Paul CantrellJun 18

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

Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified: (@adamshostack@infosec.exchange)

Well, this is one way to introduce a topic: > Artists from all mediums emphatically support the use of AI, saying it augments and enhances their work, expanding what is possible. They are also unequivocal that they are still the creators of their work and the AI is not—but believe artists and technology must learn to coexist harmoniously. https://cacm.acm.org/news/ai-and-art/

Infosec Exchange
Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

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.

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Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

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:

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Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

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.”

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Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

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.)

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Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

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

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What Liberal Arts Education Is For – Teaching – innig.net

Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

Susan Sontag:

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

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Show threadPaul Cantrell

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.❞

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Jun 18 at 5:08pmWeb
Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

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.❞

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Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18

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.❞

Put that last thought in the context of arts and education being deeply intertwined, and oligarchy seeking to dismantle both, and…well….

/end

Show threadGinevraCatJun 18

@inthehands Exactly why I teach in international education, not national education.

Dr Maria Montessori is truly one of my inspirational heroes, a genius massively in advance of her time. Not infallible, but so careful in her observations that many "common sense" child psychology concepts originated from her.

Show threadAlison WilderJun 19
@inthehands gorgeous thread!
Show threadDavid SmithJun 18
@inthehands I went to a Montessori preschool/kindergarten and it worked out very very well for me
Show threadPaul CantrellJun 18
@Catfish_Man
Same!