I have shared some of the AI pictures I've generated on Tumblr, thought I always disclose when something I post is AI generated, and make sure no one thinks it is my own artwork or photography. I also only post the silly ones (like the aforementioned Gonzo at pride parade), nothing that I think would look like it has been stolen or referencing someone else's artwork.

Ok, now that that is out of the way, AI ART IS UNETHICAL. I've been realizing that more and more as I've been using it and as it's become more popular. Not just because it's taking jobs away from artists (which it is and will continue to do), but because it directly steals artworks from artists without their consent, uses them to spit out a new image, and gives absolutely no credit or compensation to the original artist.

I didn't realize until very recently just how much it steals from artists. If you are an artist who has EVER posted one of your pieces to social media, or anywhere on the internet for that matter, you are at risk of having your art stolen and ripped off. That's a terrifying thought.

In my digital media class, our assignment was to use the Midjourney AI to create a series of 10 images. I remember originally being very upset and frustrated about this assignment because I'm paying to go to art school and take art classes, and yet we have an assignment that has absolutely no creativity required? Our assignments should be encouraging us to practice creativity, not just type a few words into a computer and call it a day. Originally, this is what upset me most, but as I got into the project more and more it quickly became the ethics of the project that were aggravating to no end.

Our prof wanted us to play around with style. I remember his suggestions of typing in "In the style of _____" to make a piece that emulates the style of a specific artist. This just felt super icky to me, so I stuck to only generating things that said "photo realistic", so it didn't feel like the computer was stealing someone's art style for me. I haven't got the marks back for this assignment yet, but I'm going to assume I didn't do well because I wasn't very experimental with the style of the images, but I simply refused to steal another artist's style of work for my project.

I remember about half way through the assignment, we had a mid-project critique session, where we shared a couple of the images we generated with the class and shared what prompts we used to create these images. I remember one of my classmates said something along the lines of "I really liked the style of this artist, so I tried to get the AI to generate something in his style. I ended up not using them because they always added his signature to the bottom corner, which made me super uncomfortable because it felt like stealing his artwork". I remember our prof's response to this was "Don't worry about it! You can photoshop out the signature before you hand it in!"... UMMM WHAT. If that isn't a perfect example of how dangerous this AI is to artists then I don't know what is.

We did have a little bit of a discussion of the ethics of AI artwork creation in this class, but it was mostly by the students, as we were complaining about having to do this and how icky it was. I really wish now that we had had a full class designated to discussing this in more detail.

Anyways, I do think AI art is unethical, and I did feel really gross about doing it as an assignment for an art class. Now... am I still using the AI? Yes. I'm using it because I had to pay for a month's subscription to this thing for my assignment, so I want to get my money's worth. I don't think there is much harm in me using it just for fun, provided I'm not using these photos for anything or sharing them anywhere. They are just going to be sitting on my computer as pretty images for me to look at, and I would be lying if I said it isn't fun to generate them. But I wouldn't use them for any art purposes, and especially never claim that I made them. That being said, I am using some of them as base references for paintings I've been making, but I do make sure that I am just using them as inspiration, rather than copying directly, because you never know whose stolen art has been used to generate a piece. I've generated quite a few images now that have got me excited to paint again, so at least one positive came out of this assignment.

If you are someone who posts AI generated art without disclosing it is AI generated, or worse, you claim to be the "artist"... shut up. Please. See the toll that AI is taking on the artist community and just stop.

So that's my little rant about AI art and my art class. Don't mind me, I'm just going to reblog a few posts now about the ethics of AI because it's important to me that these posts get shared and the message gets around, especially to non artists. Have a lovely day everyone.

#ai #ai art #ai art discourse #just art student things #rant

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tom-isaacs · 3 years

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Body Link - Sun Yuan & Peng Yu

#art #performance art #abject #baby #death #foetus #medical specimen #transgression #shock #corpse #is this performance unethical?#is it unethical to share photos of unethical artworks?

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go-diane-winchester · 5 years

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Why Misha's fanbase is completely nuts

I am one of the most forgiving people when it comes to fandom. I have no problem with ships, tinhatting etc. As long as you behave, you have given me no reason to hate you. My perspective of stans, is jarred by whom I encounter. Because some fans are intelligent and broad minded in their analysis of other fans and actors that they don't stan. A few however, are quite crazy so I merely block them and that's the end of that. The hellers however, are a different breed of freak. There some people on earth that I can say, I hate wholeheartedly. Because hate is a big word and generalizing is unethical. However, this group is one that is so full of negativity that I can safely say I really hate these people.

Understanding slash allowed me to understand why these people are, the way they are. Slash is almost a century old. And each generation behaved in a specific way regarding slash fiction. The earlier generations were very covert. It may have had something to do with modesty. It may also have something to do with ''outsiders ruining our fun''. As far as Supernatural is concerned, three generations are represented. I am using the word generation here, from a marketing demographic standpoint because it makes sense to me.

There are three major generations represented in this fandom, specified towards slash fiction:

Generation X: These are slash fans born between 1965 and 1979.

Generation Y: These are slash fans born between 1980 and 1994.

Generation Z: Slash fans born after 1994.

Generation X is that last generation of classic slashers. They are a covert group that doesn't like to share its artworks and works of fiction with outsiders. If they remained underground and secret forever, they wouldn't mind. And if that mindset existed, nobody would even know that slash fiction exists. As a member of this generation, I wish that things had stayed this way, but understand that society changes. Its evitable. Gen Xers usually don't ship just one pair because that would seem a little foolhardy to pin all your slashy happiness on one pair that you put together. There are plenty of pretty fish in the sea and we don't ask them for their opinion on the subject. If there are any destiel shippers in this group, they are hidden, mostly out of shame. I theorize that most of the destiel shippers in this generation deserted the ship and moved on.

