The Topic Cafe

I am curious as to why my Facebook feed appears frivolous; I inadvertently switched it to Professional mode without comprehending its implications. Live and learn. Speaking of learning, let’s talk about Artificial Intelligence and AI Slop.

I ran across someone asking why everyone in early 2000s made photos with hand gestures… and it got me thinking about how I learned to make music on my PC with MIDI back in 1990 and record soundtracks and still photography using junk cars, recycled camera equipment, computer parts and open source software.

The late 90s and early 2000s were drenched in DIY rebellion energy: punk, emo, nu‑metal, and indie scenes all rejecting slick corporate polish in favor of something tactile, raw, and self‑made.

That hand‑reach gesture became a visual shorthand for agency and immediacy without the use of computer software licensing, over-engineering and big brother watchdog groups monitoring everything before everything changed after 9/11— “I’m in your face, I’m doing this myself, I’m touching the world.” It was the photographic equivalent of garage bands recording on four‑tracks, zine makers hand‑stapling pages, and photographers.

We had creative autonomy and built art with our own fingers before automation and algorithms learned to imitate it.