A thing that gave me creeping horror about the Ghiblification is that the I don’t think the masses actually particularly understand Ghibli. And the result is an uneven simulacrum-mask that gives the impression of “rendered with love and care” without actually being so.
The Ghibli aesthetic is historically pretty valuable to me, and in particular important as a counterbalanacing force against “the things I expect to happen by default with AI.”
Some things I like about Ghibli:
The “cinematic lens” emphasizes a kind of “see everything with wonder and reverence” but not in a way that papers over ugly or bad things. Ugliness and even horror are somehow straightforwardly depicted, but in a way that somehow makes both seem very normal and down to earth, and also supernaturally majestic. (See On green, and The Expanding Moral Cinematic Universe).
The main characters are generally “low-ish neuroticism.” (This youtube analysis I like argues that the women in particular are ‘non-neurotic’, and the men tend to be “low compared to modern city-dwelling standards.”)
There’s a bit of awkwardness where Miyazaki is particularly anti-transhumanist, where I disagree with him. But I feel like I could argue with him about it on his terms – I have an easy time imagining how to depict spirits of technology and capitalism and bureaucracy as supernatural forces that have the kind of alien grandeur, not on humanity’s side or the “natural world’s side”, but still ultimately part of the world.
For years, I have sometimes walked down the street and metaphorically put on “Miyazaki goggles”, where I choose to lean into a feeling of tranquility, and I choose to see everything through that “normal but reverent” stance. I imagine the people that live in each house doing their day to day things to survive and make money and live life. And seeing the slightly broken down things (a deteriorating fence, a crumbling sidewalk) as part of a natural ebb and flow of the local ecosystem. And seeing occasional more “naturally epic” things as particularly majestic and important.
So, the wave of “ghiblify everything” was something I appreciated, and renewed a felt-desire to live more often in a ghibli-ish world. But, also, when I imagine how this naturally plays out, I don’t think it really gets us anything like a persistent reality transfer the way you describe. Mostly we get a cheap simulacra that may create some emotion / meaning at first, but will quickly fade into “oh, here’s another cheap filter.”
...
That all said, I do feel some intrigue at your concept here. I’m still generally wrapping my mind around what futures are plausible, and then desirable. I feel like I will have more to say about this after thinking more.
I don’t share your concerns about simulacra or cheapening, because in this case, the style is the substance. It’s not just a cosmetic overlay; it fundamentally alters how we perceive and emotionally engage with a scene. And at any rate, the Ghibli aesthetic is too coherent, too complete in its internal logic, to be diminished by misuse or overuse. People can wear it wrong, but they can’t break it.
What’s especially interesting to me right now is that I’ve gained the ability you refer to as “Miyazaki goggles.” Today, for example, I was repeatedly able to briefly summon that warm, quiet beauty while looking at my environment. And when I was with a close relative who seemed slightly frail, the moment I mentally applied the Ghibli filter, I instantly teared up and had a huge emotional reaction. A minute later I tried again, and the same thing happened.
Repeated exposure to the reality transfer seems to teach you a new language, one that lets you do new things. After seeing so many A-to-B examples of Ghiblification, I have learned a heuristic for what photorealism could feel like under that lens, and can now easily switch to it. It’s not that I vividly visualize everything in Ghibli style, but I do vividly experience the value shift it brings. At most I might see Ghibli very faintly superimposed, abstractly even, but I can predict the vectors of what would change, and those shifts immediately alter my emotional reading of the scene. So perhaps over time, the Ghibli reality transfer will help us become more sensitive, appreciative, compassionate and easily able to expand our circle of concern. One caveat: I work with images constantly and have for a long time, so I might already have been more adept at mental visual transformation than most people.
Related to this idea of “learning a new language that lets you do new things,” I’ve also been wanting to share something cool I trained myself to do: I wore an eyepatch over one eye and just went about daily life like that, switching eyes a couple times a day. And after a week or two, I started being able to perceive depth on a 2D screen. As long as one of my eyes is covered while I watch a movie, I can actually perceive the 3D, especially when there are strong depth cues like a moving camera or shallow focus. It’s like my brain learned to estimate depth when binocular vision was disabled by predicting what the other eye would’ve contributed. Again, maybe I only pulled this off because I work with images a lot.
I do think the thing you describe here is great. I think I hadn’t actually tried really leveraging the current zeitgeist to actively get better at it, and it does seem like a skill you could improve at and that seems cool.
But I’d bet it’s not what was happening for most people. I think the value-transfer is somewhat automatic, but most people won’t actually be attuned to it enough. (might be neat to operationalize some kind of bet about this, if you disagree).
I do think it’s plausible, if people put more deliberate effort it, to create a zeitgeist where the value transfer is more real for more people.
You’re likely right – my ability to mentally apply the “Miyazaki goggles” and feel the value shift is probably not what’s happening for most people, or even many.
For me, it’s probably a combination of factors: my background working extensively with images, the conceptual pathways formed during writing the original post above, and preexisting familiarity with the aesthetic from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, Ponyo, and Arrietty.
But crucially, I share your optimism about the potential. I do think this is a skill others could cultivate with deliberate practice. Now that we’ve seen this kind of reality transfer is possible, perhaps methods and best practices could eventually be developed and tested to guide that learning.