In marketing, Generation Y is considered the millennial, although practitioners have differing opinions. In slash, this generation brought two changes to slash fiction. From a western standpoint, this generation started to become inclusive an politically correct, making their work LGBT oriented rather than heterosexual female oriented. Mpreg was born at the tail end of this generation. The small, quiet group of sensible destiel shippers belongs to this generation. They still like their ship but wont admit it in public, because they are ashamed of the behavior of their fellow shippers.

Generation Z is also called generation next. They are the youngest generation, making them the least experienced, with the least filter. They don't think before they speak. They tend to use social justice and politics to push the validity of their ship. They are like junkies when it comes to their ship and Misha Collins is the only dealer they have. They look for other dealers which is why they tend to ask all and sundry what their opinion is with regard to destiel. They based their opinion of that person, on how that person responds to destiel. Its like a pothead who only likes people who say that smoking pot is ok. And if that person is indifferent to destiel, they will collectively attack that individual. The only reason is because they are young. Its only when I looked at a census that they drew up, that I realized that many of them are as young as 13. So most of them are children. You cant reason with a brat. You send them to their rooms to think about what they have done. Because they don't realize that they are wrong. They vehemently believe that what they feel is true, and that is why people who hate their antics, are usually quite confused by their behavior. I wager that ten years from now, they will look back at their behavior and cringe.

So Misha's primary fanbase are a bunch of children would no effect of the ratings, have no money of their own so cant buy seats for his panel or photo-ops or raise a decent amount for anything he is auctioning. And they don't recognize that Misha is trolling them with destiel, because they are too young to understand. So Misha and his fans, are not compatible with each other. They wont benefit each other in the long run.

Addendum: This post only refers to hellers, and not ordinary fans who have courtesy and respect for other human beings. This informational discrepancy was respectfully, pointed out to me and I have rectified the post.

#supernatural #spn #misha collins #destiel #deancas #castiel #jenmish #jensen ackles #jared padalecki #dean winchester #sam winchester #cockles #spnfandom #spnfamily #casdean #jenmisheel #dean x castiel

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nowshinhoque-blog · 5 years

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One Step Can Make A Difference

Nearly one third of our population are the youths, that is around 50 million of the total population. We the youths, are the only hope of our country. If nurtured properly, we can change the whole scenario of the country. But, what are we doing ? Are we working hard to make changes?

No, we are just sitting back and waiting for others to help us, to guide us, in spite of making new opportunities for ourselves ,we are waiting for others to give us the opportunity. And this is where we are doing it wrong.

Picture : Sabuz Shahriar Khan ( Photo Credit : deskgram.net )

Sabuz Shahriar Khan realized it at the age of 14.

We have seen and heard about different individuals and organizations contributing to the youth empowerment of our country selflessly. Sabuz is one of them. He thought out of the box and took steps to make the change.

A 14 year old observant child, Sabuz , noticed early on how his fellow students at school were getting involved in all sorts of wrongdoings. He saw that many of his peers showed characteristics of moral degradation. He noticed that they use to hoax the elders maintaining a good image in front of everyone and were engrossed in unethical behaviour behind their back. In spite of helping others selflessly , they were volunteering just to show-off on social media.

These things started to bother Sabuz. He came to a conclusion that it won’t be wise to sit back and watch others to destroy their lives. So, he decided to take a step.

He first tried to figure out the core problem. He understood that all these children had a common problem that is, lack of ideologies. Which is why they could not utilize their talents in a positive direction. He realized that they need a proper guideline and believed that the youths needed to stay busy. Although Sabuz knew that he is not the only one, there were many other people working on it. And most of their efforts were going down the drain. This made him think a little differently.

As he was also a teen, he knew that only attractive alternatives could persuade the children to change. He knew that journalism interests him the most, so it may seem attractive to the other kids too.

According to Sabuz journalism is platform to ask questions and also a means of impacting the society. The more youths participate in this platform, the more it well prevent them from going astray.

All his thoughts started to form into small initiatives and led to the formation of his venture ‘Bangla Initiator’ which officially started in 2015 , when he was 17 years old.

Picture : Logo of the Bangla Initiator ( Photo Credit : linkedin.com )

Bangla Initiator is an online news portal. It completely run by young journalists. Sabuz who is now 20 years old, is the Chief Editor. The organization uses journalism as a medium to aware children about the society and their rights and responsibilities. All these children are curious about their work. They expand their knowledge by staying updated about the world, they think critically and ask relevant questions. They become aware about the social problems and try to solve the problems making others aware about it and taking small initiatives. This helps them and others to grow up into responsible and conscious citizens.

“ We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”_ Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Bangla Initiators believes in this ideology and works accordingly. Their purpose is to increase the contribution of children and youth towards achieving sustainable development. They not only support and guide them to make a change in their communities but also provides them training to develop their leadership skills. They provide them the chance to gain a social perspective to solve social problems.

Not just journalism, Bangla Initiator has other creative clubs to provide different skills among the children and youth.

The ‘Book Club’, here the members exchange books amongst themselves, which helps them to develop reading habits and deep thinking.

The ‘Photography Club’ , this nurtures and encourages children’s arts and photography skills by hosting a festival named, ‘National Teen Art and Photography Festival’. This festival is like a competition where youths from all over the country participate enthusiastically. They submit their photos and artworks from which only the selected ones get displayed and the best one gets the price. The purpose of this festival is to bring the talents from all over the country under one roof and give them a platform to showcase their talents.

The ‘Child Welfare Club’, this club is completely directed by the child journalists.They provide help to underprivileged children by raising money.

