You brought up some very interesting questions. One thing I have been mulling over recently is how the whole have-stressful-life-and-recover-with-short-holidays thing might be kind of flawed. Because as you say lots of work stress and feeling of responsibility tends to come with us… then you’re working on your holiday which makes it not a holiday or you’re coming back to this looming pile of tasks that gives you anxiety. Because every task is endless now, and self-expanding somehow.
I think we need more manual work honestly. Like a simplification of sorts. Yesterday I was cleaning a corner of the house and found a massive tangle of rope left from one of my failed upholstery efforts and I sat slowly untangling that rope and then winding it into a neat ball and I could feel the wellness seep into me through my fingers. Before every task had meaning, and an end. You did things in their time. I don’t think there was anything that compares with, say, a perpetually filling in-box.
That's an interesting idea, actually. When I'm really hideously busy with work, Chris will obviously try to take more domestic stuff off my plate (we are roughly equal usually with perhaps a slight lean toward him doing a bit more) to help give me more time and energy for the work, but I actually often find that counter-productive, because sitting with my hands in soapy water, or taking an hour out to cook good food with loud music on, etc. helps ground me and gives me more ability to go back to the work.
I keep picturing my ideal being 2-3 hours brain work a day, with doing more things like mending clothes, making kimchi and sourdough, growing plants, tidying and decorating corners of the house, going for more walks, reading more, writing more, studying and learning more, drawing more (for the fun of it) and so on. And spread out. Chris is very adamant that we need at least one full day off, which is definitely true (and two is better, thank you) when we're super busy, but I am less sure if that's the case if we can make enough from maybe 15–20 hours a week.
I keep assuming that I would happily do a lot more hours if it were ALL illustration/pattern design work, but I am actually not sure that's true, and we still have to include a bunch of brain/repetitive stuff in there for the most part. When I have been working more than full-time on a book it could feel just as overwhelming as when I'm working evenings and weekends doing typesetting or editing. As soon as it's work it takes on a different feel.
Absolutely. The brain needs to reset. There are all those amazing research projects into brain processing where they take three groups of people and give them a complex problem to puzzle over, then set them to different tasks - one group continues to work on the problem directly, one group is given leisure time, and one group is given a repetitive task, like knitting, churning butter, whatever. The group with the repetitive task reliably comes back with better answers than the other two. Doing stuff with our hands literally helps us think.
We have been pushing towards more and more productivity because it has largely been necessary for economic survival, but we seem to be not noticing that at the same time we're glamorizing the ever-busy lifestyle, praising people who 'do it all' and 'juggle work, home and family' successfully, keep sharing productivity hacks, but then on the other hand we're going 'omg I am perpetually tired I am in burnout I'm depressed I'm anxious what is happening' and we never seem to connect the two......
I think we're not meant to use all of our time productively, but we have no choice because the society that's been created around us is leaving us little choice.
That's fascinating. Maybe I need to embrace housework a bit more.
And, yes, I keep trying to push back when people congratulate me for being really busy. I don't want to be really busy, I want to have a small amount of work and get paid what I do now for being really busy!
I do think there's a changing tide of opinion though. More and more people (especially the younger generations) are aiming to lead slower lives and prioritising calmer activities over hustle. We just need economics to follow that so it's feasible for everyone!
Recently I have tried to find even more time to discover, read, explore. In this time, for example, I had the pleasure of reading this issue. I think that reading, going out and dedicating time to thinking and writing is fundamental and has multiple benefits on many spheres of life, including professionally. P.S. In the end I followed your idea about AI images on Substack and chose movie related images instead. Thank you!
Definitely agree that fitting in a wider range of cultural activities is incredibly beneficial. Movie-related images is an interesting route to take. Thanks for engaging with looking elsewhere than AI - just being mindful about makes all the difference, I feel.
