Festive Season

[Kate]

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays everyone!  I’ve been a bit quiet recently - back with a mission for the Shakespeare400 celebrations in 2023 though.
 

Hope everyone enjoys a healthy festive season. x

 

[Light-of-Truth]

1 hour ago, Kate said:

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays everyone!  I’ve been a bit quiet recently - back with a mission for the Shakespeare400 celebrations in 2023 though.
 

Hope everyone enjoys a healthy festive season. x

 

Same to you, Kate!! We all miss you!! 🙂

[Light-of-Truth]

I feel so excited that today's Light was longer than yesterday's. Can't notice yet, but just knowing is a huge relief. Rebirth, OMG. Whew!! Finally!

Every year I am aware of the change and my whole body shifts to Winter mode. I go to bed earlier and earlier for one thing. Soon as it gets dark, my brain clock says, "Time to go to sleep!"

Now we are looking at Spring coming! Right around the corner. Granted, here in Florida we are expecting the coldest Christmas in about 30 years, the rest of Bacon's New Atlantis is mostly in a blizzard or record low temperatures. Where my Mom lives in Michigan is on the news being in the target of this winter storm. UGH

But the days get longer starting yesterday. Whew!! Finally! I am so happy.

Here is the irony:

This coming June when the heat and humidity is unbearable here in Florida just before our wonderful thunderstorm season kicks in to cool us off, I am just as excited when the days start to get shorter! Oh what a relief that is!! OMG. Whew!! Finally! I am always so happy the days will get shorter.

Give me both Equinoxes, the "Middle Way" times 2, every year. That's what I LOVE!

Bacon:

XXVII. The Flight of Icarus, also Scylla and Charybdis Or the Middle Way

MODERATION, or the Middle Way, is in Morals much commended; in Intellectuals less spoken of, though not less useful and good; in Politics only, questionable and to be used with caution and judgment.

What about the seasons and weather?

I'm getting too old to enjoy either of the Solstices, my out-of-shape wings melt or freeze to fast. 😉

 

[A Phoenix]

Wishing All Baconians on SirBacon.org and B'Hive and all around the world a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful, Healthy and Happy 2023!

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

[Light-of-Truth]

Merry Christmas!!

Oh, a day late! Funny I thought this past weekend would be relaxed with a lot of time to Baconate. All my customers are enjoying the Holidays and Theresa and I had no plans really. Then everybody else we know who is off work pops up. LOL

I planned to create a Holiday Bacon image. My head was full of ideas, and I started to work on something. My ideas were not fruitful, and I ended up testing an AI (Artificial Intelligence) platform. That has not yet yielded what I'm looking for, but some interesting art came up.

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas (sending back in Time <--1881-->), and a wonderful week before a Happy New Year which celebrates 400 years of Bacon's First Folio! 🙂

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by Light-of-Truth

[Eric Roberts]

3 hours ago, Light-of-Truth said:

Merry Christmas!!

Oh, a day late! Funny I thought this past weekend would be relaxed with a lot of time to Baconate. All my customers are enjoying the Holidays and Theresa and I had no plans really. Then everybody else we know who is off work pops up. LOL

I planned to create a Holiday Bacon image. My head was full of ideas, and I started to work on something. My ideas were not fruitful, and I ended up testing an AI (Artificial Intelligence) platform. That has not yet yielded what I'm looking for, but some interesting art came up.

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas (sending back in Time <--1881-->), and a wonderful week before a Happy New Year which celebrates 400 years of Bacon's First Folio! 🙂

 

Hi Light-of-Truth

Thank you for the intriguing AI image with the stained glass/mosaic effect. Very nice.

You will know that currently there's a protest in the States over the proliferation of AI.

https://petapixel.com/2022/12/19/artists-stage-mass-online-protest-against-ai-image-generators/

I doubt if automatic imagery can be stopped at this late stage of development. It's too much fun.

Here's what came up when I converted Sonnet 151 to an image: 

Love is too young to know what conscience is; 
Yet who knows not, conscience is born of love? 
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss, 
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove. 
For thou betraying me, I do betray 
My nobler part to my gross body's treason; 
My soul doth tell my body that he may 
Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason, 
But rising at thy name, doth point out thee 
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride, 
He is contented thy poor drudge to be, 
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side. 
No want of conscience hold it that I call 
Her 'love,' for whose dear love I rise and fall. 

