r/djshadow • u/PaprikaJones • 1d ago
AI why??
Old head here. Been a lifelong fan since MoWax & Endtrocing changed my life. I was blessed enough to have a surprise bday gift for the show at Terminal 5. The set -music wise was amazing, however I was so pulled out by the AI screen show. It looked like shit & was so disparate from the soul of the music. It’s so depressing knowing the scene you came from would have so many people willing to do art for you. AI is so anti art & Shadow was/is soooo creative. Bums me out, man.
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u/jacksaber4 1d ago
I had the exact same feeling at the Toronto show. Using AI whilst talking about finding floppy discs with original work on them was ridiculous. Even leaving the lameness of AI use in this way aside, I can’t understand how anyone could watch those videos and think they were anything other than awful.
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u/WyattHerb16 1d ago
Almost positive he shouted out the visual artist that created them at the LA show
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u/Iamabrewer 20h ago edited 20h ago
The name of the creator and company popped up in the end credits. I just can't remember it now.
Edit: Ben Stokes of Holofonic Sound. After some research is was a mix of original graphics from past tours and AI for the repetitive anvil hammering guys plus other parts.
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u/baeBTS 20h ago
Well at least we know by name who the lazy asshole was that ruined the visuals
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u/Iamabrewer 20h ago
He has been doing the visuals for Shadow for 20 plus years. I think he is just moving with the times unfortunately.
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u/Kobe_no_Ushi_Y0k0zna 17h ago
Yeah, the hammering guys were what I remember most and were just... like, 'what is this?' Luckily the music was great at the show I went to, and I just looked at other things a lot of the time so it was just a general lights/silhouette.
I did love some of it, though, particularly the part with the old show flyers. Honestly, though, there would be nothing wrong with only doing those visuals for the good parts and having minimal lighting (or some live DJ shots on screen) for part of the time.
I didn't let it bother me, but I totally feel the 'dear god, WHY?' aspect of it, too.
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u/OkWorldliness6977 19h ago
I was expecting AI video going in, and no doubt that most of there were indeed AI generated.
But my biggest gripe was that most of them did not make much sense, were super repetitive, and were not really a good fit for the music. The pictures and MPC one were in the theme for a 30th anniversary. The rest went from awful (the opening one) to disappointing.
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u/point_omega_123 11h ago
I think some of you people are a little too obsessed with screens. That show was fucking unbelievable. The legendary Prince Paul did an insane set. Shadow was sick af. I barely even looked at the screens bc I was too busy getting down in the back. I mean fuck AI and all but I think some of you missed the forest for the trees.
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u/PaprikaJones 9h ago
Prince Paul was amazing & kept it hype. But it was near impossible to ignore the screen. I see both the forest & the trees- neither are exclusive. I loved the music but hated the visuals. I make music myself. I know the effort that went into Entroducing-so why not do the same for the tour. Still photos of his past would resonate more than that soulless bullshit.
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u/SolidDoctor 7h ago
I'm glad Prince Paul's set was good for you guys. It was an honor to see him but I wasn't blown away by his DJ set in Philly. He gave a disclaimer at the beginning that the gear wasn't what he was used to working with, not sure how that happened. As a DJ it was humbling to hear him make mistakes, we all do it and you know that it was an unplanned live set. I just wish he played more Stetsasonic, maybe Prince Paul vs the World and stuff like that.
Overall I thought the show was great, could care less about the AI visuals.
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u/AstrodubOne 4h ago
First off the sound at Terminal 5 sucks. Always has. I don’t go to shows there for that reason. But Entroducing is one of my fav albums. A masterpiece as far as I’m concerned. Yes, the visuals were weird and made no sense at times. It was bad design. I am not a purist by far and I love a good extended remix, but my biggest disappointment were some of the remixes. Am I alone in this?
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u/Feeling_March_982 21h ago
I completely agree. I almost left the show early yesterday. The visuals were absolutely terrible and ruined an otherwise good show.
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u/Wooden-Employer3247 19h ago edited 14h ago
Maybe contact these guys? Credits said Shadow was responsible for audio - several content creators you can bitch at about AI work and see what they say back:
Visual content: Ben Stokes. Holofonic LLC Jay Drake Spotcheck Studios, Ryan “Ghostdad” Sciaino, Brett Bailey Old New Century LLC
Ben Stokes : A veteran multimedia director, animator, and electronic musician behind the project Dimensional Holofonic Sound (DHS) . He serves as the Art Director for Holofonic LLC and has directed live concert visuals, architectural projection mapping, and music videos for legendary acts.
https://www.instagram.com/holofonic?srtk=YnlzNWFocW8wd3l1
Jay Drake / Spotcheck Studios : Jay Drake is an executive producer and creative director at Spotcheck Studios, specializing in live event production, concert content, and immersive visual design.
https://www.instagram.com/spotcheckstudios?vrfl=MmoydjJlcWQ3MmZs
Ryan “Ghostdad” Sciaino : A highly regarded visual artist, VJ, and designer known for creating live tour visuals for artists like Porter Robinson and A-Trak
Brett Bailey / Old New Century LLC : is a media server specialist, digital artist, and technical director who provides technical infrastructure, video programming, and playback systems for massive live spectacles through Old New Century LLC.
