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Early Digital Animations by Juha Terho

Juha Terho - My Early Digital Animations

I was inspired – and strongly influenced – by the computer animation that was seen in adventure games released by Sierra On-Line in the late 80s and early 90s. Other interesting sources of high-quality animation were the Epyx releases Summer Games (1984) and Impossible Mission (1984) plus the legendary Jordan Mechner game Prince of Persia (1990), famous for its realistic character visuals.

Via Rhizome

How to make an exciting image:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Radical!

lalBLOG.tumblr

I've started a tumblr page in order to bookmark the images I find interesting but don't feel warrant a proper post. We'll see how long this lasts.

lalBLOG.tumblr.com

As-Found - Collector as Curator

I've mentioned the whole Collector as Curator problem in an earlier post, but without really addressing it properly. Basically all I was doing was pointing to Moody's observation that any collector of online material, in sharing their collection in a curatorial fashion, in essence becomes a Net artist. Now, there are many image collection or "bookmarking" sites out there (such as Ffffound! or VVork) but they often do (if not only) share images by other artists with the hopes of not only sharing interesting images to satisfy the aesthete within us but also to help expand our awareness of up-and-coming or undiscovered individuals. So what about As-Found?



Their mission statement is to collect images that are not created with artistic intentions, but are meant to be viewed with a specific (usually functional) purpose in mind: "If the image has been made by a contemporary artist we don’t want to know about it, because images created with multiple interpretations in mind are useless to us."* In posting the image on their site, they hope to take the image out of its original context and as such give the image new meaning. The image then becomes a kind of work of art; "a found image can match any image produced within the artistic field, in aesthetic, cultural or emotional qualities."*



These are the Readymades of the digital era, and although the blog does manage to take the image out of its original context, and in turn give the image new meaning, we are still made aware of this context through links back to the source, or even worse, by the "don't hotlink" image that often replaces a hotlinked image (although this has even been turned into an "exhibition" on the site). As such the gallery still maintains its position as the great de/re-contextualisor, providing official "art" status to whatever graces its walls (or monitors).

As-Found really is an interesting site to go through though, and I must admit, before reading the introduction, I couldn't always tell if an image was ironic or sincere. So much net.art aims to achieve a similar aesthetic (the "indiscernibles"), but these "non-art" images are just so perfect that they really belong in the (to quote Moody yet again) "'artists might as well retire' category." All that's left is for the collector — as curator — to become creator.

Who needs colour? - My search for MacPaint

Image Source: Mac Daniel

I've been frantically searching the web for some kind of MacPaint clone or ROM of some kind. The search has lead me to all kinds of interesting sites, including this long history of interactive design on Étienne Mineur's blog, and a nice MacPaint Primer on MacDaniel's Advice.

Finding a clone or even an old disk image is a lot more difficult than you'd think, considering most of the results from my search were of forum threads either asking for some kind of clone or discussing what were the best alternatives. I did, however, manage to find what I was looking for.


I found a disk image of MacPaint 1.5 and Mini vMac, a fairly simple Mac emulator. I say fairly because I'm not that proficient when it comes to computers, but I still managed to get it up and running. There's a good Mini vMac guide on E-Maculation.com that I'll be pouring over for the next few days, there are a lot of other programmes available besides MacPaint that I'm sure will be fun.

I still have a lot of experimenting to do, but I managed to knock out the above illustration (and screen-grabbed, not yet sure how I'm going to save these images) just to make sure it was all working. I'm really looking forward to it, though, as the aesthetic is something I really enjoy.

*The disk images available for download are only there for those who own/ed the original programmes but have since lost or damaged them. Technically these programmes still belong to Apple but have since been discontinued, which is why they are so difficult to come by.*

I had a dream last night ...

I had a dream last night and Trent Reznor was in it, then I woke up and looked over my regular links and saw this image on Bezembinder's Illustrated Links:


It is by Russian artist/designer Protey Temen who's work looks to explore "different ways of visual environment saturation."


