What’s she smiling at, anyway? | Photo by Li Yang / China News Service via Getty Images
I feel a little insane typing this because it is so incredibly obvious, but I guess it needs to be said: part of creativity is knowing when to stop.
Over and over, from AI art proponents, I’ve heard that we can simply extend a beloved piece of art — whether that’s the Mona Lisa or the cover of Abbey Road — to infinity. And in some ways, I’m sympathetic! One of the first ways we locate our creativity is by extending a work we loved; I wrote my very first short story in the universe of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Catwings around the age of six. It is possibly still kicking around in my dad’s attic somewhere.
For those of you who are thinking creatively for the first time, I’d like to introduce you to the idea of the edit
Derivative work is…
