Hello! Thank you for reading the punchline to a joke that took me six months to make. I’ll be lurking here to answer any questions you might have about this bird-based NFT shebang
Absolutely. Here's how: Head to my website and check the NFTs page, or go to my listings on OpenSea. Find the image and right-click it. Select "Save image as." Take the saved image and print it out anywhere and any way you like :)
If you want to involve money in this transaction, feel free to buy a print on my website or do a Patreon membership. Glad you like my silly little randomly generated bird (that one is a favourite of mine, which is why I used it for the illustration in the newsletter!)
Very insightful, Joshua, and a great project with cunning design. I love the simple elegance of your scheme and the seriousness of your fundamental point about the value of art. (Mind you, I understand it from the inside because I paint in watercolour. You know what that’s like. Still, practice makes one better - I’ve been painting for a mere 18 years - and I am closer now to being able to render what I see and feel in my heart than I was when I started.)
The point you make is that people who trash the value of art by using AI do not (by definition) know the value of what they trash, because they don’t know how to do it themselves. I deeply agree with this. Like you, I think it’s a shame.
Ars longa, vita brevis. It takes a long time to learn how to make good art but it can be learned and it’s not about talent. For most people it’s about practice. Same with playing a musical instrument. Only the freakish don’t need to practise much (Jacqueline du Pre and Daniel Barenboim, I’m looking at you) but if you decide to learn an instrument at any age and practise assiduously you will get better, guaranteed.
That is a valuable life lesson.
People who don’t know these things are more likely to get taken in by meretricious things like NFTs.
One last thing - I very much liked your characterisation of that cunning bugger St Paul. I have been putting it in similar terms since I was a 17 year old in Professor Lloyd Geering’s Religious Studies 1 class, some time in the late Middle Ages. It’s remarkable to me that most of the people in the pews don’t understand this or, indeed, how the tenets of Xianity were literally fought over by various factions up until they were more or less settled around the fourth century. (None of which has anything at all to do with the man Jesus aka Joshua, an Aramaic-speaking Jew, except that his unexpected and ignominious death kicked it off.)
I’ll go looking for your work, now, Joshua, in the hope I can find a way to support it. The insights in your excellent essay were so valuable to my understanding of NFTs and the destructive effect of AI on the value of visual art (a bit like Firefly/Amazon on bookselling or Napster and the iPod on music) that it is the least I can do.
I’m not sure how the situation will play out. I keep hoping that humans will clap their metaphorical hands to their foreheads and exclaim ‘Boy, was I taken in by that crap!’
Nil desperandum. There is hope, and you have added to it. Thank you.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I think there is value (potentially a lot of value) in utilising AI for art, and I've had a lot of fun mucking around with it. But we really are fast approaching the point where pretty much anything visual can be mocked up by an AI in seconds, and that will definitely impact artists. Hopefully we'll find a way to make it work - I'm sure actual, human-made art will always be in some kind of demand.
Don't worry, everything to do with crypto is intentionally confusing, and according to the furious cryptobros in my mentions on Twitter I actually understand nothing about it at all :(
Josh is AWESOME! This project is a fucking incredible feat and I admire the dedication and motivation. I love this and totally relate to how something can start as an idea with a basic premise and suddenly evolve into an all-consuming project that leaves little room for anything else. I have paid little attention to AI-generated art but reading this made me feel so terribly sad at the thought of art becoming yet another victim of our modern tech age. I'm on the autism spectrum and many if not all of my close friends are creative neurodivergents too. They make the world I know epic and interesting in ways I wouldn't trade for any number of NFTs. Is everything in the future just cookie cutter same and made without all the love, blood, sweat and tears we pour into our creative lives? I'm going to head over to Josh’s website now, thank you David for another awesome edition. AND Flightless Bird was fucking awesome this week too, one of my best friends in LA works for the department of water and he was constantly on my case for my distrust of their pipes and not drinking my tap water, this episode brought it all back and made me laugh a lot, thank-you :) Hope life is good.
But I still think NFTs have a place... Just not the place they'd ended up. They're digital receipts and can provide many uses, but Bored Ape etc is exactly what you describe in the article; a grift and a great way to get rich folks to part with their money.
I still remain optimistic about crypto in general, and I actually think the crash is a good thing. The hype was well and truly out of control. Now things have calmed down and we can wait for the tech to mature. We'll see what the future holds.
Anyway, great work Josh. I truly hope this project leads to you making art full time.
Haha oh dear, I don't know what I make of this madcap scheme, but seeing all my besties and partner are on an ADHD/autism spectrum (almost all diagnosed halfway through adulthood like Josh), I do actually get why his brain wants to do this and keep going for no reason other than showing up the grift (and cause it's fun).
