Despite being exposed on having a shapeshifting fetish
So the Mandela Catalogue was the creator's thinly disguised fetish? Wow. I didn't have that on my bingo card.
Literally the only sane person among the heavy hitters. A VFX wunderkind that made a name for himself in the Backrooms/liminal space fandom and managed to snatch a deal with A24. The OV revolves around an urban explorer being hunted by a giant puppet in an abandoned real life mall. A good buddy of Wendigoon and otherwise a functional human being.
This is likely the reason why Kane Parsons is the only person in the OP that I genuinely respect. His work with liminal spaces is outstanding and I really do hope he lives up to his promise with his future work.
AI has made impressive leaps of quality and has started to truly justify the fear it instils in the hearts of artists with nothing special in their portfolios. Unsurprisingly, the analog horror community's official stance is anti-AI. You could make the best possible story and people still wouldn't give you a chance because 'it detracts from real art' or 'they probably used ChatGPT for the story too' which means greetingsfromatomville and 4.n0m4ly_ are seen in an unironically lesser stand than shit like Dog Nightmares or the DC analog series. The creator of Midwest Angelica got in trouble for using an AI for voice acting even though he gave the reasoning as to why he had to do it.
This is perhaps best connected to the suspension of disbelief. Most AH fans are willing to sit through it for the ideas rather than the execution. It doesn't matter that the obviously photoshopped elements are implied to be real or a character uses a tape as a personal diary as long as the story gives you something to work with. AI, rather than being seen as another path for immersion is seen as the natural enemy of the community even in cases in which you can tell the creator didn't use it because they couldn't get it rather than as a statement.
It is a bit ironic that a horror community such as this would have such problems with AI. Anyone who has seen AI image generation,
especially when it was first starting out some years ago, knows that there is
real horror potential in the audio, visuals that AI can produce.
Kvetching over AI being used for "voice acting" is retarded. I remember when that one guy who made that Scooby Doo FNAF episode (in the style of old stop motion) caused a shit storm for using AI for the voice acting, despite his work being
phenomenal (I couldn't even tell that it was done in blender). Of all the things that AI should be used for it, it
really should be used for voice acting.
For audio design, visual design, story writing, I feel that AI should be used as an
auxiliary or
inspirational tool, but not a crutch. The way I see it, if you're doing this sort of thing for fun, which you should, practicing and getting better at these three things is a principal part of the enjoyment. Sure you
could AI generate these things, like you
could cheat level ups in a game, but then that'll make you wonder why you ever bothered playing. Voice acting is different though. You
could write the lines, hell even deliver them, but to get the right sound, the right
voice, AI is an enormously useful. One thing I learned doing Joshcore is that it's very easy to
talk like a person but very difficult to
sound like them, and what AI allows you to do is to speak in another's voice. Furthermore, I don't feel that it bypasses the pleasure of the practice in nearly the same way as anti-AI proponents would suggest.
The overall culture around AI use is retarded. If you're here to make art, yes, there can be some dishonor to resorting to AI unless you have some express purpose for it. But people are not usually on the Internet to make
art. In fact that's very unusual. At least where I'm around. What is typically made is made for casual pleasure. It is no more an inspection or meditation than a witty remark. The feel of the artist is neither expected or desired. Who then cares if its AI? Nobody
really does. For example: Look at shitposts. Look at those suno AI generated songs Kino Casino plays in their cold open, like "The Ballad of JF". We're living in the golden age of shitposting now because of AI. All the AI does is that it allows an elaborate shitpost to be made in a punctual time.
To me, art is a deeply personal endeavor. It's when you sit down and really delve into a concept, a philosophy, a sense or aesthetic and elaborate that into a work. I can say some Analog Horror, particularly Kane Parsons' work, is art in how it delves into the dreaminess of liminal space and the horror there within. But a lot of Analog Horror is schlock. It's a laugh, or rather
a scare, not art. Artists must be very careful to (1) not wander up their ass and (2) check themselves asking: Am I doing a job, or am I doing art? Am I making a meme, or am I making art? Art is not something you accidentally do. It's like confession. You have to sit and reflect.
I thought the most famous horror story in Steven Universe was the fusing controversy. "Ooooh I'm gonna
fuuuuuuusee!!!"
Or maybe it was the real life cross over in Lovecraft Country:
