Post

I was next to (one of) the AI slop booths at DragonCon and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. So, as you may or may not know, there was a booth selling AI slop images printed on acrylic panels at DragonCon. They were in booth a-10. I was in a-11. Here’s what happened from my perspective.

Thursday during load-in, the folks in charge of that space (a young woman, a young man, an older lady, and an older man) showed up and were clearly displeased with the layout of the area. As they set up their propanel walls, they began to have issues because their equipment was the wrong size.

The staff came and told them to rearrange it and they did, but not happily. As we were getting ready to leave they had started to put up product on the walls and the stuff they started with was, while not to my taste, clearly made by a person.

Messy paintings of pop culture characters with abstract brushstrokes and Grafitti style text. Not my thing, but that’s how art works: there’s something for every one. This is important later.

Friday, we get in and the younger woman, Oriana (who’s name was on the booth) and the older man are nowhere to be seen, but the young man and older woman who helped set up were there. But there was different stuff in the booth.

The paintings were still there, but now so were new images of various anime characters & comic characters, monopoly man and snoopy, all bloomy and blurry with weird details and various numbers of fingers. I immediately clocked it as AI, but was too busy Friday to get away from my table

to ask someone about it (thanks, DragonCon!), and too tired by show close to track someone down. I did ask the guy in charge of the booth “so, how many different artists do you represent? Because I see like 6 different styles here.”

He replied with “just her [the older lady’s] daughter & son.” Riiiight. Saturday, we came in & I tracked down a staffer and told them “hey the booth next to mine is selling AI. I know yall have a policy against that, so I thought you’d like to know. She wrote it down and said she’d tell the AA head.

Again, Saturday was crazy, but I saw the AA folks milling around and checking out the products in the booth next door, which was cool. It told me they took my observation seriously and At least investigated it.

Then… Monday came. That morning, I got in at 9:45 & the AA folks (plus a few others and a cop) were already at the booth. The owners weren’t in yet. I got set up, the show opened and then the booth folks showed up, about 15-30 minutes late. At which point the AA staff descended upon them

like avenging angels. They took up positions, creating a wall across the entrance to the booth, telling attendees who stopped that they were being removed and were no longer available, and the scammers took down their displays and angrily packed their gear and left.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Someone (another artist, I think) put a sign in the booth telling attendees (and other artists) that they were removed from the space for selling AI slop, and then (as often happens at DragonCon) it became a shrine for folks to leave offerings at.

This is SO bizarre to me! So this woman, Oriana, does legit paintings, but she had two other people with AI slop be the booth!? WHY. Omg. I don't understand at all. ...And obviously I know you can't answer for her, it's just so mind bottling I'm sitting here going WHAT!

From what I’ve been able to gather they’ve been running this con at many shows, including C2e2 and Miami SuperCon. They get in with her paintings and know that they won’t sell enough so they fill the rest of the space with acrylic panels of AI slop. I can attest that that’s what they actually sell.