Guided Study Online

The Guardian //: The man who liberalised the Soviet Union died last week, beset by a sense that his country had been betrayed – by the west and history
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/04/gorbachev-freed-my-generation-of-eastern-europeans-from-abyss-we-saw-a-different-future?

Gorbachev freed my generation of eastern Europeans from the abyss. We saw a different future | Ivan Krastev The man who liberalised the Soviet Union died last week, beset by a sense that his country had been betrayed – by the west and history

Live event on YouTube on September 6 2022 @19:00 (Kyiv time)

Currently, Ukrainians live in a time when the history of the country is changing right before their eyes. "Today, history is not just being rewritten - it is being rewritten in the Ukrainian language," writes Serhiy Zhadan, an acclaimed Ukrainian poet. The way people perceive and remember what is happening to them affects not only their identity, but also other aspects of their life. For example, it shapes the vision of the future for their country. Therefore, memory politics becomes of utmost importance.
What should be Ukraine's memory politics regarding the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war? What is the connection between the guilt or innocence during the war and the responsibility in the future? We invite you to join the online lecture and reflect on these questions together with Marci Shore, Associate Professor, Department of History, Yale University. When? September 6 at 19:00 (Kyiv time).
Where: online broadcast on Naukma page on YouTube and Facebook.

When? September 6 at 19:00 (Kyiv time).
Where: online broadcast on Naukma page on YouTube and Facebook.

This lecture is a part of the series on understanding the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Organizers: NaUKMA, NaUKMA Alumni Association, School of Policy Analysis NaUKMA in partnership with the University of Giessen (Germany).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsh1KwxtHvg&fbclid=IwAR1i9a_RTHcbzWU6cdPgqCTcGMPTAZ5NUojHGSj5BUhwro5X_rRJO3gt5nk

Here and Now: Guilt, Responsibility, and Memory Politics in a Time of War Eng belowЗараз українці живуть в час, коли історія країни змінюється просто на їхніх очах. “Історія нині не просто переписується - вона переписується українс...

YouTube video published on August 17 2022.

MIT’s Office of Open Learning comprises over a dozen teams focused on bringing MIT’s knowledge to the world through courses, programs, research, and engagement.
https://youtu.be/r5JewerwmLk

The impact of MIT Open Learning MIT’s Office of Open Learning comprises over a dozen teams focused on bringing MIT’s knowledge to the world through courses, programs, research, and engageme...

Rund 1.000 Künstler*innen, Wissenschaftler*innen, Entwickler*innen und Aktivist*innen werden vom 7. bis 11. September in Linz sein, um mit ihren Ideen, Visionen und Projekten den "Planet B" zu skizzieren, der im Mittelpunkt der diesjährigen Ars Electronica stehen wird.

Am Montag, 29.8., geben wir euch im Rahmen eines Online-Pressegesprächs einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Programmpunkte. Hier auf Facebook oder via Youtube könnt ihr dabei sein!

https://www.facebook.com/events/2455505787945538
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxVQ-apNITk

Why am I missing some of my pages here?
- Walk Of Art
- Film City New Music Festival
- Shared History Project
- The War Spin and Afghanistan: Her Too
- CARE UNITED
- Éventainment
- Mumbai’s Food Truck Small Business Awards
- Smokers Corner
- Mumbai Local
- South Street Conveniences
- Re:design Studio
- From Pydhonie to Paris
- Kitchen Smith Stores
- The Local India
- Fishnet Fridays
- Bombay Talkies
- Bollywood Film Institute
- South Street Speakeasy

Would someone here like to tell me what's going on??

"Right Click Save" (RCS) is the online magazine that invites people with MA degrees, PhD students and others to contribute articles related to the magazine goal - "to drive critical conversation about art on the blockchain."

https://www.rightclicksave.com/

I know magazine's editor in chief Alex Estorick (we collaborated a few years ago on Flash Art's special edition on AI). Browsing RCS, I see interesting and unique content, in addition to discussions of art and blockchain. For example, there are interviews with key pioneers of digital art Vera Molnar and Frieder Nake. So I am happy to share the information about RCS new initiative:

"For the new academic year, RCS is launching an all-year “Call for Submissions” to give scholars with MAs or above the chance to publish their best work on Right Click Save.

