The embedded video in this post is worthwhile, particularly for the visuals of the artwork, but for those who’d prefer an informative (short) article, there’s one in a previous HN submission about this that got no traction back in 2023.
> ...asemic writing distinguishes itself among traditions of abstract art is in the asemic author's use of gestural constraint, and the retention of physical characteristics of writing such as lines and symbols.
Basically stuff that looks like writing but actually isn't. Another example is Xu Bing's A Book from the Sky, which is composed of things that look just like Chinese characters to someone who can't read them, but aren't.
duskwuff 119 days ago [-]
Another Western example is Luigi Serafini's Codex Seraphinianus:
I wonder if an LLM can "translate" that book into... something. And if so, how faithful to the original is the translation?
palmotea 120 days ago [-]
> I wonder if an LLM can "translate" that book into... something.
Yes, of course. LLMs are bullshit machines.
> And if so, how faithful to the original is the translation?
Well, as faithful as total bullshit ever is.
DontchaKnowit 120 days ago [-]
What? Can we start banning these kinds of "I wonder if an LLM" comments?
actionfromafar 120 days ago [-]
I actually thought it was an interesting thought, if the "bullshitness" will hold between "translations" or if it will hallucinate something which "makes more sense" than the original. Or if it will just refuse because the chinese letters just aren't close enough. I'm probably too bored. :)
pavel_lishin 120 days ago [-]
You cannot extract a signal that isn't there.
duskwuff 119 days ago [-]
There's also a technical side to that problem - you can't communicate the content of that book to a LLM as text, because it's made up of invented characters. There's no standard way to represent them to a computer.
AftHurrahWinch 120 days ago [-]
This was found posthumously in a rented garage. Imagine yourself walking in to a windowless room, turning on the lights, and seeing this.
kkylin 120 days ago [-]
Wikipedia has more details on the artist and the art:
I was trying to figure out how large this thing was (I found it hard to tell from the picture). And wow -- a life-size throne. Must go next time I'm in DC (if the government isn't shut down :p).
dfxm12 120 days ago [-]
Considering the religious nature, and the fact that its creator claims to have had a visitation from the divine, it's like TempleOS in a way.
mock-possum 120 days ago [-]
I love outsider art. Love the idea that for some people, it isn’t about the ‘art world’ or about finding a community or an audience… they simply have to go off by themselves somewhere and CREATE
frereubu 119 days ago [-]
Does anyone know how big this is? Difficult to tell from photos on a phone and the listing just says "dimensions variable".
jhbadger 119 days ago [-]
I've seen it several times at the Smithsonian -- it's life size, as in a person could sit on the central throne, and the side pieces are as large as nightstands.
NaOH 119 days ago [-]
The Wikipedia piece linked here in the comments says that central throne is seven feet tall.
jhbadger 119 days ago [-]
Yes, if you include the back of the chair
frereubu 119 days ago [-]
Great, thanks.
Rendered at 07:13:25 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38683668
Learned something new: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asemic_writing:
> ...asemic writing distinguishes itself among traditions of abstract art is in the asemic author's use of gestural constraint, and the retention of physical characteristics of writing such as lines and symbols.
Basically stuff that looks like writing but actually isn't. Another example is Xu Bing's A Book from the Sky, which is composed of things that look just like Chinese characters to someone who can't read them, but aren't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus
Yes, of course. LLMs are bullshit machines.
> And if so, how faithful to the original is the translation?
Well, as faithful as total bullshit ever is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hampton_(artist)#Throne_...
I was trying to figure out how large this thing was (I found it hard to tell from the picture). And wow -- a life-size throne. Must go next time I'm in DC (if the government isn't shut down :p).