AI Art: System Disruption and Nonviolence
Here's some AI art created from the prompt, 'System disruption and nonviolence.' I think the result is interesting. It looks like a sign for a protest on an alien planet.
Today I've been thinking about system disruption as an activism strategy. In general, I favor disrupting harmful systems by combining creativity with technology to make the systems less important. For example, crypto disrupts the economic system, in part by disintermediating it. The disruption is a side-effect of constructive collaborations.
I tend not to favor forms of system disruption with destructive intent and unclear objectives. At the same time, I can't blame anyone for protesting our dumpster fire of a system. When protesters throw soup or block traffic, I cannot fault the sentiment behind it, however foolish and ineffectual the action may be.
One of the main systems in need of disruption in our society is the collective unconscious. I feel like activism never focuses on this, or if it does, I haven't noticed. There are of course organizations working in the information space to further their causes. Many of their efforts are laudable. But these efforts are usually designed to convince rational individuals to take a prescribed action.
I'd like to see an art movement that disrupted the collective unconscious. There are signs that something like this might be starting to occur with explosion of digital art and AI. More than once recently, I've seen digital art that blew my mind. And the tech is still in its infancy.
I suspect that there are patterns of symbols in our collective unconscious that predispose us to adversarial thinking and behavior. These patterns seem like the kind of thing we shouldn't tinker with, if we even had the power to. Simple nonviolence prevents violence from arising from these patterns in individuals. But what about at the level of the collective?
Our culture is a war culture. Our systems are domination systems. Imposing nonviolence upon them may be impossible. But there may be constructive ways to move in that direction.
Read my novels:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS.
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
See my NFTs:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
- History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
- Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.
I see nonviolence as a way of life. I don't see it as a tool, a strategy, or something to impose, but rather courageous principles and practices that ask us to take responsibility to change how we show up with each other across differences and conflict. Our culture is a war culture, yet our culture is not just that, depending on what we choose to see and build in our own hearts, our homes, our neighborhoods and society at large.
If we can't even talk or communicate with each other, if we aren't working towards a principled struggle grounded in a shared vision of love, possibility, peace, human goodness, etc, how would we even collectively wake up to these domination systems that seek to divide and control us?
The more we live in these life-affirming ways, the more it becomes an active choice for ourselves and our institutions. This would shake up the control regime.
For sure.
I'm with you. The idea of trying to impose nonviolence on our systems just struck me as noteworthy because the act of imposition itself seems contrary to the spirit of nonviolence. And yet, our harmful systems are unlikely to change unless they are changed, though how and by who seems contentious.
When I consider the shared vision grounding our principled struggle, my natural inclination is to try to articulate this vision. This is risky territory, especially when you start getting into specifics. We all have different ideas about how this should look, so figuring out how to articulate this vision together is of great interest to me.
Well said! This postmodern vision will need to be co-created and will naturally evolve as our culture and society evolves. Although it often feels disempowering with how challenging and complex collaboration and democratic processes can be. I keep thinking of Taiwan's new social media platform though, and how technology is such a useful evolutionary tool if we use it wisely.