One unique event that is held by this organization and is the most praise worthy, is ‘The Jalsha’. These events are hosted at significant historic sites. And not only that, they invite freedom fighters to share about their personal experience during the war. Children and youth gather to hear about the struggles and bravery of the speakers. This helps them to get the authentic view of the country’s liberation war and to grow respect and a sense of responsibility towards the country.

Although this unique venture’s foundation was laid by Sabuz but as the time passed he with his hard work and dedication motivated many other like him to join and work for the betterment of the youth.

Since its beginning the organization had to go through highs and lows but as time passed it has seen its fair share of accomplishment as well. Now their hard work is not only recognized by affiliated schools but also recognized by international organizations like the ‘Ashoka Foundation’. Three years down the line, the organization has built networks across Bangladesh from districts like Dhaka , Chattogram , Mymensingh , Bogura and Shivganj. There are around 300 young journalists spread across the country. They all work together to train other children. And to know how they define themselves, please click on the given link : https://goo.gl/ZCgX6t

Sabuz along with his team has sky-rocketing hopes to see this organization as one of the leading organization of Bangladesh. The organization also aims to hold a strong position that will allow them to reach every child in any corner of the country, who needs their help and support. They are leaving no stone unturned to build a future generation where everyone is a leader.

Picture : Bangla Initiator’s organizing body ( Photo Credit : thedailystar.net )

#youthempowerment #banglainitiator #uniqueplatform

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yellow--ish · 6 years

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gentle psa

I don’t care if it fits your “aesthetic”, posting a picture that you didn’t take or one you don’t have permission to post is not only unethical but also sometimes illegal. It hurts the photographer because that is their work and you just saved it to your camera roll, posted it on tumblr or instagram or whatever, now it’s on your profile getting thousands of likes and reblogs from people who believe it is your photo and not the original photographer’s. You can totally use pictures from the public domain and to an extent using other peoples photos can be legal but it is for sure 100% unethical to post and not give credit because it completely disregards the photographer/original owner.

If you are going to post a photo that is not yours, please please please for the love of all that is good and holy, give credit to the owner of the photo! It takes two seconds to write their instagram username in the caption, or link a url. Most photographers would love to see their images being shared but not without credit! I know most aesthetic accounts don’t try claim credit for their photos, but posting it without giving credit still hurts the owner.

Putting “not all pics are mine” in your bio is not enough, if someone sees that pretty photo on your profile and wants to see more like it, they wont be able to because you neglected to give credit to the owner and now they are losing out on exposure because you didn’t take two seconds to put their name in the description.

Reblogging or reposting posts from an account that obviously stole the photo doesn’t help the problem either! It takes two seconds for you to check out their profile and see if it seems like they took that picture or not and if they didn’t or if you’re not sure, then don’t reblog it. Even though you are not the person who stole the photo, you are still hurting the photographer because you are exposing the image to more people (your followers) without credit where it is due.

THIS ALL APPLIES TO ART ALSO! STEALING AN ARTIST’S ARTWORK IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG! THEY DID NOT SPEND COUNTLESS HOURS MAKING THAT BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK SO YOU COULD POST IT ON YOUR ART HOE BLOG WITHOUT GIVING THEM CREDIT! (also deleting captions from the original artist’s post and reblogging it can be harmful but thats a different debate).

Thank you for reading all of this, I’m sorry for the cheesy digital citizenship lesson but both tumblr and instagram are major offenders and if this saves one photographer then its worth it. (also this gets messy when we talk about pics and gifs of celebrities so don’t attack me w that bc i don’t know thaaaat much about it)

#also it gets messy when we’re talking about photography of celebrities and stuff but #yes lmao i am an aesthetic blog but i try my bestest to give credit where it is due #I also try my bestest to not reblog posts that are obviously stolen by the poster #ok rant over #there are a bunch of yellow aesthetic blogs that do this #idk other aesthetics but still you know what i mean #copyright laws #creative commons #aesthetic blog #art hoe blogs #stealing artwork and photography is wrong #discourse #aes

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vcfrialqa-blog · 5 years

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caveartfair · 7 years

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When Is an Artist’s Mental Health Your Business?

What does an understanding of an artist’s life story bring to bear on their work? It’s an old question, and of course, one that doesn’t have an easy answer. Biographical information can enrich our understanding of a practice, but it can also narrow a viewer’s focus, forcing critical interpretations through a distorting lens.

We certainly don’t need to know everything about an artist to appreciate her output—whether she smoked or drank; slept with men, or women, or both; was ever arrested, or took LSD, or loved cats—but a hunger for such details is understandable. We are, after all, a curious species.

In the case of so-called outsider art, or art made by those distant from the “art world” (often with mental health complications), it’s an even thornier issue. Curators, and those charged with translating and presenting the story of art to a wider public, have difficult choices to make. What details are relevant, rather than just salacious? Where is the dividing line between honest explication and exploitation?

In conversations with several figures, various aspects of this dilemma come into focus. First, and perhaps most obvious, is that there is no blanket statement or best practice to follow when resolving art’s relationship to mental health. Each artist’s situation is unique, and should be approached as such. Secondly, this is still a dialogue that is in flux, and one in which the foundational vocabulary—including basic terms like “outsider”—are very much contested. The lack of a shared language is itself uncomfortable.

Breaking Down Boundaries

It’s no surprise that folk or outsider art—we can perhaps agree to drop the quotation marks and “so-called” qualifiers—are still wrapped up in questions of mental health. Outsider art’s founding moments were with publications and collections that had their roots in psychiatric institutions, from Hans Prinzhorn’s 1920s volumes (including Artistry of the Mentally Ill) to the iconic Art Brut collection organized by the French painter Jean Dubuffet, now housed in Lausanne, Switzerland.

From the beginning, this was art that was both aesthetic and diagnostic. Its interest was partially as a record of psychic maladies, evidence of how differently wired brains might work. (These collections and archives simultaneously provided a fruitful cache of imagery that modern artists were happy to plunder.)