By celebrating writers at different stages of their careers, RCS is committed to decentralizing scholarship while shaping a more ethical debate around blockchain, NFTs, and Web3. As a publishing platform, RCS has always sought to offer the highest quality of art writing anywhere in the NFT space. What Web3 now needs is a new generation of writers with the rigor and imagination to address a world of new questions.

If you would like to contribute your own research to RCS, we highly encourage you to share your best work up to a maximum of 3,000 words with the editors at [email protected].

We look forward to reading your submissions!

Alex Estorick, Editor-in-Chief at Right Click Save"

NYT //: Tom Wiscombe’s “chapel” on Sunset Boulevard lets passers-by immerse in a streaming world projected onto LED screens outside — and an architectural storm inside.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/arts/design/billboard-sunset-strip-los-angeles-wiscombe-architecture-ads.html?

There’s a New Billboard in Town, and You Can Walk in Tom Wiscombe’s “chapel” on Sunset Boulevard lets passers-by immerse in a streaming world projected onto LED screens outside — and an architectural storm inside.

I was delighted to have a chat with Mobile Musician magazine recently, and surprised to find myself on the cover!

Don't worry, there is no pin-up in the centre of the magazine, so you can relax.

It's free to read online so follow the link below!

Thanks

All articles published in our Spring 2022_ issue are now also available as PDF via Media/rep ✨

http://ow.ly/Sruc50K1lxe

Exciting news! Refract: The Seattle Glass Experience 2022 program just went live! Refract is back and bigger than ever, with nearly 70 artists represented at 50+ events and neighboring cities - including Everett, Bainbridge Island, Issaquah, and Tacoma, WA. Check out programming for the 2022 festival at refractseattle.org.

Returning Oct. 13-16, the 2022 program will feature an opening night party at Chihuly Garden and Glass, plus new exhibitions, parties, studio tours, live demonstrations and opportunities to connect directly with studio glass artists, from rising local talents to master glassmakers to contestants from the hit Netflix series, Blown Away!

YouTube video published on October 15 2021.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that stupid people are more dangerous than evil ones. This is because while we can protest against or fight evil people, against stupid ones we are defenseless — reasons fall on dead ears. Bonhoeffer's famous text, which we slightly edited for this video, serves any free society as a warning of what can happen when certain people gain too much power.

SUPPORT us to hear more about inspirational figures like Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that stupid people are more dangerous than evil ones. This is because while we can protest against or fight evil people, against s...

ACLU //: BREAKING NEWS Thousands of previously unreleased records illustrate how government agencies sidestep our Fourth Amendment rights.

New Records Detail DHS Purchase and Use of Vast Quantities of Cell Phone Location Data | News & Commentary | American Civil Liberties Union Thousands of previously unreleased records illustrate how government agencies sidestep our Fourth Amendment rights.

Julian Assange is fighting for his life - literally. If he is extradited to the US, he will be 'dropped' in a maximum-security hellhole, almost certainly the fortress at Florence, Colorado. You do not leave this place. The regime means that the inmate becomes a 'non-person'.

That is the threat facing this publisher and journalist, this truth teller who, far from being a criminal, has performed a remarkable public service.

Above is the list of dates of the screening of 'Ithaka', a film about the struggle of two men: Julian and his father, John Shipton. Please come to one of the showings.
John Pilger, 2 July 2022

https://ithaka.movie/watch-the-film-gb/

How does the United Nations use artificial intelligence? Helping cities develop climate resilience is just one possibility. Tomorrow at 11am, discover more ways AI can aid humanitarian work. Register now: https://bit.ly/3OJYQpw

PEN America //: The company’s lodging of a lawsuit to dispute overbroad content-blocking orders could mark a pivotal moment for internet speech around the world.

Opinion | Twitter’s case against India is crucial to the internet’s future Twitter’s petition argues that the government has tried to smother more tweets than the law authorizes.

