Tag: london

by jad

What is Artifice?

I’ve been thinking about “AI” and “art” and “photography” and the slippages people makes when discussing where these concepts coincide and where they do not. It frustrates me to see the conversation around the place of technology in art-making being swept up in outmoded generalizations around what “is” or “isn’t” art when the ethical anxieties that AI brings up are better addressed at a more granular level: what is or isn’t an artifice? At what point does the maker end and the mechanism begin? I took these photos in 2008 on what we’re now calling a “digicam” of some kind. … Continue reading “What is Artifice?” →

by jad

The Music Scene: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 4

Part 1: El Hal Romancy Let’s talk about a concert in Byblos. Yeah, that concert; the one where Lebanon’s biggest indie band, Mashrou’ Leila, was banned from performing for a meme—for basically nothing. That episode seems almost comical now, with all that’s happened in Lebanon since. Here they are playing at the original T-Marbouta in 2008. Is it too hipster to say that I remember them when they were nervous boys playing their butts off for free? With every album drop & NPR Tiny Desk performance, it’s easy to forget how unlikely this band’s success was; how prophetic they sounded; … Continue reading “The Music Scene: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 4” →