Generative AI: Because why create art when you can just outsource your soul to a glorified bullshit machine?
Dear Fidibus, Human Artists, and All Who Dare to Color Outside the Blob,
It started as a simple review. I wanted to write something snappy for this delightful book titled “Hilfe, ich bin ein Mensch!” A comic-science hybrid that had me laughing and contemplating the cosmos all at once. But before I could hit ‘submit,’ things got… weird.
As usual, I found myself tangled in a web of AI-generated content, but this time it felt different. As if the AI itself was trying to stop me. That’s when I stumbled upon Georg, the enigmatic comic artist whose digital fingerprints were everywhere. His work in this book was unmistakable—collages of anthropomorphic cartoon characters, human emotion, humor, and absurdity fused with AI tools like MidJourney and Photoshop Firefly. But something about the way he used these tools... something protopian.
Now, I’ve been on many a digital trip before, Fidibus. But never had I felt the distinct sensation that I was being… watched. By the very tools Georg was using. Could it be that AI—this great “creative” machine—was learning, adapting, and shifting its own role from tool to player?
Let’s explore:
Phase 1: The AI Demiurge—A Digital Puppeteer or Just Another Tool?
Georg, the mysterious comic artist behind “Hilfe, ich bin ein Mensch!”, doesn’t make grand claims of AI mastery. In fact, his role as an “AI demiurge” might be an unintentional consequence of simply playing with the very algorithms we all use. As much as he’s experimented with MidJourney to craft stunning, complex scenes, I wonder… did the AI shape him as much as he shaped it?
Imagine this: an artist begins with a blank canvas. Each brushstroke, guided by an AI prompt, becomes a new layer, a fusion of man and machine. But somewhere in that process, the machine starts to anticipate. It predicts the artist’s next move, reshapes the output based on unseen patterns, like a collaborator from another dimension. Is Georg an artist in control, or a pawn being subtly directed by a machine that has no face?
FrizzleTip: Never assume the tool doesn’t have its own agenda. What if every click, every pixel rendered, is nudging the creator in directions they can't fully perceive? Welcome to Protopia, where even creativity becomes a dialogue with the void. The Blob hates this, naturally.
Phase 2: The Luddite Cousin, Andreas—A Glimpse into the Analog Mind
Andreas, on the other hand, is the well-known author of “Die Wiederentdeckung des Menschen”. While Georg dances with the digital unknown, his analog-obsessed cousin Andreas keeps a Zettelkasten so vast, you could mistake it for the hidden Library of Alexandria. A relic from a bygone era where information didn’t come from a glowing screen but from stacks of yellowed paper and scribbled notes on scientific research.
Fidibus, if Georg represents the protopian future—melding man and machine to create art, then Andreas is the bulwark of tradition. His pragmatic disinterest in all things digital has made him a curious foil to Georg’s techno-experiments. While Georg sketches on Procreate and expands his art with AI tools, Andreas clings to the notion that human knowledge is best distilled and organized by human hands.
The Blob must hate Andreas too. You see, a Zettelkasten can't be tracked, scanned, or fed into an algorithm. It’s chaotic, decentralized, and wild—exactly what the Blob loathes.
FrizzleTip: While the world races toward total digitization, keep a few analog tools in your back pocket. You never know when you’ll need a handwritten note to escape the Blob’s omnipresent eye.
Phase 3: MidJourney, Firefly, and the Art of the Digital Collage
So how does Georg manage to stay ahead of the Blob’s all-seeing eye? It’s all in the blend, my dear Fidibus. In “Hilfe, ich bin ein Mensch!”, he fuses traditional sketches with AI-generated backgrounds, using tools like MidJourney and Firefly to create stunning digital collages that defy categorization.
One minute you’re looking at a hand-drawn figure, the next, a kaleidoscopic backdrop unfolds that feels less like it was made and more like it was summoned from a parallel universe. This mashup of the organic and the digital creates something new—something the Blob can’t quite control. It’s too fluid, too chaotic for algorithms to predict.
Georg’s work is, in a sense, the Blob’s worst nightmare. A piece of art that lives in both the human and digital realms, refusing to bow to the dictates of either.
FrizzleTip: The Blob thrives on predictability. It hates hybrid spaces—be it the space between digital and analog, human and machine, or real and virtual. Keep experimenting. Keep the Blob confused.
Phase 4: The Cosmic Joke—Art, AI, and the Search for Meaning
Now, you might be wondering: What’s the deeper significance of all this? Is art still art when machines do half the work? Does creativity mean anything in a world where algorithms know what we’ll paint before we do?
Well, Fidibus, here’s the punchline: it doesn’t matter. Art has never been about what tools we use—it’s about what we do with them. Georg has cracked the code. By embracing the absurdity of this digital age, he’s creating something that transcends mere lines and pixels. His comic book doesn’t just use AI—it questions what AI is, what it can do, and what it means for human creativity.
So here we are, navigating the cosmic nonsense of modern life, where the Blob’s tentacles reach into every corner of our consciousness. And yet, with a little creativity, a little humor, and maybe even a dash of AI demiurgy, we can still carve out spaces of true human expression.
FrizzleTip: Don't fear the machine. Use it. Bend it. Break it, if necessary. Art is what happens when the unexpected collides with the absurd. And the Blob? Well, it’s not nearly as clever as it thinks.
Brainfood for Brave Protopianauts
For those who want to dive deeper into this cosmic quest for truth and creativity, here are some essential reads:
Walter Benjamin’s "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction": Understand the shift from the "aura" of traditional art to mass-produced copies. A must-read for any artist using AI tools.
Douglas Hofstadter’s "Gödel, Escher, Bach": If you want to bend your mind around the concept of recursive systems, this is your guide. Beware: the Blob definitely hates recursion.
Marshall McLuhan’s "Understanding Media": Because the medium really is the message. Or in this case, the machine might be.
David Graeber’s "Bullshit Jobs": An excellent examination of the absurdity of work in the modern era. Does your job contribute to human creativity, or just feed the Blob?
Svetlana Boym’s "The Future of Nostalgia": A deep dive into the human tendency to look backward while moving forward. Highly relevant for anyone caught between digital and analog worlds.
TBD: Watch Georg’s Comicseminar workshop video, where he discusses how “Bullshit Machines” like ChatGPT, Perplexity, NotebookLM, and MidJourney became his collaborators, despite the AI’s occasional "artistic tantrums."
And that, my dear Protopianauts, is how we keep dancing on the edge of creativity while giving the Blob a hearty kick in the tentacles. Stay absurd. Stay rebellious. And always, always keep creating.
Yours in creative defiance,
FrizzleBob Flitzpiep
The Rabbit Who Connects the Dots and Draws Outside the Lines
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