AI Slop for the Soul, a short essay

Tape Lab's ARTSCAM ANNEX and the Death of the Audience

Much has been said—screamed, memed, and softly wept—about the AI Studio Ghibli filter. The latest wave of generated “Ghibli-slop” has flooded the internet, and yes, it now vastly outnumbers anything the actual studio ever produced. It’s a facsimile tsunami, and the original is quietly being swallowed. Cue the think pieces.

(Imagine an AI Calvin & Hobbes. Actually, don’t summon that demon.)

Buy ARTSCAM ANNEX HERE.

To contribute to the hysteria, Tape Lab is currently hard at work training an AI Frank Zappa that will be able to tell you how much your work sucks.

Our fear is not that AI will replace the artist, but that the amount of noise it produces will deafen any audience, drowning out authentic expressions and replacing them with trends.

Tape Lab's ARTSCAM ANNEX predates this outrage. Our ARTSCAM introduces sub-standard, low-effort "art" that copies other art-styles and influences. The intention was to shine a light on the question: Can AI make "art"? Are the images you see that are AI-generated art?

It asks an important, prescient question. Does AI-generated images mean that "art is accessible?" In many ways, yes, but the drive to "create" AI images is inherently non-artistic - it removes the artist entirely.

So, that is what ARTSCAM ANNEX is all about. Art without an artist, what is it? Does the AUDIENCE create the art? (i.e., does the public nature of experience make something "art?")

THis is all to say: ARTSCAM ANNEX is AI SLOP, but not AI ART. We are not trying to trick you into believing that it's good; we are trying to SHOW you that it is not good.

The abyss gazes also, but the abyss is artificially generated, is it even empty?

ARTSCAM ANNEX also highlights the natural trend toward pornography, notably the underlying horniness of humanity, misunderstood by a machine without genitals.

NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE ARE SAYING THIS is a repeated phrase because, of course, lots of people are saying things. what "this" is is a reference to the false-authority imposed over readers by writers.

Tape Lab doesn't love AI art. It doesn't move us. We use it sometimes in our album art, but not in an effort to deceive or replace real artists (we wouldn't have hired anyone anyway).

Check out ARTSCAM ANNEX to see that we were anxious about AI before it was popular. We were concerned about its slow erosion of humanity's values first.

SLOP FOR THE SOUL

〰️

SLOP FOR THE SOUL 〰️

But here’s the thing: the problem isn’t that AI is replacing artists. The problem is that it’s replacing audiences.

It’s not about the creator anymore—it’s about the consumer, who’s so knee-deep in algorithmic “content” that they can’t tell what’s real, or worse, they stop caring. The flood of low-effort mimicry doesn’t silence artists; it just drowns them out.

Enter ARTSCAM ANNEX, Tape Lab’s cheerful little apocalypse. Long before this round of digital outrage, we launched a collection of deliberately bad AI-generated images—copies of copies of vibes of other things. The point? To ask whether AI can make “art.” Spoiler: probably not. But also, maybe? Depends on who’s asking.

AI makes “art” more accessible, sure. But accessible to whom, and for what? The drive to churn out AI images is fundamentally non-artistic. There’s no intention, no sweat, no suffering. It’s a vending machine of vaguely aesthetic output. You push the button. Out pops “vibe.”

That’s the soul of ARTSCAM ANNEX—art without an artist. Is it still art? Or does the audience become the artist by deciding it is? If everyone claps for Tinkerbell, does she live?

To be clear: ARTSCAM ANNEX is not AI art. It’s AI slop. On purpose. We’re not trying to trick you into thinking it’s profound. We’re trying to prove that it isn’t.

Also worth noting—AI art is always three clicks away from pornography. There’s something unnervingly horny about the whole enterprise, like the ghost of the internet’s worst impulses haunting every pastel fantasy and anime thigh. Machines don’t have genitals, but boy, do they get the assignment.

The phrase “NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE ARE SAYING THIS” gets thrown around a lot, usually by people saying very obvious things very loudly. But that phrase itself is a joke, a writer’s trick to claim false authority. Everyone’s yelling. No one’s listening.

So check out ARTSCAM ANNEX if you want to see what the end of art looks like in JPEG form. We were worried about this long before it was cool. Not because artists were in danger—but because audiences are.