I've been struggling with the AI image situation for close to two years now. As a lover and supporter of art, but not an graphic artist/illustrator myself, I find myself producing images as a creative curator. I don't feel the images are the art, nor that I have magically created the images through expert prompting and the like. But I do find uses for those images to complement my other work. Stories, narratives, wordplay. I give the images titles and themes at the very least when I use them, and I like to make art around the images, rather than see the images as art itself.
Reference images have been useful. Sketching something and using that as a base to guide the AI, so the focus is on something I've made. Pushing me out of my comfort zone of not having being one to draw much in the past (other than comics for friends many years ago!).
I agree with you about working with illustrators. One thing I've been considering is to reach out and ask if I can use a few of an artist's themed works to help shape an article. My guess is that some would love that, and others would think only I'm set to benefit from such a thing. Either way, I'd much rather do that than use a random Unsplash photo that vaguely fits what I'm writing about. And, one day, hopefully I could license or commission creatives. That would be incredible!
With the public having been handed these algorithmic tools with no real context or preparation, and with legal and ethical complications to boot, it's no surprise that opinions and expectations are so mixed. For now, I'm trying to find my way through all this, with the knowledge there's unlikely a true way "through" at all, since I'm being pulled in all directions at once.
May your next few Sundays be a far less raucous affair, even if this Sunday has been exciting and musical and something to remember. 😌
That sounds like quite a mindful and creative way of using the tools, to be honest. And definitely has some human in there. (Leaving aside the ethics of where thr original data points come from and whether or not they were taken with permission, which is a whole other debate.)
I think, as you say, you will find some artists/illustrators who will be happy for you to use their images with credit andlinks and others who absolutely won't. It will depend on a whole bunch of factors. But always worth (respectfully, amd with the awareness they have every right to say no) asking.
There's definitely still a lot to navigate about AI, and it will probably take a few years, at least, to sort out the legality and ethics.
You brought up some very interesting questions. One thing I have been mulling over recently is how the whole have-stressful-life-and-recover-with-short-holidays thing might be kind of flawed. Because as you say lots of work stress and feeling of responsibility tends to come with us… then you’re working on your holiday which makes it not a holiday or you’re coming back to this looming pile of tasks that gives you anxiety. Because every task is endless now, and self-expanding somehow.
I think we need more manual work honestly. Like a simplification of sorts. Yesterday I was cleaning a corner of the house and found a massive tangle of rope left from one of my failed upholstery efforts and I sat slowly untangling that rope and then winding it into a neat ball and I could feel the wellness seep into me through my fingers. Before every task had meaning, and an end. You did things in their time. I don’t think there was anything that compares with, say, a perpetually filling in-box.
That's an interesting idea, actually. When I'm really hideously busy with work, Chris will obviously try to take more domestic stuff off my plate (we are roughly equal usually with perhaps a slight lean toward him doing a bit more) to help give me more time and energy for the work, but I actually often find that counter-productive, because sitting with my hands in soapy water, or taking an hour out to cook good food with loud music on, etc. helps ground me and gives me more ability to go back to the work.
I keep picturing my ideal being 2-3 hours brain work a day, with doing more things like mending clothes, making kimchi and sourdough, growing plants, tidying and decorating corners of the house, going for more walks, reading more, writing more, studying and learning more, drawing more (for the fun of it) and so on. And spread out. Chris is very adamant that we need at least one full day off, which is definitely true (and two is better, thank you) when we're super busy, but I am less sure if that's the case if we can make enough from maybe 15–20 hours a week.
I keep assuming that I would happily do a lot more hours if it were ALL illustration/pattern design work, but I am actually not sure that's true, and we still have to include a bunch of brain/repetitive stuff in there for the most part. When I have been working more than full-time on a book it could feel just as overwhelming as when I'm working evenings and weekends doing typesetting or editing. As soon as it's work it takes on a different feel.
