(no subject)

[haptalaon]

I don't have the internet at home; a mixed blessing, and one ive chosen - one which has vastly improved my quality of life.

An example of the mixed blessing is - im trying to assemble an image bank for some of my spiritual writing, because good photos and great art say far more than words when you're talking about the magic of the landscape. Really, what I need is a good afternoon of googling. And im missing my tumblrs of spiritual art, these wonderfully curated sets of visionary and strange photos and paintings. The miss rate is high, but I love the set I have saved on my phone.

Because I can't do this, I am painting my own instead.

I think this is the whole thing in a nutshell. This is the chance that internet loss is supposed to provoke; I could do this online, and it would be faster (although also very, very time consuming, to somehow sift through and find the right things). Instead, I'm painting, and for my landscape shots, I'm planning to fix my camera and go and try and actually take the photographs so that I can use ones which directly say "this. This thing here."

A mixed blessing. In my Fencraft pamphlet on Disconnection, I wrote the phrase "rejecting the straight way for the curious" - as the broader religious teaching thst rejecting the web was supposed to teach. One could also rephrase it as the straight way for the tedious, because there is an advantage of course in heading straight at what you want to find. Instead, I try and sit with my frustration and impatience and have gratitude for this space ive made on my life, where I have to go out into the world and make photographs and paintings instead of sitting at a screen engaging with their simulacra; and I suppose I find that it is good.

Comments

[ilthit]

Your paper is not for publishing, is it? If it is, you have to ask permission and/or pay to use images.

[haptalaon]

No - just online; I'm trying to think of it a Publication to help me think in terms of structuring a book, rather than the sort of ad hoc mindset you bring to blogging.

Blogging is an interesting one, though. Like. I know it's inherently objectionable to take an artists work and repost it - even with credit. At the same time, platforms like Pinterest and Tumblr are designed preciciely for taking, reposting and decontextualising an artist's work. Some artists DO object to this, and do use the "report and remove" function to stop it. But the tide is relentless and most have accepted it just due to necessary, which I think is horrible.

Anyway, my sense is that if I make each of my gods a tumblr tag or Pinterest board, I won't get any pushback. If I use images to illustrate my blog, I will. Despite it being the same act.

And I guess that is because an individual blogger can be asked/bullied into stopping, whereas a platform like Pinterest or Tumblr simply can't be.

I think my argument here is: it sucks that artists don't have thst level of control over their work anymore, but I'm frustrated that that situation sort of...encourages me to use a platform I dislike because i know it will provide that buffer. When I'd much rather use a blog, and be in a position where I can individually take down artworks on request & provide artists with that reassurance - but I don't want to experience hostility so...

[ilthit]

Pinterest is really shit in a lot of ways, isn't it?

I mainly object to using art for things you mean to make money off of, which I see people who are self-publishing novels do. That's just not on and I'd object to it in non-fiction too. For blogging it's different.

[haptalaon]

Nodnod. Putting art on cups, cushions, t shirts is another culprit - especially when big firms do it.

Is blogging ok? I'm not sure. The context here is, images of divinity which might have specific meanings for their original artists being used by me in my writing to illustrate my gods - which might be a very different context.

There's a trend on tumblr of artists saying "don't tag as kin" under their pictures. In other words, if you're a wolfkin and you see the picture and think "this reminds me of my wolf spirit/persona", the artist isn't comfortable with that, or with you reblogging it and tagging it a way which seems to "claim" it.

It's a bit of an odd one, because you'd imagine most artists would kinda want that sense of people sent their art and thinking "yes! Me!".

But I feel like my situation could be a similar one.

[ilthit]

Worse example? You might draw a sweet innocent picture and someone tags it with loli/shota, or some chubby chasing shit. Like fuck. I should't have to tell people not to do that. Compared to that, tagging as kin is nothing.

But ehh, Tumblr. I'm thankfully not a popular artist so I've never yet had to deal with art theft. The closest was an archive that took my work without notification but credited it. I did ask them to take it down, because in a perfect world I know where everything I make is posted and can take it down if I wish. Pinterest, of course, doesn't respect that at all.

[haptalaon]

Eeek yes, that's a far worse example.