I Stand with Animation
A Rally/Protest/Event in Burbank
I had the recent ability to participate in this rally to show support to members of The Animation Guild (TAG) for their rights as their Local 839 Union went to the table with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). From what I’ve gathered online, TAG is arguing for:
Fair wages (as per usual. For some reason, artists and creatives are always given the short end of the stick and underpaid for their work.)
Regulations on generative AI stealing and using artists’ work to replace them (yep the stuff we were worried about with Skynet, but instead of weapons of mass destruction, our AI is targeting the creative works of artists to create content without legal permission to source from artists. And once the arts fall, the only logical course is global war so. Take that into consideration mayhaps)
Less outsourcing that siphons off work from already emaciated skeleton crews to elsewhere (with how global we are thanks to the Internet in general, many American studios are pushing their animation needs overseas, who in turn outsource this work to desperate freelancers in America or elsewhere for less money and less benefits).
All of which is irony at its most painful because at the height of the pandemic years, it was animation as a medium that allowed Hollywood to keep breathing. Animation— being able to work from home, a very tech-heavy, skills-relevant medium— exploded onto the scene with gusto in that creative vacuum.
The expansion and revenue from that time has allowed more people a footing into the animation field, but now the tides have turned and a contraction in the field has laid off over 1/3 of TAG’s animation workforce in the past year alone.
The work that kept production studio’s afloat and gifted so many people an emotional respite during the dark days of Covid-19 is now imploding on itself with the gleeful consumption of greedy corporations and inflated executive salaries.
AI is a tool. As such, it should be used by people to help people. In no shape or future of the world do I want to see AI used to replace people in a creative field.
The arts are beautiful because of the human experience imbued into that which we seek out and consume.
AI misses the heart, the human connection, a feeling of love and reality and life. To replace all that makes art good with AI produced content means settling for the bare minimum of life.
And life is hard enough as is, why destroy the last few good things we have with facsimile AI art?
It’s a cruel world, an uncaring and judiciously flawed one that we live in. But we should never stop fighting for the good fight, for what we inherently know to be right.
Don’t give up on the arts.
When we needed a laugh or a moving piece or a cathartic experience, we turned to the arts in all our times of need.
Don’t ever trade that experience in for anything less than.