Absolutely. The brain needs to reset. There are all those amazing research projects into brain processing where they take three groups of people and give them a complex problem to puzzle over, then set them to different tasks - one group continues to work on the problem directly, one group is given leisure time, and one group is given a repetitive task, like knitting, churning butter, whatever. The group with the repetitive task reliably comes back with better answers than the other two. Doing stuff with our hands literally helps us think.
We have been pushing towards more and more productivity because it has largely been necessary for economic survival, but we seem to be not noticing that at the same time we're glamorizing the ever-busy lifestyle, praising people who 'do it all' and 'juggle work, home and family' successfully, keep sharing productivity hacks, but then on the other hand we're going 'omg I am perpetually tired I am in burnout I'm depressed I'm anxious what is happening' and we never seem to connect the two......
I think we're not meant to use all of our time productively, but we have no choice because the society that's been created around us is leaving us little choice.
That's fascinating. Maybe I need to embrace housework a bit more.
And, yes, I keep trying to push back when people congratulate me for being really busy. I don't want to be really busy, I want to have a small amount of work and get paid what I do now for being really busy!
I do think there's a changing tide of opinion though. More and more people (especially the younger generations) are aiming to lead slower lives and prioritising calmer activities over hustle. We just need economics to follow that so it's feasible for everyone!
for sure, the workers are there, but naturally the bosses don't want that..... hopefully something will click soon. This is unsustainable.
Recently I have tried to find even more time to discover, read, explore. In this time, for example, I had the pleasure of reading this issue. I think that reading, going out and dedicating time to thinking and writing is fundamental and has multiple benefits on many spheres of life, including professionally. P.S. In the end I followed your idea about AI images on Substack and chose movie related images instead. Thank you!
Definitely agree that fitting in a wider range of cultural activities is incredibly beneficial. Movie-related images is an interesting route to take. Thanks for engaging with looking elsewhere than AI - just being mindful about makes all the difference, I feel.
Thank you for your pieces and suggestions!
Sounds like quite the Sunday for you! 😅
I've been struggling with the AI image situation for close to two years now. As a lover and supporter of art, but not an graphic artist/illustrator myself, I find myself producing images as a creative curator. I don't feel the images are the art, nor that I have magically created the images through expert prompting and the like. But I do find uses for those images to complement my other work. Stories, narratives, wordplay. I give the images titles and themes at the very least when I use them, and I like to make art around the images, rather than see the images as art itself.
Reference images have been useful. Sketching something and using that as a base to guide the AI, so the focus is on something I've made. Pushing me out of my comfort zone of not having being one to draw much in the past (other than comics for friends many years ago!).
I agree with you about working with illustrators. One thing I've been considering is to reach out and ask if I can use a few of an artist's themed works to help shape an article. My guess is that some would love that, and others would think only I'm set to benefit from such a thing. Either way, I'd much rather do that than use a random Unsplash photo that vaguely fits what I'm writing about. And, one day, hopefully I could license or commission creatives. That would be incredible!
With the public having been handed these algorithmic tools with no real context or preparation, and with legal and ethical complications to boot, it's no surprise that opinions and expectations are so mixed. For now, I'm trying to find my way through all this, with the knowledge there's unlikely a true way "through" at all, since I'm being pulled in all directions at once.
May your next few Sundays be a far less raucous affair, even if this Sunday has been exciting and musical and something to remember. 😌
I'd be perfectly happy to let people use my artwork to illustrate their articles or whatever, as long as they credited me.
That's super kind, Lidija! 🙏
That sounds like quite a mindful and creative way of using the tools, to be honest. And definitely has some human in there. (Leaving aside the ethics of where thr original data points come from and whether or not they were taken with permission, which is a whole other debate.)
I think, as you say, you will find some artists/illustrators who will be happy for you to use their images with credit andlinks and others who absolutely won't. It will depend on a whole bunch of factors. But always worth (respectfully, amd with the awareness they have every right to say no) asking.
There's definitely still a lot to navigate about AI, and it will probably take a few years, at least, to sort out the legality and ethics.