In the 21st century, we’ve started to slowly slough off categorical divisions, as institutions grow more comfortable showcasing outsider or folk art alongside that made by trained or professional artists. It’s a tendency closely associated with a curator like Massimiliano Gioni and key exhibitions that he oversaw or organized, including the 2013 Venice Biennale and 2016’s “The Keeper” at the New Museum.

Installation view of work by Hilma af Klint in “The Keeper” at New Museum, 2016. Photo by Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio. Courtesy New Museum, New York.

There are still institutions, though, specifically dedicated to the appraisal and scholarship surrounding art made by extraordinary individuals in uncommon circumstances. But these institutions, focused on folk or outsider art, aren’t organizing exhibitions for didactic purposes; the goal isn’t to lamely exemplify, yet again, what schizophrenia or bipolar disorder looks like in visual terms. And so they’re in a difficult position: making a case for the artistic merit of the work itself, while also deciding what amount of background information is necessary to fully appreciate or comprehend it.

Context Is Key

To get a better handle on this dilemma, I met with Valérie Rousseau, the curator of 20th-century and contemporary art at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. At the time of my visit, two exhibitions were on view, showcasing the work of Carlo Zinelli and Eugen Gabritschevsky. Wall texts for both shows seem to perform a familiar elision, hinting at unavoidable biographical facts while refusing concrete details.

Carlo Zinelli, Untitled, San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy 1960. Collection of Audrey B. Heckler. Photo by Visko Hatfield © Fondazione Culturale Carlo Zinelli. Courtesy of the American Folk Art Museum.

“We always caricature our fields by saying that we’re all about biographies, and the market builds mythologies around the artist,” she explains, sitting in a gallery full of Gabritschevsky’s fantastical gouache paintings. In the case of these dual exhibitions, Rousseau says, “I didn’t [include] anything specific about their mental illnesses, and everybody is asking me: ‘Oh, by the way, I know it’s not written on the walls—but can you tell me? What exactly was the diagnosis of Gabritschevsky?’ People are savvy and curious about this connection, and they want to know. But I question the validity of giving them the answer.”

Would a different sort of institution, she wonders, feel inclined to share wall-text information about an artist’s struggles with “addiction, hallucinations, social issues, or anorexia,” she wonders? “You have to be careful about what’s relevant. I’m driven by showing great artworks—fascinating artists, complex lives—and you do want to be verbal, and bring the visitors into something that is an exhibition experience.”

At the same time, she notes, what would providing diagnostic or clinical information really add to that exhibition experience? Audiences, weaned on Hollywood and pop-psychology, might fancy themselves experts—but what comprehension does the casual viewer actually have of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia?

That’s not to say that curators should sweep mental health context under the carpet entirely. Rather, it’s one thread of a larger narrative.

In the case of Zinelli, who was a patient at the San Giacomo del Tomba hospital beginning in the middle of the last century, his physical surroundings—the jam-packed institution, the pioneering series of studio classes he took part in there—are important, but so are other things, Rousseau stresses. His upbringing on a farm, appreciation of nature, and fond feelings for a beloved dog are also salient details. Likewise, with Gabritschevsky, the artist’s background as an esteemed biologist provides arguably much more context than the knowledge of the mental health struggles that derailed his career.

“I found it interesting,” Rousseau says, “to show the full range of influences that an artist, a creator, could have had.”

Rousseau brings up another vital point: The way we conceive of mental health and categorize patients has evolved drastically over the centuries. The foundational definitions of sanity and normalcy are constantly shifting. “Timeframe is important,” she says. “If you were in a Swiss hospital in 1945, that’s different than being in one here in New York in 2013. Mental illness has changed, along with its diagnostics and treatments.”

Eugen Gabritschevsky, Untitled, Haar, Germany 1947. Collection Chave, Vence, France, no. 1647. Photo by Galerie Chave © Estate of Eugen Gabritschevsky. Courtesy of the American Folk Art Museum.

Carlo Zinelli, Untitled, San Giacomo Hospital, Verona, Italy 1967. Collection of Gordon W. Bailey. Photo by Adam Reich © American Folk Art Museum © Fondazione Culturale Carlo Zinelli. Courtesy of the American Folk Art Museum.

As a result, a curator who decides to play armchair psychiatrist, at great historical remove, would run the risk of being both inaccurate and unethical.

“I hope my shows refuse the pathologizing of the artist,” says Gioni, whose recent curatorial work has been instrumental in mingling mainstream and outsider practices. In his mind, part of our thrall to the latter has to do with “a certain romanticism, a desire for sincerity” that is lacking in the larger art world.

Take Hilma af Klint, a recently lauded artist from the early 20th century who was influenced by spiritualist movements of the times. Catalog copy on the artist casually suggests that she had “visions”—but what does that even mean?

“These objects and stories help us understand that the rules and notions of conformity and eccentricity are historical, and relative,” Gioni says. “Af Klint had visions or hallucinations—I don’t know if they were pathological or not, but we have enough history under our belts to understand that the definition of pathology is relative, and historical, and cultural. And to be reminded of that might help us also have a healthier relationship with our fellow humans.”

Risky Choices

Despite the fact that boundaries between these types of artmaking are slowly dissolving, prejudices and anxieties remain—tied to both artistic legacies and markets.

Rousseau points to the case of Frank Walter, the subject of the Antigua and Barbuda Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. Walter is an artist whose work I encountered there, and later wrote about, focusing on the more colorful and anecdotal elements of his backstory (and doing my own part to dance around mental health issues by including the problematic word “visionary” in my headline).

Installation view of “Frank Walter: The Last Universal Man 1926-2009” on view at the Pavilion of Antigua and Barbuda at the Venice Biennale, 2017.

