• A tale of two dresses 👗👗

    Earlier in the week, I popped into Made590 to pick up a couple shirts… and whoops, a new Liberty dress was right there. It was Tana Lawn and it felt like silk, and I looked great in it. 😍

    Saski dress in Liberty Tana Lawn

    I sent the photo to a couple friends, and one of them went by a few days later to pick one up for herself. That night she said, “You know it’s AI-generated, right?”

    Wait, what? Liberty of London? The famed 150-year-old “purveyor of craftsmanship,” that prides itself on its “dedicated in-house design studio” who are responsible for “hand painting and creating our beautiful prints”? THAT Liberty of London?

    Yep, them. Check the “Editor’s Notes”:

    For Avalon Scenes, the design studio approached Tom Furse, an artist and musician who specialises in creating artwork with AI in controlled environments. Harnessing the cutting-edge potential of AI technology, this design conjures a display of surreal landscapes morphing into psychedelic flower forms…

    Well, that sucks. I had a good long think about it. It really is a lovely dress. I am not against algorithmic art entirely, and I can see cases where I’d be fine with this – like if the model was trained only on Liberty’s pattern archive. But I could find zero mention of the technology used, not on Liberty’s site or the artist’s website or Instagram. (The artist is actually a musician that seems to dabble in AI, so I doubt he’s training his own models for this.) I contacted Liberty through both their website and Facebook page to ask for details, explaining that I was concerned about whether the model used for their AI-generated fabric was trained on any stolen artwork, and how the environmental impacts of the project lived up to Liberty’s stated corporate social responsibility goals. I got a reply back asking “Which AI-generated fabric specifically are you asking about?”

    Not good.

    I decided to return the dress today for one featuring Australian plants photographed straight from the shop owner’s garden. Made590 were lovely about it, and I can’t fault them – most people wouldn’t feel as strongly about this as I do. But right now I’m in the “no ethical use of AI” camp, and I’d rather pay artists for their art. I’m so disappointed in Liberty – ACTUAL LIBERTY OF LONDON – jumping on the AI trend bandwagon. Ugh. I’ll update if they ever send me the details, but for now I feel a lot better about my pretty new dress.

    Saski dress in Botanist print


  • Bouquet 💐

    Bouquet 💐

    Our neighbours have been growing some beautiful dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers in the garden up at their weekend cottage, and they just gifted me a lovely bouquet “to match your red kitchen”! 😍


  • Pub lunch

    Pub lunch

    The Purls of Wisdom all got together at Philter today to put a big dent in our $600+ of pub trivia vouchers!


  • Links I’ve been reading lately


  • Highlights from the w-g archives

    On this day

    • in 2015 I went to a tech meetup that Dropbox were holding in a Sydney laneway, and I learned about an Aussie startup called Canva. I introduced myself to founder Cliff, did some research over the next week, and decided to talk him into hiring me. Two months later I was working there. It may well have been the most significant meetup of the hundreds I’ve been to over the years!
    • in 2009 the Sydney CBD experienced a major power outage. It was a turning point in my relationship with Twitter, as the locals were having a lot of fun positing that zombies were running amok in the city. I jumped in and never looked back. (Well, until the end of 2022.)
    • in 2007 Kim and Kelley Deal came into the knitting shop where I worked, and I didn’t even recognise them at first! Thank goodness my crappy mobile phone had a camera on it.
    • in 2003 I knitted a bikini. No, I never wore it. Knitted bikinis look flattering on approximately 0.2% of the population.

  • Shared today on Facebook

    Easter weekend ersatz Weisswurst Frühstück! We were lazy and didn’t manage to source pretzels, so we went with bake-at-home rolls. (Rest assured, Mr. Snook is working on a plan to make his own Brez’n.) 🥨🍺



  • Photo Post

    Easter weekend ersatz Weisswurst Frühstück! We were lazy and didn’t manage to source pretzels, so we went with bake-at-home rolls. (Rest assured, Mr. Snook is working on a plan to make his own Brez’n.) 🥨🍺

    Easter weekend ersatz Weisswurst Frühstück! We were lazy and didn’t manage to source pretzels, so we went with bake-at-home rolls. (Rest assured, Mr. Snook is working on a plan to make his own Brez’n.) 🥨🍺


  • Shared today on Facebook

    Happy birthday Aunt Soonja! Miss you. ❤️🎂



  • Shared today on Twitter

    @the_nathanjones Wow – I would’ve thought you’d have a lot more!


    RT @Handarbeitszirk: Alle Strukturmuster basieren im Grunde auf rechten und linken Maschen, die immer neu kombiniert, verschränkt, verzopft…


    RT @8sunnycas8: What’s happening? THIS is fucking happening 👇 https://t.co/M8eYGe2SsR


    RT @Spaceyeurotrash: Italians: there’s nothing more disgusting than pineapple on pizza
    Germans: hold my Fischstäbchen https://t.co/job2crm…



  • Shared today on Facebook

    Happy birthday Aunt Soonja! ❤️




ABOUT

My name is Kris. I’ve been blogging since the 90’s. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I spent most of my career in the tech industry.

No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.


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