I do hope he'll write an article about the ethics of AI because I also think it's worrying AF and I shall adopt a few of his cute birds with hats (as real art). I've adopted an artist (as a husband) in the past, and they're definitely less boring than Bored Ape NFTs - seeing a glorious creature arise from a few weeks' of "pushing round mud with sticks" (his words) has always filled me with wonder, something the computer-generated art our film industry is now led by will never achieve quite the same...
Also there’s a young artist I really like in LA (she’s @bevlove on Twitter) and I’ve commissioned quite a few things from her now as gifts for friends and family and people get SO much joy from her talent. Kinda makes me feel like an old timey patron of the arts. I only wish I could commission more frequently!
My brother and sister in law have a bird poster on their toilet door that’s getting a bit ruined by the door handle. I might have to gift them a birds in hats poster to replace it 🤣 Also - I hope you get to make art full time for a year because of all this work!
I have a dream of doing a coffee table Webworm book one day - with some essays, a bunch of feedback, guest essays, and art from the likes of Josh. My dream.
I like this idea. It’d be a fun way to extend the project in a way that actually made sense! Might have to be a curated selection of the birds, though, as there are potentially well over 9000 of them. That’d be a hefty book.
Such an entertaining read, and love your work Josh! I see a print or shirt in my future…
This is slightly off the topic of your work sorry. But I’ve been watching with interest as the creators of the “one of those days” comics recently did an NFT release. They sold 10101 NFTs almost immediately at 0.06 etherium each (which I think is like $75-80?) but now it looks like people are struggling to onsell them for a third of the price. I guess the timing wasn’t great with the market but can’t help but think it’s a lose-lose for both the artists and the buyers/fans. Or maybe I’m misinterpreting the whole thing!
It's fun when various celebrities like Reese Witherspoon (already a millionaire many, many times over) try to convince me that NFT's are Super Feminist Girlboss Ways to Take Financial Control of Your Future and not just another way to line the pockets of the already astonishingly wealthy.
Rolled my eyes so hard when I saw Brie Larson shilling NFTs (and also somehow managing to use the lowest resolution image for her profile pic that looked like a shit screenshot). Someone mentioned that those celebrities get gifted the NFTs in the first place so it’s not like they even put any of their own money behind it. Such a grift.
There was a whole Girl Power NFT Circle Jerk in February with Gwyneth and Eva Longoria also getting in on the action. They are the only people who will make any bank off this scam and when it finally crumbles, they will continue on their merry way while wide swaths of people lose money they will never recoup.
Dolly funded a corona vaccine then adapted the lyrics to one of her well-known songs to promote it "Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vacciiiine, I'm begging of you please don't take my man..."
Dolly also had a plantation themed dinner show at Dollywood which was eventually shut down because it was clearly a bad look for that to still be running in this day and age. So she does know how to cut out problematic enterprises so she can certainly shut down her NFT line as well. Doing good things is not supposed to shield a person from criticism, she’s messed up with this NFT line and I say this as someone who is greatly relieved that both of my parents got to receive the Moderna vaccine she invested in.
Makes me want to scream into the void forever! Although I haven’t seen any for a while so it’s clearly crumbling for real. I mean honestly, the fact that they’re advertising a currency in commercials and on billboards clearly shows they need more people to join their pyramid scheme. If it was so amazing they wouldn’t want everyone getting in on it otherwise but they need the masses.
Hello! Thank you for reading the punchline to a joke that took me six months to make. I’ll be lurking here to answer any questions you might have about this bird-based NFT shebang
No questions, just wanted to say that Gandalf the Grey Warbler is the cutest thing.
That's very kind. My art's come along a bit since I painted him but I'm still very proud of the silly little birdo
Hello Josh! My question is: is there any way I could purchase a print of Jessie (Marvelous lora (P. rufusater nidumus)) because, I love them very much
Absolutely. Here's how: Head to my website and check the NFTs page, or go to my listings on OpenSea. Find the image and right-click it. Select "Save image as." Take the saved image and print it out anywhere and any way you like :)
If you want to involve money in this transaction, feel free to buy a print on my website or do a Patreon membership. Glad you like my silly little randomly generated bird (that one is a favourite of mine, which is why I used it for the illustration in the newsletter!)
Very insightful, Joshua, and a great project with cunning design. I love the simple elegance of your scheme and the seriousness of your fundamental point about the value of art. (Mind you, I understand it from the inside because I paint in watercolour. You know what that’s like. Still, practice makes one better - I’ve been painting for a mere 18 years - and I am closer now to being able to render what I see and feel in my heart than I was when I started.)
