Great article, Jesse! Just to add, as a composer and an artist: (for me at least) Art has nothing to do with choices. Choices are a function of the conscious mind (executive decision-making and all that good frontal lobe stuff). Art emanates more from our subconscious - the land of dreams, paradoxes and untamed emotions. And perhaps it goes even deeper if we contemplate access to a collective unconscious. So many artists, composers, creators of every kind experience an almost mystical feeling of channeling and a personal detachment from the creative process. I am no different. So in as much as I try to keep the conscious, the ego, outside of the process (because nothing good comes of them), choices are almost completely out of place and unimportant. I won’t delve into AI here, but we shouldn’t be binary in our views on it.
randomly found this when looking up the Virilio quote -- so just fyi Mastai is at least referencing Virilio:
When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution... Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.
Interesting read but you lost me in the fourth paragraph. The idea of art communicating something ‘true or beautiful’ is very restrictive and very archaic - like 19th century archaic. There’s no harm in operating under that paradigm, but I think Chiang’s definition wherein expression operates at the granular level, not the macro level, is far more compelling and a far better attempt at capturing a universal rule. Still a great read, but it was on this point that I sided far more with Chiang than your own piece.
Great article, Jesse! Just to add, as a composer and an artist: (for me at least) Art has nothing to do with choices. Choices are a function of the conscious mind (executive decision-making and all that good frontal lobe stuff). Art emanates more from our subconscious - the land of dreams, paradoxes and untamed emotions. And perhaps it goes even deeper if we contemplate access to a collective unconscious. So many artists, composers, creators of every kind experience an almost mystical feeling of channeling and a personal detachment from the creative process. I am no different. So in as much as I try to keep the conscious, the ego, outside of the process (because nothing good comes of them), choices are almost completely out of place and unimportant. I won’t delve into AI here, but we shouldn’t be binary in our views on it.
I love this! It’s such a good point—art is arguably one of the endeavors that most relies on the subconscious. Thank you for sharing.
Touche Jesse.
🫡
randomly found this when looking up the Virilio quote -- so just fyi Mastai is at least referencing Virilio:
When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution... Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.
Interesting read but you lost me in the fourth paragraph. The idea of art communicating something ‘true or beautiful’ is very restrictive and very archaic - like 19th century archaic. There’s no harm in operating under that paradigm, but I think Chiang’s definition wherein expression operates at the granular level, not the macro level, is far more compelling and a far better attempt at capturing a universal rule. Still a great read, but it was on this point that I sided far more with Chiang than your own piece.