Sunday Edition #3 - Artist Corporations
Also: Web Fiction, LLMs as Subjectivity Machines, and The Materialists
Welcome to the Sunday Edition where I share interesting articles and links alongside what I’ve been up to!
Artist Corporations
sent out a rallying cry for a new type of corporation, the artist corporation (the A-Corp). Here’s the TED talk on it. Here’s the MetaLabel post with more details.Artist Corporations combine the best elements of LLCs, corporations, and nonprofits into one simple, powerful entity tailored to creative needs.
I’m excited about the prospect of this. Having run a studio that sent splits from the selling of NFT merch to short story writers, I would love to see a more concrete legal form of this type of structure… especially around the prospect of 1) issuing equity and 2) avoiding double taxation of a C-Corp. For Untitled Frontier, the hard-coded smart contract splits sat in front of the C-Corp, so we could avoid custody + double taxation. But then, you couldn’t issue any equity.
Legally though, I’m curious how you do this without *other* forms of corporate intellectual property trying to take advantage of such a structure? Would you have to define what constitutes an artist or creative? What stops Disney from spinning up A-Corps to avoid double taxation of a C-Corp? I assume that the A-Corp is not really focused on mega-scale creative projects, but it could also be something that even mega corps can use? Hoping to learn more.
Generative AI as Subjectivities
As always, Ken Liu has a great perspective on seeing LLMs as a medium for generating subjectivities. It allows you to re-imagine, reframe, and reconfigure existing texts, images, and videos. LLMs are adept at finding and seeing some kernel and being able to reinvent it.
An LLM captures (and fractures) and projects back subjectivities as a cinematograph captures and projects back actualities. Just as manipulating actuality is the soul of cinema, playing with subjectivity is the soul of AI as an artistic medium. Whatever genres of AI art emerge in the future and however the language of AI art evolves, the seed (or at least a seed) will be this raw, foundational nature of the medium.
In other words, it feels like LLMs are good at making an API out of anything.
Web Fiction Canon
I enjoyed this overview of web fiction from
(ht ).Roblox Stays Weird
The game that currently holds the title for most concurrent players is Roblox’s “Grow a Garden”. Kids are going mental for it. I find Roblox always interesting because even though it’s so insanely popular it kind of feels like it’s always left out of any modern cultural discourse. I think it’s because we’re mostly waiting for these kids to grow up and write essays about it.
What I’ve Been Up To
✍️ Writing - New Essay + Novel #2
Been working on a new essay. At my local writer’s salon there was an opportunity to do an essay feedback session and I submitted this new essay as a part of that. I really enjoyed it. I almost never submit my essays these days for feedback (I write too much). But, taking it slower was/is great. Expect it next week. As for my novel. Did some work on my query letter and tidying up some more edits after feedback from beta readers. Have also been collecting prospective agents to query and hoping to start that next week while more feedback rolls in! Wish me luck. :)
📺 Watching - The Materialists
Went to watch The Materialists this week from Celine Song. Being a massive Past Live fan, I had high expectations, but the film felt a bit flat for me. Kind of felt like it didn’t know what it wanted to be: a serious take on modern dating while also veering into romantic comedy/drama at times. A friend (ht Zander) put it well: felt like the first draft of a better movie. Regardless, it was entertaining. Some of the moments did land for me and I adore Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans, and Dakota Johnson.
🏃♂️ Running - 🥵
Oh boy. It’s *hot* and *humid*. Very spicy weather. Making running very hard. Actually a bit demoralizing since I find the alternative, running on a treadmill, particularly boring even when I have distractions with me. Sigh, will just have to push through this period. Maybe focus on strength training for my ultra trail race instead. I’ve also been going diligently to a local run club and seriously just enjoying meeting the people and hanging out!
📚 Reading - The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman
In the past, I haven’t actually shared some of the more *personal* books I read. But, in this case, I thought I would. Six months out from my separation, I’m still doing introspection and work (reading + therapy). After my previous relationship I read a lot on relationship advice. Now that my recent relationship also ended, I’m doing it again. I find Gottman’s work very interesting because it tries to base its advice in scientific studies of marriage and divorce rather than more qualitative guesswork about how people form relationships (like love languages or attachment theory). Some of the advice is different to what I’ve read before and I find that refreshing. So far, I’d definitely recommend it for anyone in a long-term relationship.
🎶 Listening - The Sweet Serenades - Runaway
My favourite track this week is a lovely electro-pop banger.
It’s funny, I see myself in this musician. It feels exactly like that kind of music video I’d make. Just dancing like a goof for fun. Love it.
That’s it for this week, friends. Hope you get to see a lovely sunset this week!
Simon