The point you make is that people who trash the value of art by using AI do not (by definition) know the value of what they trash, because they don’t know how to do it themselves. I deeply agree with this. Like you, I think it’s a shame.
Ars longa, vita brevis. It takes a long time to learn how to make good art but it can be learned and it’s not about talent. For most people it’s about practice. Same with playing a musical instrument. Only the freakish don’t need to practise much (Jacqueline du Pre and Daniel Barenboim, I’m looking at you) but if you decide to learn an instrument at any age and practise assiduously you will get better, guaranteed.
That is a valuable life lesson.
People who don’t know these things are more likely to get taken in by meretricious things like NFTs.
One last thing - I very much liked your characterisation of that cunning bugger St Paul. I have been putting it in similar terms since I was a 17 year old in Professor Lloyd Geering’s Religious Studies 1 class, some time in the late Middle Ages. It’s remarkable to me that most of the people in the pews don’t understand this or, indeed, how the tenets of Xianity were literally fought over by various factions up until they were more or less settled around the fourth century. (None of which has anything at all to do with the man Jesus aka Joshua, an Aramaic-speaking Jew, except that his unexpected and ignominious death kicked it off.)
I’ll go looking for your work, now, Joshua, in the hope I can find a way to support it. The insights in your excellent essay were so valuable to my understanding of NFTs and the destructive effect of AI on the value of visual art (a bit like Firefly/Amazon on bookselling or Napster and the iPod on music) that it is the least I can do.
I’m not sure how the situation will play out. I keep hoping that humans will clap their metaphorical hands to their foreheads and exclaim ‘Boy, was I taken in by that crap!’
Nil desperandum. There is hope, and you have added to it. Thank you.
And thanks to David for hosting your essay.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I think there is value (potentially a lot of value) in utilising AI for art, and I've had a lot of fun mucking around with it. But we really are fast approaching the point where pretty much anything visual can be mocked up by an AI in seconds, and that will definitely impact artists. Hopefully we'll find a way to make it work - I'm sure actual, human-made art will always be in some kind of demand.
I understood basically none of that, but it was a great read.
Don't worry, everything to do with crypto is intentionally confusing, and according to the furious cryptobros in my mentions on Twitter I actually understand nothing about it at all :(
That one guy got so mad he blocked me! For doing a sad crying face!
I’m with you Emma! Just bought myself a T-towel. Will make me smile every time someone else uses it
Me too Emma and Tracey! I've bought some mugs :-).
This is a level of shithousery I can fully get behind Josh! A MAZ ING! I'm off to buy something from your website...just not an NFT.
Josh is AWESOME! This project is a fucking incredible feat and I admire the dedication and motivation. I love this and totally relate to how something can start as an idea with a basic premise and suddenly evolve into an all-consuming project that leaves little room for anything else. I have paid little attention to AI-generated art but reading this made me feel so terribly sad at the thought of art becoming yet another victim of our modern tech age. I'm on the autism spectrum and many if not all of my close friends are creative neurodivergents too. They make the world I know epic and interesting in ways I wouldn't trade for any number of NFTs. Is everything in the future just cookie cutter same and made without all the love, blood, sweat and tears we pour into our creative lives? I'm going to head over to Josh’s website now, thank you David for another awesome edition. AND Flightless Bird was fucking awesome this week too, one of my best friends in LA works for the department of water and he was constantly on my case for my distrust of their pipes and not drinking my tap water, this episode brought it all back and made me laugh a lot, thank-you :) Hope life is good.
I ordered the Toptit Mug 😀
This is great. A genuinely great art project.
But I still think NFTs have a place... Just not the place they'd ended up. They're digital receipts and can provide many uses, but Bored Ape etc is exactly what you describe in the article; a grift and a great way to get rich folks to part with their money.
I still remain optimistic about crypto in general, and I actually think the crash is a good thing. The hype was well and truly out of control. Now things have calmed down and we can wait for the tech to mature. We'll see what the future holds.
Anyway, great work Josh. I truly hope this project leads to you making art full time.
You deserve it.
This sounds sketch, but as Matt Damon says “fortune favors the bold”, so I’m gonna get me one of them birds.
Hhahhahaha - DON'T DO IT
Nooooo
I love the credible media outlets section. Totally gives the whole thing legitimacy.
Haha oh dear, I don't know what I make of this madcap scheme, but seeing all my besties and partner are on an ADHD/autism spectrum (almost all diagnosed halfway through adulthood like Josh), I do actually get why his brain wants to do this and keep going for no reason other than showing up the grift (and cause it's fun).
