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1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 01:48:01 JST Paul Cantrell

   • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

   My knee-jerk reaction to this article from @adamshostack was a cynical [citation needed] re “artists from all mediums emphatically support the use of AI.”

   On further reflection…well, that’s still my response to the eyeball-grabbing lede, yes, but the actual article is what I wish we’d had instead of this inane hype avalanche:

   Artists poking at the new thing, playing with it, finding its possibilities, critiquing it, problematizing it, asking us to ask what it is, helping us see it with fresh eyes from many angles. https://infosec.exchange/@adamshostack/114704865574139727

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 01:52:43 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     The arts and education — when they are at their best, anyway — have in common this deep root: they ask us to see and to think and to feel, to see with fresh eyes, to be aware of our own seeing, to be •active• in our seeing.

     In that way, both the arts and education are antidotes to the AI hype cycle, and similar endeavors of capitalism run amok.

     2/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 01:54:19 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     I’m fond of quipping that arts education is •the• foundational form of education, and that education in any field should never stray too far from being arts education.

     It’s little wonder that the forces that push investment bubbles and wealth concentration are so hostile to both the arts and education. And we need to recognize that hostility, which is so often cloaked as support:

     3/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 01:58:26 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Commoditization disguised as democratization is a form of hostility.

     The AI venders saying “Now anyone can make music!!” slip quickly into “Nobody wanted to work at making music,” then “Music is best manufactured and sold by the yard,” then “Music is essentially worthless.”

     4/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 02:01:34 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     But here’s the thing: anyone could make music •before• gen AI. Some more skilled or more artistically successful than others, sure! But that’s not the point. •Doing it• is the point. •Living it• is the point.

     A product that promises to generate it for you so that you neither do it nor live it is antithetical to the point, is hostile to the idea of art itself.

     (Note: that’s exactly what the artists in the OP are •not• doing! They are all grabbing the AI and actively •doing• and •living• while poking at the curious new object.)

     5/

     Adrianna Tan repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 02:05:37 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Similarly, hostility to education cloaks itself as support by saying that education should be useful, should be practical, should be focused only on what students need, should be narrowed to what students need, should narrow students, should narrow students into being only what capitalism needs.

     I wrote extensively about this dangerous line of thought here:

     https://innig.net/teaching/liberal-arts-manifesto

     6/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 02:07:06 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Susan Sontag:

     ❝What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to •see• more, to •hear• more, to •feel• more.❞

     7/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 02:08:28 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Georgia O’Keefe:

     ❝Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small—we haven’t time—and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.❞

     8/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 02:12:56 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Maria Montessori:

     ❝Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence.❞

     ❝We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child's spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.❞

     9/

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 02:13:32 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     More Montessori:

     ❝Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create.❞

     And here’s a kicker:

     ❝Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.❞

     /end

   • Embed this notice
     Yeshaya Lazarevich (alter_kaker@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 02:39:18 JST Yeshaya Lazarevich

     in reply to

     @inthehands yeah I can't get over how much I love this manifesto of yours

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:05:49 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:
     • Steve Canon

     @steve @adamshostack
     Meaning Walter Benjamin?

   • Embed this notice
     Steve Canon (steve@discuss.systems)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:05:50 JST Steve Canon

     in reply to

     • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

     @inthehands @adamshostack /me looks sadly at the camera and increments the "articles that tackle AI art without mentioning Benjamin" counter

   • Embed this notice
     David Smith (catfish_man@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:07:21 JST David Smith

     in reply to

     @inthehands I went to a Montessori preschool/kindergarten and it worked out very very well for me

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:07:21 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • David Smith

     @Catfish_Man
     Same!

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:12:54 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Fish Id Wardrobe

     @fishidwardrobe
     Yup. “As for living, our servants will do that for us.”

   • Embed this notice
     Fish Id Wardrobe (fishidwardrobe@mastodon.me.uk)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:12:55 JST Fish Id Wardrobe

     in reply to

     @inthehands another instance of computers having fun for you so you can get on with work, I feel.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:22:34 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:
     • Steve Canon

     @steve @adamshostack
     Well, if you write that post (short or long), I’ll read it! My Walter Benjamin knowledge is dismally thin.

   • Embed this notice
     Steve Canon (steve@discuss.systems)'s status on Thursday, 19-Jun-2025 03:22:35 JST Steve Canon

     in reply to

     • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

     @inthehands @adamshostack yeah