First look - AI faces by DALL-E 2 - (in the style of portrait photographers like Annie Leibovitz) The Memo: https://lifearchitect.ai/memo/Thanks to Michael Green on Twitter…Unrolled thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1542529379485396995.htmlOrigin...

For a limited time only I am sharing full PDF of my book Cultural Analytics. The occasion is my keynote tonight at the largest European film and media studies conference NECS 2022. PDF of the text and the second PDF with color images are here:

http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/cultural-analytics

Conference info:

https://necs.org/conference/

Looking forward to meeting everybody and giving my talk at this large (320 papers!!) European conference on film and media studies in Bucharest. It’s from today through Sunday (June 22-26, 2022).

If you here during these days or after (I am staying next werk in the city) and want to say hi or chat - send me email (manovich dot lev at gmail dot com), or message on Instagram (Lev Manovich)

During my keynote talk on Saturday, I will make a PDF of my book Cultural Analytics available to all conference participants and maybe everybody else - just check book page on manovich.net or my page on academia.edu.

If you presenting and want me to come or want to recommend a particular panel to attend - please tell me!! The 80 page conference program is a bit overwhelming..

Conference details:

https://necs.org/conference/

Program:
https://necs.org/conference/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NECS-2022_final-programme.pdf

"AI and Myths of Creativity" - chapter 4 of our new book is now online. It is a shorter chapter (2000 words), so I copied its whole text into this post below!

Book info:
Lev Manovich and Emanuele.
Artificial Aesthetics: A Critical Guide to Artificial Intelligence, Media and Design

Published online starting 12/2021, new chapter every 6 weeks.

All chapters published so far are available at http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/artificial-aesthetics

----------
Chapter 4

AI and Myths of Creativity

Lev Manovich

The current discussions about the adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) in visual arts, design, architecture, cinema, music and other arts often rely on widely accepted ideas about art and creativity. These ideas include the following: “Art is the most creative human domain.” “Art and creativity can’t be measured.” “Artists does not follow rules.” It is also commonly assumed that “computers can only follow rules,” and therefore “computers struggle to generate something novel and original.” Taken together, these ideas lead to a new assumption: “generation of original art is a great test of AI progress.”

Where do these popular popular ideas about art and its relationship to creativity come from? Historically, they are quite recent. For thousands of years human creators in all human cultures made artifacts that today we put in museums and worship as great art. But their creators did not have modern concepts of art, artist, and creativity.

Th goal of this text is to briefly discuss the historical origins of currently popular ideas about art and creativity, and suggest that these ideas limit our vision of cultural AI. There are a few dominant popular understandings of “art” today. Logically, they contradict each other. Despite this, they may perfectly co-exist in a single publication or conversation. Sometimes one idea dominates and others do not appear. But very often, all three are assumed to be valid in the same time. Because these ideas contradict each other, holding them together can lead to feelings of confusion and unease - and also big fears about “creative AI.”

1. Art as the embodiment of creativity

Our dominant concept of art comes from the Romantic period in Europe: the end of the 18th and first part of the 19th century. The idea goes like this: artists are different from normal people. They occupy a special place in society. Their art comes from the inside, from their imagination and not from any rules or examples. It is not a result of rational decisions. Instead it is driven by intuition and it expresses emotions. And, most importantly: art is the exclusive domain of human creativity. (The term “Creative Industries” is one example of how the Romantic association of creativity with art is now taken for granted in society.)

The assumptions that art, as opposed to any other field of human activity, best embodies creativity - and also that art is the best expression of human uniqueness - leads to the following seemingly logical conclusion: a best test of AI progress is being to generate (novel) art.

Here we encounter a fascinating paradox. In the 19th and first part of the 20th century, it was still assumed that artists need to train for years to acquire specialized skills in drawing, perspective, composition, etc. But as the ideology of modern art based on Romantic ideas gradually become dominant, the requirement of learning such skills also disappears.

Since 1970, contemporary art world becomes conceptual, i.e. focused on ideas. It is no longer about visual skills but semantic skills. Art now focuses on communicating semantic messages - but for a while it still valued modernist ambiguity and wanted audiences to struggle with interpretations. However, by the start of the 21st century, as contemporary art enters mainstream culture and groups of school children become frequent museum visitors, art can no longer afford to be “difficult” or ambiguous. Similarly to how it functioned before 20th century in the West, today art again often serves ideological and political functions.