I do hope he'll write an article about the ethics of AI because I also think it's worrying AF and I shall adopt a few of his cute birds with hats (as real art). I've adopted an artist (as a husband) in the past, and they're definitely less boring than Bored Ape NFTs - seeing a glorious creature arise from a few weeks' of "pushing round mud with sticks" (his words) has always filled me with wonder, something the computer-generated art our film industry is now led by will never achieve quite the same...
Bought a T-shirt and a tea towel! Love that you offer carbon offsets as well :)
His tee's are great. You will like it. And thanks for supporting a cool artist.. who also writes cool things. His brain is too big.
Also there’s a young artist I really like in LA (she’s @bevlove on Twitter) and I’ve commissioned quite a few things from her now as gifts for friends and family and people get SO much joy from her talent. Kinda makes me feel like an old timey patron of the arts. I only wish I could commission more frequently!
Whoops I mean @beverlylove!!!
My brother and sister in law have a bird poster on their toilet door that’s getting a bit ruined by the door handle. I might have to gift them a birds in hats poster to replace it 🤣 Also - I hope you get to make art full time for a year because of all this work!
I hope we get a book of birds when this is all over. The lovingly crafted images and silly captions would make it a perfect coffee table book.
What does it cost to publish a book these days?
I have a dream of doing a coffee table Webworm book one day - with some essays, a bunch of feedback, guest essays, and art from the likes of Josh. My dream.
I like this idea. It’d be a fun way to extend the project in a way that actually made sense! Might have to be a curated selection of the birds, though, as there are potentially well over 9000 of them. That’d be a hefty book.
Such an entertaining read, and love your work Josh! I see a print or shirt in my future…
This is slightly off the topic of your work sorry. But I’ve been watching with interest as the creators of the “one of those days” comics recently did an NFT release. They sold 10101 NFTs almost immediately at 0.06 etherium each (which I think is like $75-80?) but now it looks like people are struggling to onsell them for a third of the price. I guess the timing wasn’t great with the market but can’t help but think it’s a lose-lose for both the artists and the buyers/fans. Or maybe I’m misinterpreting the whole thing!
You're not misinterpreting, that's pretty much exactly how it goes!
I am getting around the problem by making my NFTs so expensive I doubt many if any people will buy them.
You've gotta hand it to someone who creates a website with the immortal line "This line of text is just to get the page design symmetrical" in it.
Josh, I would love to support your NFT project but unfortunately all my money is tied up in tulip bulbs right now.
PS I bought a tea towel though
The subtle lolz on his site are something to behold. I feel sorry for cryptobros who get all worked up and can't see the humour in it all. Their loss.
Fun fact: that line is my favourite joke in the whole thing. I was very very tired when I wrote it. Thank you for your tea-towel based support!
It's fun when various celebrities like Reese Witherspoon (already a millionaire many, many times over) try to convince me that NFT's are Super Feminist Girlboss Ways to Take Financial Control of Your Future and not just another way to line the pockets of the already astonishingly wealthy.
Celebrities and crypto. Forever the two are fused.
Rolled my eyes so hard when I saw Brie Larson shilling NFTs (and also somehow managing to use the lowest resolution image for her profile pic that looked like a shit screenshot). Someone mentioned that those celebrities get gifted the NFTs in the first place so it’s not like they even put any of their own money behind it. Such a grift.
There was a whole Girl Power NFT Circle Jerk in February with Gwyneth and Eva Longoria also getting in on the action. They are the only people who will make any bank off this scam and when it finally crumbles, they will continue on their merry way while wide swaths of people lose money they will never recoup.
Oooof if Gwyneth is involved that’s a red flag that it’s clearly a pyramid scheme... dang she is the worst.
Dolly Parton has a series of NFT's now as well. It's easier to make a list of famous folk who don't have them at this point.
Dolly funded a corona vaccine then adapted the lyrics to one of her well-known songs to promote it "Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vacciiiine, I'm begging of you please don't take my man..."
So I can forgive her the NFT thing.
Dolly also had a plantation themed dinner show at Dollywood which was eventually shut down because it was clearly a bad look for that to still be running in this day and age. So she does know how to cut out problematic enterprises so she can certainly shut down her NFT line as well. Doing good things is not supposed to shield a person from criticism, she’s messed up with this NFT line and I say this as someone who is greatly relieved that both of my parents got to receive the Moderna vaccine she invested in.
Makes me want to scream into the void forever! Although I haven’t seen any for a while so it’s clearly crumbling for real. I mean honestly, the fact that they’re advertising a currency in commercials and on billboards clearly shows they need more people to join their pyramid scheme. If it was so amazing they wouldn’t want everyone getting in on it otherwise but they need the masses.
I giggled so much at the AI generated birds that I woke my husband.
Love this, I'm off to adopt an artist!