Wes Hargrove

Finished reading: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer 📚

Finished reading: What’s Our Problem? by Tim Urban 📚

Finished reading: Diaspora by Greg Egan 📚

Finished reading: The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks Jr. 📚

Finished reading: Deep Learning with Python by Francois Chollet 📚

Crissal Thrasher

All Quiet on the Western Front, 2022 - ★★½

Watched on Saturday January 28, 2023.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, 2022 - ★★★½

Watched on Friday January 27, 2023.

The Hunt for Red October, 1990 - ★★½

Watched on Wednesday January 25, 2023.

2023 Oscars — All Nominated Films

...plus 44 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Edge of Tomorrow, 2014 - ★★★★

Watched on Monday January 23, 2023.

Finished reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 📚

The Standoff: Inspiration

This photograph is brought to you by a sentient artist.

There was no “prompt engineering” here. Only a photographer (that’s me!), a menacing bison, and a long telephoto lens (to maintain a safe distance between us).

Perhaps there was a “prompt”, as in, inspiration for this photograph. There’s a somewhat high probability I’d seen another like it prior to venturing out into the cold of Yellowstone’s Northern Range as snow showers closed in on the area. I’ll admit I had this photo in mind but can’t pinpoint the origin of that inspiration.

In that way, producing this art is not unlike the fledgling generative AI systems dominating the media (and your feeds) these days. My work is contingent on layers of inspiration and knowledge from mentors and other photographers I admire and respect.

But art is much deeper than the outcome. In those moments, when the shutter lifts and photons of light begin to pour onto the sensor, a connection is made between the photographer and their environment. The singe of the bitter cold on my cheek. The muffled sounds of footprints in freshly fallen snow. Eyes locked with a shaggy-haired beast, a relic of a not-too-distant past that filled these lands before folks who look like me decided this land was better suited for railroads and interstates and pipelines.

The shutter closes. The moment is over. Captured. But the connection is made.

These moments are the transformative parts of art. These experiences and the connections forged between ourselves and nature, the land, and its inhabitants are the essence of what it means to be an artist. This vital meaning-making, at least for now, is what sets us apart from the non-sentient matrix-multiplying algorithms.