The Pavilion, and its hefty accompanying catalogue, is a fascinating case study regarding the choices curators can make in dealing with complicated artists. In Rousseau’s reckoning, the Pavilion organizers “really dig into all the possible biographical facts they could—they don’t have an art-historical approach for that publication, which surprised me.” At the same time, she says, “I think the tone was right. I think it was a point of view that was risky.”

But what’s next for an artist like Walter, after the Biennale? Will it be the Serpentine or the American Folk Art Museum? Rousseau somewhat wistfully notes that, once an artist’s work has been received in a particularly high-profile manner, it’s difficult to change course.

“It’s impossible or often misperceived to send them back, to associate them again to a niche, specialized presentation like in our museum,” she says. “It’s [as if]: ‘Oh, no, he doesn’t belong anymore in this category.’ I’ve seen that so many times. It’s interesting how this whole process of recognition in the art world is more like an irreversible path, from one step to another. And I think outsider or self-taught artists do not escape that program.”

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889. Vincent van Gogh The Courtauld Gallery, London

Infinity Nets OQRET, 2005. Yayoi Kusama Anthony Meier Fine Arts

In other words, the biographical drama of Walter’s life might act as a wedge to generate (justifiable) interest and intrigue. Meanwhile, the paintings themselves—divorced from those details—are indeed fascinating and adept. If we fast-forward three decades, perhaps Walter’s oeuvre might be assimilated into a larger art-historical narrative that doesn’t dwell too much on his personal eccentricities or mental health. That might all depend on the steps his estate takes, institutionally, as well as the decisions it makes in terms of how his work is packaged, exhibited, and contextualized.

It’s a process that Rousseau and Gioni both allude to, in the case of canonized artists from Vincent van Gogh to Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, or even Yayoi Kusama: At first, the details of the individual life are tantalizing. But after we’re generally familiar with those details, we can somehow move on and appreciate the art on its own terms.

The Challenge of Living Artists

As if this conversation wasn’t complex enough, there’s another wrinkle: the considerations at play with living artists who may have mental health issues or, more specifically, developmental disabilities. Perhaps no New Yorker has been more involved in promoting work from such artists than Matthew Higgs, the director of White Columns, who has created a thriving network between his non-profit institutions and centers around the country, like Creative Growth in Oakland and and Visionaries + Voices in Cincinnati. For these practitioners, he stresses, one thing swiftly trumps the viewer’s curiosity about an artist’s background: the right to privacy.

“Certainly, with historical work, it now seems pretty accepted that the biographical narrative is part of the work of self-taught, outsider, and folk artists,” Higgs says. “But it’s much more complicated when showing the work of living artists with disabilities.”

Untitled, 2014. John Hiltunen Creative Growth

Here, the balance is twofold: Not encroaching on an artist’s privacy rights—especially in the case of those who are “not in the position to articulate” them directly—while also highlighting the positive work being done by non-profit organizations. “When you go to the desk at White Columns,” Higgs says, “the press text will explain that this is an artist who is affiliated with a center that supports artists with disabilities. But we wouldn’t then go beyond that into establishing a narrative around their medical circumstances or mental health issues.”

What Do We Talk about When We Talk about Mental Health?

Eccentric. Visionary. Prophetic. It often seems like institutions, galleries, and the media have developed a series of lightly coded terminology with which to tip-toe around issues that can’t, or shouldn’t, be fully unpacked in the case of a wall text or short catalog essay.

Is the vocabulary we have, I wondered, lagging behind the rest of the field itself? If so, Gioni sees a silver lining, that “these artists, artworks, and objects are still putting our system in crisis to such an extent that there’s not yet a word for it. That’s the hopeful aspect.”

Andrew Edlin, who runs an eponymous New York gallery and also helms the Outsider Art Fair, is less optimistic when I bring up the handful of phrases that seem to resurface so often within the field. “I don’t particularly like any of these words,” he says. “Visionary can be appropriate at times, but I tend to think of William Blake. Eccentric seems like a euphemism to describe someone who’s a bit weird. There’s that well-known line: The difference between someone who is eccentric and crazy is how much money they have!”

And perhaps, he suggests, the repetition of rote or cliched phrases is simply the byproduct of a certain laziness. “I don’t think we are lacking in vocabulary at all,” Edlin says. “If a writer sticks to the idiosyncratic qualities of each artist, there shouldn’t be any problem in finding the right words to accurately talk about his or her work.”

What Difference Does It Make?

We generally want to know more about all the artists we love—whether or not those facts actually enhance our understanding of the work they make. We crave gossip and insider dirt, or at least a broader picture of a life. “That’s one of the reasons why the Calvin Tomkins [profiles] in the New Yorker are so fascinating,” Higgs says. “It’s one of the rare opportunities to get a glimpse into an artist’s background, what their parents did, how they grew up, what their circumstances are—all of which is useful information.”

But with outsider artists, it’s important not to indulge in sensationalism under the guise of scholarship. Rousseau does admit that, in certain cases, a deeper understanding of someone’s mental health or related background can be fruitful. She points to George Widener, an artist who has Asperger’s Syndrome. “Because of his love for inventories and numbers, it’s not an un-useful fact to know,” she says. “He also has a photographic memory. It helps you understand a cause and effect. But that’s not often the case.”

Month of Saturdays, 2014. George Widener Ricco/Maresca Gallery

In other instances, seeing beyond biographies and categorical distinctions seems to be a way out of the morass. “I’m led to believe that there is no difference between the ‘eccentric’ artist and the professional artist, when they’re dealing with matter and materials,” Gioni says. “In the moment they sit down to make, I ultimately don’t think there’s any difference in the knowledge they have of their hands meeting the material.”

