I’m not going to say that all things created by people aren’t slop, but it’s also true that our context for understanding art can change over time. What we’re getting now, with certain art styles being associated with slop is a kind of Seinfeld effect.
To give a specific example: When the movie Annihilation came out, it quickly became a favorite of mine. I loved its visual style, and the narrative theme about broken people. A few months ago I re-watched it and realized that its visuals have been so coopted by endless slop recreations that I couldn’t disassociate it from AI output. Even though the themes were still there and no less resonant than when I first watched it, my brain couldn’t enjoy the film because I kept thinking about slop. The movie hadn’t changed and all the artistic intentionality behind its creation was still there, but my ability to enjoy it was destroyed.
Interesting. Because Gen AI is certainly the annihilation of certain facets of human creativity (I’d say the sloppiest aspects). What is creativity without meaning but annihilation? (EDIT: I’ve recently rewatched Annihilation and rewatching the ending now again, I love it more than ever because how relevant it is to the currently ongoing annihilation of our civilization).
It’s also a great example of how hate bandwagoning reduces enjoyment. I’ve seen this with “Rings of Power”. It’s not the best TV show, certainly not the worst. There are like 4 subreddits discussing the show, 3 filled with endless hate and vitriol. 1 with discussions about who or how artistic decisions were made this or that way and how it conflicts with the source material. Finding that community made watching the show more enjoyable again.
So the community you choose absolutely does affect how you can enjoy entertainment or art. Basically you shouldn’t allow yourself to be infected with hate mongering because that has it’s own “economy” of karma and grifting on e.g. youtube.
A more important example would be how judgemental opinions can affect the view on “minority” cultures or the global south. Liberalism wants to commercialize it, conservatism wants to purify it.
I’m not going to say that all things created by people aren’t slop, but it’s also true that our context for understanding art can change over time. What we’re getting now, with certain art styles being associated with slop is a kind of Seinfeld effect.
To give a specific example: When the movie Annihilation came out, it quickly became a favorite of mine. I loved its visual style, and the narrative theme about broken people. A few months ago I re-watched it and realized that its visuals have been so coopted by endless slop recreations that I couldn’t disassociate it from AI output. Even though the themes were still there and no less resonant than when I first watched it, my brain couldn’t enjoy the film because I kept thinking about slop. The movie hadn’t changed and all the artistic intentionality behind its creation was still there, but my ability to enjoy it was destroyed.
Interesting. Because Gen AI is certainly the annihilation of certain facets of human creativity (I’d say the sloppiest aspects). What is creativity without meaning but annihilation? (EDIT: I’ve recently rewatched Annihilation and rewatching the ending now again, I love it more than ever because how relevant it is to the currently ongoing annihilation of our civilization).
It’s also a great example of how hate bandwagoning reduces enjoyment. I’ve seen this with “Rings of Power”. It’s not the best TV show, certainly not the worst. There are like 4 subreddits discussing the show, 3 filled with endless hate and vitriol. 1 with discussions about who or how artistic decisions were made this or that way and how it conflicts with the source material. Finding that community made watching the show more enjoyable again.
So the community you choose absolutely does affect how you can enjoy entertainment or art. Basically you shouldn’t allow yourself to be infected with hate mongering because that has it’s own “economy” of karma and grifting on e.g. youtube.
A more important example would be how judgemental opinions can affect the view on “minority” cultures or the global south. Liberalism wants to commercialize it, conservatism wants to purify it.