Only some art academies in China, Korea and Russia still teach systematically 19th century traditional drawing and painting skills. In most art schools and Universities art departments oriented towards contemporary art world, students are told to start “expression their inner vision,” and “developing their unique” style right away. Instead of art making skills, they learn verbal language of contemporary art as it exists in artists’ and galleries’ statements, and critics and curators texts in catalogs and other publications.

To be an artist who belongs to (or wants to belong) contemporary global art world is to speak and write in this language, rather than posses any skills in color combination, composition, drawing, photo and video editing, 3D modeling and animation, computer programming, or game design. This ideology also defines how art is viewed in global culture at large. Art can express unique “artistic visions, or “play some special role,” or “address social issues,” or question “dominant social values.” But it is not about any specialized skills, or creating beauty, or expressing and arousing emotions. These functions has been fully taken over in the 20th by mass culture such as cinema and popular music - and today also by social media where millions of people showcase their fashion looks, photographs, manga drawings, 3D characters and other creations.

However, “semantic art” had never completely taken over visual arts. In endless galleries, museums, art websites and social media galleries we continue to see figurative, semi-figurative and abstract images. They don’t communicate any obvious linguistic messages. They employ all visual languages developed in the realist 19th and modernist 20th century, and they can be situated anywhere on realism - abstract dimension. They don’t innovate visually, because after a long modernist century (1870-1970), there is nothing left to invent. (And new effects enabled by Photoshop and other media software in the 1990s have by now became part of modernist legacy.)

Because this kind of visual art is everywhere today, while a more specialized world of contemporary high art world (that most people feel is not so easy to enter. Most people feel intimidated to even approach contemporary art museums.

This is why for educated classes who don’t have expertise in the art world, contemporary art is equated with 19th century realism and 20th century modernism - i.e. two dimensional images that represent something in either detailed or schematic way. And this is why so much effort in AI research is now devoted to automatically generating images that look either like realistic works from the past centuries, or abstract and semi-abstract works from the 20th century (as opposed to for example, installations, site-specific art projects or other recent types of art.) For AI researchers and also general public, such images are equated with art. That is, their visual similarity to what popular culture labels as “visual art” is assumed to be sufficient. And this is why use of AI methods in interactive art or experimental music for decades does not fascinate news media or the public - because this kind of art is not accepted by normal people (unless it is promoted by Google as latest AI art, or has purely entertainment function).

2. Art and Realism

As demonstrated by many surveys and research studies in social sciences, for the majority of people today art indeed means pictures, realism and skills. An artist is understood as a person who has skills to make figurative 2D images, professionally looking photographs, animated 3D models of human figures, manga drawings, and other figurative representations that are hard or impossible to make for a normal person without long training or practice. Search for “art” in Instagram or on YouTube, and you will come across endless tutorials, guides and courses on how to acquire such skills.

The idea of specialized skills that need to be mastered also defines all areas of Culture Industry - professional photography, anime and animation, game design, web and interaction design, cinematography, video editing, acting, TV and film directing, music production and so on. Often when culture professionals are evaluated, the idea of learning skills and achieving technical mastery is combined with the idea of high creativity. For example, if a very successful Culture Industry professional person is referred as “real artist,” this assumes that she has both superb mastery of the craft and also highly original style and/or content.

This commonly held view of art explains why today realistic images similar to the ones of great artists from the past that are generated by AI get most media attention today. People are very impressed that a research team used AI to make a new portrait image that could have been painted by Rembrandt, or that a student used AI to create images that look like Classical Chinese landscape paintings - and that they fooled over 50% of participants in an experiment. But an AI that can make abstract art does not make news.

In an experiment conducted by Data Science Lab at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in Daejeoan, South Korea in Spring 2021, a group of people without any art training were shown both realistic and abstract images, and asked them to judge if each image was made by a human artist or AI. Images which had significant level of detail were most frequently assumed to be made by human artists, while simple abstract images were assumed to come from AI. (In reality, all images in the experiments were generated using a recent StyleGAN2 neural network model that was trained by the scientists on tens of thousands of historical paintings from wikiart.org site.)