Susanne Zander of Cologne-based Delmes & Zander echoes that sentiment. Her gallery represents the likes of Eugene von Bruenchenhein and Prophet Royal Robertson. “Essentially, we are not that interested in the mental history of the artist,” she says. “The selection of the artists in our program is based mainly on the quality of their work, irrespective of whether or not it was produced specifically for the art market. It’s important for us that the quality is on a par with established art production, and that the artists are judged not for any of their psychological problems—but rather for the quality, individuality, and autonomy of their artistic work.”

Galactic City , 1990-1992. Royal Robertson ZQ Art Gallery

As for the basic phrase “outsider art,” Zander feels that it has lost its usefulness. “We feel that the term ‘outsider’ focuses too strongly on the personal situation of the artist and misleads the public, who neglect the actual work itself. We see each work not in reference to a classification or terminology, but for what it really is.”

“The most respectful way to talk about an artist with any condition or pathologies is to stick to the facts,” Edlin says. “If there are things that are unknown—but evidence that suggests certain possibilities—than that’s exactly how it should be put across. Focus on the work, and use the biographical info to help interpret the artmaking process.”

At the same time, Edlin recognizes that an exceptional background can add another dimension to the appreciation of the work. “One of the most interesting and exciting results of accurately explaining the details of the lives of outsider artists—or any artists who have overcome incredibly challenging circumstances—is that their art becomes even more transcendent and uplifting for the viewer,” he continues. “It’s important to remember that figures like Henry Darger, Adolf Wölfli, and Martín Ramírez were some of the most downtrodden artists we’ve ever known. Genius resides in some of the most unlikely of places.”

When Ignorance Is Bliss

Disko Girls (Anonymous), untitled, 1970s-1980s (archive-# 1). Courtesy Delmes & Zander, Cologne.

Disko Girls (Anonymous), untitled, 1970s-1980s (archive-# 32). Courtesy Delmes & Zander, Cologne.

“Despite thorough research it has not been possible to identify the artist behind these drawings, found in Germany in the late 1990s,” read the press statement for a group of 50 stunningly idiosyncratic colored-pencil drawings that Delmes & Zander showed at this year’s Independent art fair in New York. Based on its content, the series had been dubbed “Disko Girls,” a title that was “attributed to the work out of respect for the unnamed and unknown author.”

Here, finally, is a case study that happily short-circuits everything we’ve just discussed. For the moment, it’s possible to stand in front of these strange portraits—titillating, disturbing, campy, playful, raw—with absolutely zero baggage.

Perhaps art-historical sleuthing will turn up the artist’s identity in the next few years. Perhaps we’ll find out that he was an orthodontist in Cologne who drew on the weekends, or that she was a university student who copied designs from advertisements and pornographic magazines. Biography will become a magnifying glass used to zoom in on what was once peculiar, elusive, and magnificently foreign about the artist. With any luck, that day will never come.

—Scott Indrisek

Header image by Corey Olsen for Artsy.

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noiseartists · 6 years

Text

The Corrupting Sea- Therapy In Sound

"Libraries gave us power" the Manic Street Preachers used to sing. The internet has given us power too. Meet Jason Lamoreaux. Label owner, journalist, musician.

What is your music about?

In 2015, I was unethically dismissed from a job that I deeply loved and was invested in. As someone who deals on a daily basis with anxiety and depression and has no health insurance, I had to find a way to deal with the fallout that was healthy and not harmful. I had recorded some music around 2007 and had released a single on an Australian compilation, but the album I recorded was lost. So, at the end of 2016, I begin to record again as an outlet for my anxiety and depression. It was, in a way, therapeutic. The results of those first sessions was my third album Symphony Of A Radical. I had shown a few of the tracks to Frank Lenz (Starflyer 59) and he really encouraged me to put them out there.

I think another sort of “inspiration” for my work has been just world events, the insanity of what is happening in my country and the corresponding ignorance of so many in the U.S., and some personal narratives about trying to deal with all of it and find some peace. So, I hope to communicate sound stories that have some narrative freight to them but allow the listener to sort of plug in their own experiences throughout the music.

Musical Work

In 2017, I released a trilogy with the albums Samatta, Resist, and Symphony of a Radical. These were my first releases to go out into the world. I’m 45 years old and I just felt that I had finally found a voice with my music and was able to put myself out there. In my youth, I had too much self-doubt and hesitation, so I suppose my age helps with me not being so worried about what people think.

I think much of what I do is anti-ambient, if that makes sense. So many of my ambient artist friends or ambient artists I read talk about their work in terms of serenity or contemplation or meditation. My music isn’t that. There are tracks where I am struggling to find that but much of my music comes from rage, anxiety, depression, agitation, and conflict. I mean, if you met me, you wouldn’t get this impression from me. I’ve been told that my music is sort of an alter-ego. That’s true, I think. But it’s also my therapy. It’s where I dump the things that aren’t healthy in relationships. I guess I weep into my music in a way.

In terms of the albums, I guess I will leave that to the audiofiles in discussing each one individually. I will say this. The stuff I am producing now has really changed in tone and I think quality. I’m really excited about the release of Somnambulate in Jan/February on Katuktu Collective as well as the Aural Canyon album I’m working on that will hopefully be released later in the year. So two new full-lengths are forthcoming in 2018. I also have two other albums. One is called Reflections and it was mixed and mastered by Paul Saarnak of The Beremy Jets while the other is called System Shift and it was mixed and mastered by Toby Crate Art of The Emerald Down. Both did incredible jobs on the mixes and I can’t wait to find both a home. I also have an EP coming out on Silber Records any day now. It’s in the 5 in 5 series where the artist can only produce 5 minutes of material over the course of 5 tracks. I made 5 one-minute tracks and I think it turned out rather well. I’m happy with it at least.

