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In a June 10/2022 VICE article We Asked an AI to Draw a Self-Portrait the Artificial Intelligence system result was an unmistakable homage to visage variations on Court Painter. Admittedly not as dashing and handsome as his real countenance, it does however show that even artificial intelligence knows a good mug to emulate when it sees it.
We Asked an AI to Draw a Self-Portrait : Pay no attention to the machine learning algorithm behind the curtain.
By Janus Rose NEW YORK, US June 10, 2022, 12:09pm
A “SELF-PORTRAIT” OF DALL-E AS A OLD MAN WITH A GLASSES AND A UNIBEARD.
DALL-E, the AI system that generates images from text prompts, has captured the internet’s imagination over the past few months. Literally.
Created by OpenAI, DALL-E is the latest in a series of tools that seem to tap into the internet’s subconscious, using massive datasets of text and images to parse and reproduce human language with uncanny accuracy. The system uses a machine learning model with billions of individual parameters to illustrate whatever phrases you feed into it, resulting in bizarre and often shockingly realistic renderings—though oftentimes with predictably racist and sexist tropes.
But while access to DALL-E is currently only being offered to a select list of artists and researchers, open source AI systems that attempt to replicate OpenAI’s model have recently sprouted up, allowing anyone to try their hand at human-machine artistic collaboration.
One model in particular, called DALL-E Mini, has practically achieved meme status over the past week. Hosted on the AI repository HuggingFace, the demo’s massive volume of users has caused long delays to complete requests, as social feeds fill with images generated from all kinds of absurd prompts. (“Gender reveal 9/11” and “Aileen Wuornos on Drag Race” are among the many deranged highlights)
Given how so many humans are now collaborating with AI models to make art, I felt it was only fair to ask the AI to reveal itself as a self-portrait.
The results were… mixed. Based on what prompt I chose, DALL-E Mini either sees itself as some sort of seabird, a goat-like creature, or a mysterious orb that resembles a microscopic organism—among many other bizarre mutations.
It should be noted that DALL-E Mini is not the same as OpenAI’s DALL-E system, and the results are typically not as good due to significant differences in the model’s size, datasets, and training. But its authors indicate that operating on a smaller scale was a primary goal of the project.
“We show we can achieve impressive results (albeit of a lower quality) while being limited to much smaller hardware resources,” DALL-E Mini’s authors wrote in the project’s technical description. “By simplifying the architecture and model memory requirements, as well as leveraging open-source code and pre-trained models available, we were able to satisfy a tight timeline.”
The project’s description indicates that the model is still being trained, and a more advanced version, called DALL-E Mega, is also available for download—though not as conveniently accessible as the version hosted on Hugging Face.
Still, with OpenAI’s DALL-E still in closed beta testing, projects like DALL-E Mini are giving many people their first taste of human-AI artistic collaboration—and maybe, a glimpse into the future of the art world as we know it.
Court Painter is somewhat skeptical of that futuristic glimpse but he’s not even on Twitter!
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Court Painter & his Press Attache A Hardon MacKay model as stand ins for the corporate captains of industry that are making out like bandits during the scourge of COVID .
The Court Painter studio cannot afford professional models so rest your eyes on these two hunks that exude the well to do vibe with panache!
As you are no doubt aware the business & creative relationship between Press Attache AHM & Court Painter is likened to a finely balanced see saw poised on a fulcrum of hyper sensitivity tuned to the ways of the world.
AHM digs up the subjects for Court Painter to paint and he paints ’em! It’s that simple.
Often the peripatetic AHM must go off on trips to do research and return with new subjects of aesthetic and potential monetizing worth . Seems the recent research trip of the nosy Press Attache has found him deep in a rabbit warren of controversy, conspiracy, conundrum and catch 22. It’s usually thought of as ‘the Void’.
Since he has not come up for air as yet the Court Painter studio is filling his absense by demonstrating the master painter in various anticipatory poses, accompanied by canvases in a state of tabula rasa.
Court Painter threw this one in to see if you are paying attention!
Court Painter has risen to the challenge and rendered both front runners with numerous striking portraits of approximation. Everyone who has viewed them agrees he has captured penetrating similarities to the actual subjects however leave the viewers scratching their heads in wonderment. Court Painter has served the greater purpose of Art once again.