3. Creativity and Global Economy

Yet another relevant idea taken for granted today is the newest one historically. It becomes popular in the early 2000s. Global competition and easier access to foreign markets as part of economic globalization motivates a new paradigm in business. Your company now needs to be “creative” and it needs to innovate constantly. The global success of Apple (1997-) and Samsung (2002-) based on their innovative strategies becomes an example for all business.

Urban theorist Richard Florida’s highly influential book The Creative Class published in 2002 also played an important role. According to Florida, the economic function of this class is ”to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content.” In his analysis, the creative class already included 30% of US workforce by early 2000s. Florida argued that cities that can attract this class prosper. His work had a big effect. For example, the leaders of Berlin were influenced by his ideas and in 2000s they set up policies to draw the professionals in design, software and media from other countries to the city.

Still later, the idea that creativity is a highly desired for society as a whole and individuals in general takes hold. In 2010s, it becomes a new universal social value. Everybody should be creative - and computer technologies are here to help us. (Which means that we all, to some extent, should become “artists.’) A new term “creative technologist” that becomes popular in 2010s is a example of these trends.

This idea leads to a different assumption - that AI and technology in general should help individuals and companies to be creative and innovative. Now, we no longer want AI to only simulate human cognitive functions such as vision, speech and reasoning, quickly search through millions of documents or translate between languages. This was enough in the 20th century - but not the 21st. Now we want AI to generate creative and innovative solutions or help us to do this - because the society assumes that creativity is the driver of the economy.

4. Dissociating AI and creativity concepts

All this means that in the future, when our ideas about art, artists and creativity will change (no reason why they should stay the same), the link between AI and the arts that now seems obvious may also become weaker or disappear. And this will be a good thing. I am personally looking forward to this. A proportion of creative people in the arts is not any different than in all other fields of human activity. Although the templates, examples and tactics many contemporary artists, designers, architects and other creatives use today may not be all as explicit as Lightroom presets or Wordpress themes, they are no less real.

Our taken for granted association of the arts and creativity, and privileging of creativity as opposed to other dimensions are relatively recent inventions. Thus, rather than obsessing over a question “can AI be creative?”, we should explore other ideas about what AI can do for arts, design, architecture and all other art fields.

While staying in Korea since April 2020 (will be back in NYC in the Fall to start teaching in person again), I participated in the work of a leading data science lab directed by fantastic Mia Cha. The lab has now around 25 graduate students and post-docs who work on all kinds of topics. I took part in research that led to 3 papers - one is on people perceptions of AI creativity, second on using data from millions of Meetup meetings to analyze diffusion of new idea, and third one in on evolution of sneakers design. This last project uses data on 23,000 sneaker models produced between 1999 and 2021. I am happy to share with you the paper with the results - accepted for presentation in one of the top internet science conferences (17% acceptance rate).

The attached visualization was created by lab summer intern Berhane Weldegebriel using Python library for interactive exploration of cultural image collection (library developed by my own lab former researcher Damon Crockett who is now at Yale):
https://github.com/damoncrockett/ivpy

------------------------
"Using Web Data to Reveal 22-Year History of Sneaker Designs"

paper PDF:

http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/using-web-data-to-reveal-22-year-history-of-sneaker-designs

Authors:

Sungkyu Park, Hyeonho Song, Sungwon Han, Berhane Weldegebriel, Lev Manovich, Emanuele Arielli, Meeyoung Cha.

Publication:

Processings of World Wide Web International Conference 2022, April 25–29, 2022, Lyon, France.

Abstract:

Our study for the first time looks at product design evolution over a long period using machine learning methods. It examines 23,492 sneaker images and metadata obtained from StockX.com, a global reselling site. These sneaker designs span 22 years, from 1999 to 2020. We propose a new tool for understanding historical design changes that we call "design index." As used in this paper, design index combines many sneakers' characteristics into a single number. Such indexes can be computed for any brand or types of sneakers, thus allowing us to compare changes in their models design over time. This method can be also used to study historical changes in other cultural fields such as literature, cinema, visual art, architecture, social media photography, etc.