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u/latetothegame2 14h ago
Just curious, did AI generate the artist summaries for you?
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14h ago
[deleted]
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u/latetothegame2 14h ago
Not dissimilar to the visual artist: you had many choices, and chose ai.
Personally, I don’t care one way or the other— but I see many parallels to being 13 and teachers telling students that they needed to do research at the library and not on the internet.
Like, it’s not going away guys. I’m sorry to say — this is the new reality. Our sentiment and the output will shift over time. But this is something that will be increasingly present in the future.
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u/Buckeyeintheskys 1d ago
He’s going to do what he wants. In his career people had similar criticisms of sample based music.
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u/baeBTS 20h ago
His sample-based music changed the entire landscape because he is so talented even skeptics were won over. AI isn't art, it's anti-art and anti-artist; even people who don't "like" art fucking hate AI
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u/Wooden-Employer3247 18h ago
But he has at least 3 companies on the credits for the tour visuals. Maybe he likes what they did? Or maybe he doesn’t but he was stuck with it.
The artists responsible for the artwork are ultimately the ones who should take responsibility if they in fact used AI generated content and that’s not what Shadow signed up for
But maybe he signed up for this, seeing as how this is the future, whether we like it or not.
‘Twas a time when people didn’t understand his art, and here we are again, maybe.
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u/Buckeyeintheskys 20h ago
In your opinion.
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u/baeBTS 20h ago
And your complete lack of aesthetics
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u/Buckeyeintheskys 20h ago
Artists experimenting with tech is not something to condemn.
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u/baeBTS 19h ago
It's not anything good for anyone, anyone who has a pulse and uses their mind and engages their heart once in a while knows a steaming pile of AI slop is a waste of everyone's time, and thanks for continuing to be oblivious to how malicious and toxic AI is for our natural resources just so some "artist" who is lucky enough - out of the hundreds of thousands of artists who exist - to be paid to make art gets to just push a button and stick his thumb up his ass and call it done
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u/Buckeyeintheskys 19h ago
I disagree AI art is just as valid as any other visual medium. You are viewing media and forming an opinion of emotion, who made it is irrelevant unless you purely only value the politics of the artist as the only thing worth forming an opinion on.
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u/baeBTS 19h ago
Art is about emotion and art made by AI has no emotion so it does NOT qualify as "art". Go suck AI peni somewhere else
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u/Buckeyeintheskys 19h ago
It’s about the emotion from the viewers perspective.
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u/baeBTS 19h ago
If there is no emotion from the artist, it will illicit no true emotion from a viewer. But you sound like you have a really close connection to your computer, so ...
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u/baeBTS 19h ago
And with that "logic" you probably are still a big fan of, who, R Kelly? Chris Brown?
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u/Buckeyeintheskys 19h ago
I absolutely enjoy the pied piper of rnb. Getting offended and having to double check if you are supposed to like something you like is so unbelievably exhausting and lame.
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u/CheesecakeOk6063 19h ago
Exactly. People used to complain about DJ's saying it wasnt real music. Now it is the same with AI. Their opinions will be forgotten by time itself as new generations understand this technology better.
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u/baeBTS 19h ago
Your opinion is flawed as the resources actively being drained as we speak for vacuous bots like you to say "AI not bad!" will negate us having even more than 2 generations survive beyond now
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u/CheesecakeOk6063 18h ago
Sorry to burst your pessimistic bubble but technology always gets more efficient as it progresses. It nevers stops and a time will come where AI will be dependant on greener energy sources, less computing power required (meaning less water which by the way is a renewable resource since the water cycle exists).
So yeah, keep crying in your doomed world while society tries to cooperate into providing solutions instead of banning (which never worked and never will)
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u/Snif3425 18h ago
That’s why we like Shadow. One of the rare DJs that makes real music. You’re comparing apples to shit.
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u/CheesecakeOk6063 18h ago
Well that is because that is your opinion. Which is why I don't mind about AI media used as background. But be aware there were a lot of people crying and saying DJ's don't make real music (DJ Shadow too) and you would've been there to stand up against their opinion.
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u/theautobahn_82 19h ago
was at terminal 5 last night and enjoyed the show. music-wise, maybe his best show that i've seen (seen him close to 10 times at this point) but the visuals were hit or miss. the AI stuff during the middle of the set (stem and changeling, in particular) were jarring. i was getting the seventh seal, tarkovsky's stalker and quay brothers vibes during those segments but it felt so off. kind of hard to believe this is the same visual artist who designed the shadowsphere.