The most recent development has been a collaboration with Jon Attwood (Yellow6) and Daniel Land (riverrun, Daniel Land and the Painters). We’ve started exchanging stems and things are moving forward. Really excited about how this project turns out. I’ve also started working with Josh Richardson (Flavor Crystals) on a potential ambient album. We will see where that goes.

Tell us about the artists you have worked with

All of the artwork on my albums so far have been my own photos. I really love taking pictures and working with imagery, so I’ve been excited to share my visual work with others in this medium. My dear friend Paul Lewis has designed all the covers using my images and has done an incredible job. I’m currently working with Garett Wood, another friend of mine, who will do the images for the Reflections album. His photography is amazing. I’m also hoping to work with Christy Romanik who has been a favorite photographer of mine for ages. I’m shocked I haven’t used her photos yet. Look up both photographers because their work is just so amazing.

I’m beginning to work with Jeff Ryan (Myopic) who is a Dallas based artist. He is the mind behind the project called Myopic and has been the drummer for St. Vincent, The War on Drugs, and others. He’s currently in The Baptist Generals and Motorcade. I’ll be recording a live video with him for Noise Artists. I’ve also done a remix for City of Dawn who is an ambient artist out of Texas. We are hoping to do some collaborative work. I’m also in the middle of a collaboration with Jon Attwood (Yellow6) and Daniel Land (riverrun, Daniel Land and the Painters). I’m super excited about how these will all turn out. The kind of creative challenges one encounters with others can really push limits and make one think outside one’s box. It’s really exciting.

Two of my newer albums that don’t have labels yet have recently been mixed and mastered by Paul Saarnak and Toby Crate Art. They did an incredible job and I can’t wait for the world to hear those. I’m also working in collaboration with Jon Attwood and Daniel Land. I’m also working with Josh Richardson of Flavor Crystals on something. We will see where that goes.

What are your goals as a band, artist, record label owner, artistically/commercially ?

I think my only goal with The Corrupting Sea has been to record my music and put it out there. Actually constructing the tracks and getting an album out were the beginning. I’m not sure I expected to end up recording more let alone put out 3 albums in one year. Now I’m hoping to play live soon and the live videos with Myopic are sort of the beginning of that process. I started Somewherecold Records for that purpose even though I’ve put out other artists. Then my goal was to put an album out on another label because I couldn’t afford to keep doing it myself, at least not the way I wanted. That will happen beginning next year as Katuktu Collective puts out Somnabulate. It’s been pretty amazing actually and beyond anything I expected in the long run. I guess now I just want to keep going and be able to make my own music. I do have an Aural Canyon album planned for next year as well.

With Somewherecold Records, I simply want to put great music out there for people to support. If only more people would, you know? Running a label is fraught with instability simply because of how people view art and music now. Either people have no disposable income, or they just refuse to buy music anymore. It’s really a sad situation. I’m always shocked when artists do art for a living because it’s so incredibly difficult to get people to support artists these days.

Who would you want as a dream producer and why?

John Fryer. He’s worked with so many bands I admire and I would love to see what he does with my darker stuff. He’s just a consummate musician and, having talked to him, I feel he would respect my sound and not try to take over.

What are you trying to avoid as a band, artist, label owner?

I guess being too repetitive as an artist. I don’t want to do that for sure.

As a label owner? I guess I’m going with the flow there. I really would love not to go into massive debt, which I can’t do. It would simply mean the end of the label if people don’t purchase music.

Explain your songwriting process, who starts? How does it evolve, is it organic? Is it discussed?

Well, since this is my project, it’s just me and my instruments. Basically, I hunt for sounds and textures that inspire me or lead me to a basis for a track and then I build from there. This can be the manipulation of standard midi tracks, found sounds that I use as samples, or guitar lines and melodies. I like when things just flow. Of course, they don’t always, but I mostly come up with very improvised free form work. I describe myself as a sound shaper rather than a musician.

In 2017 there is no new or old music to a 17 year old with internet access. Discuss.

I guess that, what you mean by this is, young people have everything at their fingertips. Well, I think there are pros and cons to this entire issue. I guess the best thing about this is that corporate radio can’t tell people what to listen to anymore. Radio stations that are broadcasting through FM or AM are kind of obsolete. There are, of course, a few exceptions like college radio stations that aren’t shackled by the likes of Clear Channel. There are also great online stations like DKFM (of which I am a part) that really allow DJ’s to shape their shows and play what they feel is the best new music out there. In this way, listeners can find programs and DJ’s that introduce them to music they seem to like on a consistent basis. Stations that play the same crap over and over again need to be phased out and, in my opinion, people should just stop listening to those stations. The cons are a product or consequence of the pros. Yes, we have access to everything but that is also a down side. There is just so much great music out there that finding artists can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Further, I think that young people have really lost touch with the wonderfulness of the album. Artists shape their tracks into a whole project, not simply singles, but streaming culture really has gotten young people away from listening to whole albums and really taking in the entire message of an artists in that period of time.

Lastly I would say that people have all but stopped buying music. Streaming services are killing music really. The one thing any fan can do that is good for a musician or band is buy their CDs, Cassettes, Vinyl, and Merch. It does WONDERS. This idea that music should be free is a horrible product of the degradation of art and artists and people can only fight that by buying the music directly from the artists or labels they are on, especially if the label is small.

Why do you make the music you make? Is it in you? Is it a choice?