Somewhat schmaltzy. Dare I say "unimaginative?"

 

And here are a few variations on the theme of William Shakespeare:

             

          

    

    

Every AI image or video should be stamped with a symbol indicating it is machine made. The last painterly image almost looks as if the artist was human.

 

[Light-of-Truth]

13 minutes ago, Eric Roberts said:

Every AI image or video should be stamped with a symbol indicating it is machine made. The last painterly image almost looks as if the artist was human.

LOL!

It looks like you are a step ahead of me! 🙂

I started a thread in the Art forum about my thoughts playing with AI.

AI to me is not a "machine". It is an extension of Human intellect. An electronic Brain extender. It is living as we do and part of us. We need a beating heart to pump oxygen to our brains, computers need electricity to allow electrons to flow. Who is more vulnerable at the end of the day? 😉

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Light-of-Truth

[Light-of-Truth]

21 minutes ago, Eric Roberts said:

You will know that currently there's a protest in the States over the proliferation of AI.

https://petapixel.com/2022/12/19/artists-stage-mass-online-protest-against-ai-image-generators/

I doubt if automatic imagery can be stopped at this late stage of development. It's too much fun.

I do totally understand why artists would protest to their work being used for AI. I also feel like the internet is not a place to put your art if you want to protect it. In fact, to completely protect you art, you need to keep it in your head. Even an oil painting is open to being photographed, shared, and used. It is the reality of today. I've given up on chasing thieves of my art. In the past I could sometimes do something about it, but now it is mostly futile. However, if I see my work being used to make someone millions of dollars, I will have a lawyer who will get me my share. And of course it would be money I'd never make on my art without someone stealing it and doing something with it. LOL

We are at a strange time in Human evolution. Every smart phone is a video production studio, security cameras are getting to be everywhere and anywhere. Pick your nose in a public place even if you don't think anyone can see you and you might be the viral video of the day on social media! LOL

Then someone might take your image and feed to an AI brain to create something you never expected to be a part of.

aaaab aaaaa aaaba abbab abbaa

 

 

[Eric Roberts]

6 hours ago, Light-of-Truth said:

LOL!

It looks like you are a step ahead of me! 🙂

I started a thread in the Art forum about my thoughts playing with AI.

AI to me is not a "machine". It is an extension of Human intellect. An electronic Brain extender. It is living as we do and part of us. We need a beating heart to pump oxygen to our brains, computers need electricity to allow electrons to flow. Who is more vulnerable at the end of the day? 😉

 

 

 

"AI to me is not a "machine". It is an extension of Human intellect." I agree, it's just that the end result hasn't passed through the human imagination. It's been rendered without feeling by tweaking an algorithm. Choice of inputs is the extent of individuality and 'creativity' embodied in AI images. It forces us to redefine what is an original image. Compared with a painting, a portrait, say, of Francis Bacon, an AI image lacks the presence or authenticity of the subject as interpreted directly by the artist. Instead, AI gives us an authenticity of mind boggling digital computation. I'm sure it will become the norm in a few years and we'll wonder how we managed without it, but it (AI) should never be confused with human creativity, especially as we live in the age of fake news. 

[Light-of-Truth]

15 hours ago, Eric Roberts said:

but it (AI) should never be confused with human creativity

Yet it may be combined with and be a part of human creativity, it does not have to be separate.

Of course the topic is very broad. It kind of reminds me of the digital photography debate; some old school photographers with 38mm film cameras argue that using digital cameras and post-production with Photoshop is cheating.

I know I'm a little weird. For over 20 years I was called a "Machine Shaman" when I was doing repairs on computers and business machines in the mountains of Colorado. My customers would often be very upset when I'd walk into an office and the machines they called me to fix would start working the instant I came in! LOL 

I'd still know what the machines needed by the symptoms and fix them for good.

And then there are some people who seem to cause machines to act up by their mere presence. 😉

I believe everything is alive, from old mechanical typewriters to the world's largest super computers. For me to think of a "machine" as a cold lifeless bunch of parts without any awareness goes against my being. 🙂

EDIT:

I continued this in another thread more in topic:

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Light-of-Truth