AMERICAN RASPUTIN
Steve Bannon is still scheming. And he’s still a threat to democracy.
JUNE 6, 2022, 6 AM The Atlantic
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You can discern much of Bannon’s mad character and contradictions in these exchanges. The chaos and the focus, the pugnacity and the enthusiasm, the transparency and the industrial-grade bullshit. Also, the mania: logomania, arithmomania, monomania (he’d likely cop to all of these, especially that last one—he’s the first to say that one of the features of his show is “wash rinse repeat”). Garden-variety hypermania (with a generous assist from espressos). And last of all, perhaps above all else, straight-up megalomania, which even those who profess affection for the man can see, though it appears to be a problem only for those who believe, as I do, that he’s attempting to insert a lit bomb into the mouth of American democracy.
Alyssum murale
Court Painter & Alyssum Murale 2
Click link for Guardian article
In the struggle to mitigate and adapt to climate breakdown – and all the other entangled crises we face – we are starting to recognise that other ways of knowing and acting on the world, from indigenous knowledge systems to changes in our own consumption and patterns of life, are vital to surviving and thriving on a hotter, wetter and more conflicted planet. We know too that this survival is dependent not only on our own abilities and inventions, but on the survival of the other species we share the planet with. The collapse of biodiversity which is already occurring makes it harder for us to hold back the collapse of whole ecosystems on which we too depend: for the pollination of crops, for disease resistance, for safe and sufficient food, for protection from fires and other natural disasters. We will flourish together, or not at all.
The deep knowledge that is possessed by animals, plants and others – their intelligence, we should begin to say – is another reason why we must preserve and protect them. But more than this: we should be listening to them, learning from them and working with them. The hyperaccumulator plants, for example, show us there are other ways of getting what we need from the planet; they also remind us that there are limits to what we should extract, as to turn them into another agroindustrial resource like soya beans or palm oil would be just as damaging. The knowledge that there are other ways of being intelligent on this planet should force us to reassess the centrality and usefulness of our own. Other worlds are not only possible, they have been growing around us all along.
Court Painter & Alyssum murale 1
Ontario just can’t get enough of those Ford bros!
While the Progressive Conservatives may have won a sweeping victory Thursday night, a large majority of Ontarians decided not to bother heading to the polls.
The province recorded the lowest voter turnout in history during the 2022 election, with just about 43.5 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot according to preliminary Elections Ontario results.
Of the just over 10.7 million registered voters in the province, this equals just over 4.6 million votes cast.
PCs WON 40.8 % OF THOSE VOTES
According to the preliminary results, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives won with just over 1.9 million votes
The last time voter turnout was below 50 per cent was in 2011, when just 48 per cent of Ontario residents over the age of 18 voted.
No other time in Ontario history has the voter turnout fallen that low.
Court Painter with his recent Ford Dynasty painting.
Excerpted from article by Ashley Burke · CBC News · Posted: May 30, 2022
Military should give up control of sexual assault cases permanently: former Supreme Court justice
Military must adapt to a new reality – the women warriors are here to stay,’ says Louise Arbor.
The time has come for the Canadian Armed Forces to permanently give up control of investigations of sexual offences by its members, says a major new report by a former Supreme Court justice.
Concluding more than a year of work, Louise Arbour today released her much-anticipated report on the military’s sexual misconduct crisis. It recommends, among other things, that civilian police and courts handle all sexual assault cases involving allegations against military members.
“As challenging as it is, this organization must demonstrate enough humility to accept external help and open itself to the outside world,” wrote Arbour in the roughly 400-page report.
“Meaningful change will rest on the political will and determination of the civilians who oversee the CAF.”
Military sexual trauma complainants have been demanding for decades that civilians take over sexual misconduct cases, arguing that the Canadian Armed Forces has failed to properly support victims and to thoroughly investigate and prosecute cases.
Images of Canadian women soldiers in Afghanistan from AHM war artist files.
NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION
HOUSTON TEXAS 2022
14 ACRES Of GUNS & GEAR
…as the increasing vitriol of the National Rifle Association (NRA) proved politically effective, some in the gun business realized this messaging could be adopted by the firearms industry to sell more guns. All that was required for success was a dedication to frighteningly dangerous rhetoric and increasingly powerful weaponry. Cultural norms and responsibility would have to go.
Ryan Busse
author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America