A thing that gave me creeping horror about the Ghiblification is that the I don’t think the masses actually particularly understand Ghibli. And the result is an uneven simulacrum-mask that gives the impression of “rendered with love and care” without actually being so.
The Ghibli aesthetic is historically pretty valuable to me, and in particular important as a counterbalanacing force against “the things I expect to happen by default with AI.”
Some things I like about Ghibli:
The “cinematic lens” emphasizes a kind of “see everything with wonder and reverence” but not in a way that papers over ugly or bad things. Ugliness and even horror are somehow straightforwardly depicted, but in a way that somehow makes both seem very normal and down to earth, and also supernaturally majestic. (See On green, and The Expanding Moral Cinematic Universe).
The main characters are generally “low-ish neuroticism.” (This youtube analysis I like argues that the women in particular are ‘non-neurotic’, and the men tend to be “low compared to modern city-dwelling standards.”)
There’s a bit of awkwardness where Miyazaki is particularly anti-transhumanist, where I disagree with him. But I feel like I could argue with him about it on his terms – I have an easy time imagining how to depict spirits of technology and capitalism and bureaucracy as supernatural forces that have the kind of alien grandeur, not on humanity’s side or the “natural world’s side”, but still ultimately part of the world.
For years, I have sometimes walked down the street and metaphorically put on “Miyazaki goggles”, where I choose to lean into a feeling of tranquility, and I choose to see everything through that “normal but reverent” stance. I imagine the people that live in each house doing their day to day things to survive and make money and live life. And seeing the slightly broken down things (a deteriorating fence, a crumbling sidewalk) as part of a natural ebb and flow of the local ecosystem. And seeing occasional more “naturally epic” things as particularly majestic and important.
So, the wave of “ghiblify everything” was something I appreciated, and renewed a felt-desire to live more often in a ghibli-ish world. But, also, when I imagine how this naturally plays out, I don’t think it really gets us anything like a persistent reality transfer the way you describe. Mostly we get a cheap simulacra that may create some emotion / meaning at first, but will quickly fade into “oh, here’s another cheap filter.”
...
That all said, I do feel some intrigue at your concept here. I’m still generally wrapping my mind around what futures are plausible, and then desirable. I feel like I will have more to say about this after thinking more.
I don’t share your concerns about simulacra or cheapening, because in this case, the style is the substance. It’s not just a cosmetic overlay; it fundamentally alters how we perceive and emotionally engage with a scene. And at any rate, the Ghibli aesthetic is too coherent, too complete in its internal logic, to be diminished by misuse or overuse. People can wear it wrong, but they can’t break it.
What’s especially interesting to me right now is that I’ve gained the ability you refer to as “Miyazaki goggles.” Today, for example, I was repeatedly able to briefly summon that warm, quiet beauty while looking at my environment. And when I was with a close relative who seemed slightly frail, the moment I mentally applied the Ghibli filter, I instantly teared up and had a huge emotional reaction. A minute later I tried again, and the same thing happened.
Repeated exposure to the reality transfer seems to teach you a new language, one that lets you do new things. After seeing so many A-to-B examples of Ghiblification, I have learned a heuristic for what photorealism could feel like under that lens, and can now easily switch to it. It’s not that I vividly visualize everything in Ghibli style, but I do vividly experience the value shift it brings. At most I might see Ghibli very faintly superimposed, abstractly even, but I can predict the vectors of what would change, and those shifts immediately alter my emotional reading of the scene. So perhaps over time, the Ghibli reality transfer will help us become more sensitive, appreciative, compassionate and easily able to expand our circle of concern. One caveat: I work with images constantly and have for a long time, so I might already have been more adept at mental visual transformation than most people.
Related to this idea of “learning a new language that lets you do new things,” I’ve also been wanting to share something cool I trained myself to do: I wore an eyepatch over one eye and just went about daily life like that, switching eyes a couple times a day. And after a week or two, I started being able to perceive depth on a 2D screen. As long as one of my eyes is covered while I watch a movie, I can actually perceive the 3D, especially when there are strong depth cues like a moving camera or shallow focus. It’s like my brain learned to estimate depth when binocular vision was disabled by predicting what the other eye would’ve contributed. Again, maybe I only pulled this off because I work with images a lot.
I do think the thing you describe here is great. I think I hadn’t actually tried really leveraging the current zeitgeist to actively get better at it, and it does seem like a skill you could improve at and that seems cool.
But I’d bet it’s not what was happening for most people. I think the value-transfer is somewhat automatic, but most people won’t actually be attuned to it enough. (might be neat to operationalize some kind of bet about this, if you disagree).
I do think it’s plausible, if people put more deliberate effort it, to create a zeitgeist where the value transfer is more real for more people.
You’re likely right – my ability to mentally apply the “Miyazaki goggles” and feel the value shift is probably not what’s happening for most people, or even many.
For me, it’s probably a combination of factors: my background working extensively with images, the conceptual pathways formed during writing the original post above, and preexisting familiarity with the aesthetic from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, Ponyo, and Arrietty.
But crucially, I share your optimism about the potential. I do think this is a skill others could cultivate with deliberate practice. Now that we’ve seen this kind of reality transfer is possible, perhaps methods and best practices could eventually be developed and tested to guide that learning.