Like I said above, my music has been my therapy. I think it was in me all along and I really didn’t know. It was strange once I actually let it out there. It was like a flood of music came out of me. I have this really strong memory of myself when I was about 17 years old. I was at my house alone and sitting at my parents’ upright piano. I would hold down the sustain pedal and just play chords and let the reverb tail just fade out. I would close my eyes and just soak in it. I had never heard of ambient music at the time. I’d never heard Eno or any of the jazz, ambient artists prior to this period. This would have been around 1989 or 1990. I’d been learning bass and guitar for some time now but no one ever told me that what made me feel most at home musically could be music. In hindsight, I really wish I would have recorded that stuff and went with it on my own but I had no conceptual framework or know how in terms of recording anything.

As I got older, I encountered stuff like shoegaze music through my writing at Somewherecold. This would be like 2002 and after. I’m a late-comer to the scene. Anyway, there’s a track on The Prayer Chain’s Mercury album that really sparked my interest in ambient music in a way I hadn’t encountered before. Eric Campuzano from The Prayer Chain and The Lassie Foundation and so many other bands came out with his solo project Charity Empressa and I had found my musical home in a way. Experimental and ambient, Charity Empressa opened a musical world to me that I had not encountered before. I started buying all of Eno’s albums and so much more. For me, this is the awakening my 17-year-old self longed for. It wasn’t until 2006 or so that I started to explore my own creativity in this regard and now I’m going at it full force. I suppose it’s no longer a choice but an urge or a longing to express myself.

Describe your palette of sound.

Well, I work mainly with drones and guitar sounds. My palette runs the range of found sounds to flat, untextured drones. Whatever serves my expression at the time, I will use and attempt to shape into something a listener can experience. As I’ve moved forward, I’ve gained more tools to work with. For example, my earliest work was all guitar and bass. I owned no pedals. I only used VSTs with the guitars. In order to create drones, I would detune a guitar or mute strings and then blow fans on the guitar to make a long, droning rumble or ambient sound. I think it worked well and people can’t really tell that’s what I’m doing when it’s happening. Since then, I’ve had a really cheap midi-controller, which I used on my first three albums. Now I’ve upgraded that along with my DAW. I’ve also gained some guitar pedals along the way. More are forthcoming. It’s simply a matter of finding the funds and moving forward. The thing is, I know what I want and how much I want. I’m being very, very selective in the pedals I attain because it can become a financial black hole and I don’t want that to happen. I’m just not in a place financially for that to happen. So, as I’ve become more and more familiar and attune to my own sound, I have targeted particular pieces of equipment for my sound arsenal. We will see what 2018 brings in that regard.

Your music is instrumental, would you like guest vocalists? Who would be your dream guest vocalist?

I have always toyed with the idea of having someone come in and lay some kind of vocal, spoken or sung, over the top of my crazy compositions. Seeing what a vocal artist would do would be fascinating. Some dream vocalists would be Rachel Staggs, Krissy Vanderwoude, Justin Bowsher, Daniel Land, Rebecca Scott, Christie Simpson, Kristie Capua, Preston Maddox, and Adrienne Snow.

Which of your albums are you the most proud of? Why?

I think, of the ones currently out, Samatta is my favorite because it has tracks I like to return to more often. I think “I Love You Over the Moon” and “An Ode to Paul Saarnak on His 44th” are my favorite tracks of the trilogy. They both express a brightness that usually escapes me or I find ethereal as I try to grab it. I also think that my ability to record and use my tools had made a rather large advance with that album. Given that I’ve completed six albums, I think my favorite (which everyone else hasn’t heard yet) is the one I did for Katuktu Collective. It’s called Somnabulate and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. All of the new albums have different flavors to them, so we will see what people think once they are out in the open.

Explain the story behind the trilogy?

The trilogy of albums I put out happened in a very organic way. I most certainly didn’t plan a trilogy from the get go. In fact, I thought Symphony of a Radical would be it. I never imagined I would set out on a journey that would span three albums. Part of that had to do with the fact that Symphony was in another person’s hands and that person was supposed to mix and master it. Well, it never happened for whatever reason. While I waited, the tracks for Samatta kind of coalesced and I decided to give that album life first while I waited. I taught myself the DIY version of mixing and mastering and put that out there. There was a good reception and while that was sort of getting into people’s hands, Resist came together. I call the albums a trilogy because they really do speak to a 2 year period in my life as one thing happened after another. Getting let go from a job I adored, seeing my country devolve into a racist mess, watching family members make horrifying decisions politically, coming to terms with massive financial instability, and so much more fueled all three of these albums. They are all kindred spirits in a way. Somnambulate, my next album, feels so different to me because it is, I don’t know, coming from a different place. I guess some people will say it sounds exactly like me. Most artists hear different things about their music than the fans. I think the sound files I sent about each individual album really complete the picture so I will stop here.

Thank you so much for taking the time to feature my project. It really means a lot to me.

Your presence on the web

Social media: I really only have a Facebook page for the recording project. That might be a bit odd and I need to remedy that as more people listen to my music.

https://www.facebook.com/TheCorruptingSea/

Video: Currently, The Corrupting Sea videos are housed at the Somewherecold Records Youtube Channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxWQV9Ty9ZbqtxDK3zr5TA

Listening / buying your music: You can find the 2017 trilogy at the Somewherecold Records’ Bandcamp page.

https://somewherecoldrecords.bandcamp.com/

I did an interview with When the Sun Hits not long ago: http://whenthesunhitsblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/interview-jason-lamoreaux-of-corrupting.html

Where to find your work?

All of my current releases can be found at the Somewherecold Records’ Bandcamp page: https://somewherecoldrecords.bandcamp.com/

However, I have future releases coming out from Silber Records, Katuktu Collective, and Aural Canyons. All of these are amazing labels I think people should be paying attention to and, well, you can keep an eye out for my own releases soon. https://katuktucollective.bandcamp.com/

https://silbermedia.bandcamp.com/

https://auralcanyonmusic.bandcamp.com/

#Ambient #Shoegaze #USA

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