Our study shows how well-known brands have maintained their distinct identities in the "design space" of possible color color combinations and shapes. The model also predicts which sneakers will likely command a high premium in the reselling market, indicating potential investment and design strategies to use in the future.

MUMBAI - April 10, 2022 //:
For the super sleuth among you hacktivists here, I did a quick grab of the URL of the window denying access to my primary Facebook profile page (as also the Facebook 'Help' button to unlock my account). It seemingly is an actors' portal blocking access to my account. Here’s the link if you would like to lean in:
https://m.facebook.com/si/actor_experience/actor_gateway/nt/?flow_id=548858642394617&ext=1649783066&hash=AeQ1GLLxp6S1ZottjcI

https://m.facebook.com/si/actor_experience/actor_gateway/nt/?flow_id=548858642394617&ext=1649783066&hash=AeQ1GLLxp6S1ZottjcI

Today is Antitrust Day, and nonprofits, tech companies, and internet users are uniting in calling on Congress to end dominant tech companies’ abusive monopolies.

Tell lawmakers to pass the bills to rein in dominant tech 👉 https://www.antitrustday.org/

What do Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and now Instagram have in common? All now are blocked in Russia.. these networks were absolutely essential for contemporary Russian culture and also for independent news. And processings have started to declare Meta as "terrorist organization" which may make these networks inaccessible even via VPN.

Since the war started, Telegram became the main tool to find real news, so far Russia could not block it. Over last 5 years, many intellectuals in the West and news media have been very critical of social media, only focusing on its real or imaginary negative effects while never mentioning the positive. Putin and other dictators today have similar opinions, although for different reasons.. to me such restrictions demonstrate how important is social media for billions of people today who live in not very democratic countries. I salute FB for finally blocking RT and few other Kremlin propaganda channels and hope that Twitter will do the same..war criminals should be blocked from world information networks. And yes, social media has many negative sides for sure. But we have to weight them against positive ones on a world scale. I think positive roles weight more.

DW //: Ukraine's pro-Western president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has signed decrees banning pro-Russian media outlets.

The broadcasters had their licences revoked and are set to stay off the air for the next five years.

Ukraine: Zelenskiy bans three opposition TV stations | DW | 03.02.2021 Ukraine's pro-Western president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has signed decrees banning pro-Russian media outlets. The broadcasters had their licences revoked and are set to stay off the air for the next five years.

Having read the Strelka Institute in Moscow announcement (where the war is refered to as “armed conflict” - which for me reads like the support for Kremlin propaganda) - and this is my reaction:

In the era of fake news and misuses of history, we have to do everything to remember things correctly. I am disappointed that Strelka institute's statement misrepresents it’s own history. The idea of “planetary future” is only recent and entered Strelka only after Benjamin was appointed education program director in 2016. The Institute was established in 2009 and education program was created with participation of Rem Koolhaus. It’s focus was in architecture and a big part of this was to help educate young architects in Russia and to influence development of architecture there. Top Russian architects were teaching in the program together with people from other countries (see Wikipedia page for details). Strelka during this period indeed played a unique role unmatched by any other place. I feel disappointed that the people who wrote this statement don’t know the history of its own institute (or perhaps want to erase it?) Now that it’s over, it’s crucial that this history will not be not distorted…We will never have a “planetary” future in my view - because we don’t live on one planet. China have been successfully blocking endless western websites and social media networks for many years and Russia is starting to do the same. But it’s our duty to preserve our history correctly, and not to rewrite it. To respect and acknowledge everybody who participated in any undertaking, and had different ideas from us.

P.S. Given that today on the 6th day of the war Russian goverment forbids any use of the world “war” in any news, continues to lie, keeps referring to democratically elected Ukrainian goverment as “nazi” (especially strange given that Ukrainian president is a Jew) - and that tens of thousands of creative workers in Russia have anyway signed public anti-war statements - the language Strelka chose is particularly strange. “Armed conflict”, really? Not an occupational of Ukraine by terrorists from Kremlin with nuclear weapons?