Although I appreciate his illustrations (and especially the above portrait) what really grabs me are his photo/image interventions.



A really great way to understand and know how to work with space is by filling it all up. It forces you to pay attention to the negative spaces that are often ignored, even though they are as important as (if not more than) the main subject matter of an image.

Portraits of Artists

The Smithsonian Institute's Portraits of Artists photo set on Flickr.

Shoreditch Bike Polo Invitational

Spent the day in the sun yesterday, watching some people on bikes smash it up at the Shoreditch Bike Polo Invitational. See more of my photos on Zooomr or some great images on the London Bike Polo Flickr stream.

LOLVogue - No cheezburger, I iz modl!

So these have been going on for a year now, but I am extremely happy to have finally found ... LOLVogue!



LOLVogue first graced the "pages" of Jezebel on August 16th, 2007 with LOL'Vogue': Scarves, Silverware & Scooters, and although at the time they felt LOLcats had already reached their pinnacle ("So much so, they're sort of over."), they've still managed to bring the fashion lulz to their first anniversary (tomorrow!). Happy Birthday LOLVogue!

Via Fashionologie.

Westside!

Click image for enlarged version.

Stumbled upon: Source.

Young Curators, New Ideas: Graphics Interchange Format

By Karly Wildenhaus, Source.

Graphics Interchange Format (curated by Laurel Ptak of I Heart Photograph fame) is currently taking place at the Bond Street Gallery in New York as part of the Young Curators, New Ideas exhibition.

From the curator's statement:

Laurel Ptak's exhibition takes the show in a different direction by commissioning 26 photographers, designers, and new media artists to embrace the animated GIF [...] Ptak gave artists only 3 days to complete the commission and encouraged the use of photographic materials. A few of the artists had never made an animated GIF before, while others were notorious for it.

This is something I would love to go see, but unfortunately can't make (read: afford) the trip overseas. There are a couple of samples on I Heart Photograph's post on the exhibition (of which I am sharing one here).

I can't help but find the idea of Net.Art being exhibited in an art gallery a bit odd; art has such a hard time breaking free of the Artworld that work that is (often) intended to be viewed on the computer screen has to make it's way onto the gallery wall somehow (and into catalogues, which is beyond weird to me). Am I missing something?

*Young Curators, New Ideas opened yesterday and will be on at the Bond Street Gallery until September 6th.*

Copyright lasts ... FOREVERRRR!!!

An interesting discussion is going on on Flickr about copyright law after a member of the 100 Years Old community had a problem while (not?) scanning family photos (that were over 100 years old) at a Wal-Mart in the US. Apparently copyright lasts forever!

It's an interesting discussion personally — considering my interest in old photography — and politically (for the online community) — considering Flickr's licensing options and the possible resulting problems. I'm all for fair use and creative commons, but I also understand how having images of friends and family used freely by others can be a bit disconcerting for some. Really it's about giving credit where credit is due.

But what do you do when the image's source is untraceable? The internet is full of images and bits of text that just float around (like many of the cat GIF memes I posted a few days ago), do they just become products of the internet, destined to wander around freely coming and going as they please like digital nomads? Meh ... something to think about, although I'm sure it's been discussed before.

Via BoingBoing.

Sweet GIFs

Just imagine the above tiled images moving and doing crazy things over and over again. Sweet GIFs is just that, sweeeeet GIFs!

Ethereal Self

Ethereal Self by Harm van den Dorpel. Works best if your computer has a digital camera, and there are a lot of other interesting projects on the artist's site as well.

Via VVork.

Awesome Ugly Webpages

Double Happiness

JPEG Mess

Ui Uuii

On Psychotronic GIFs

August 5th's installment of IMG MGMT brought us Mr. Moody's visual essay on Psychotronic GIFs. Here Moody explains his interest in animated GIFs in general and his personal attraction to those of the "psychotronic" persuasion, these are images, films, etc. that "range from sincere social commentary to degrading trash. They concern teenagers, rock and roll, juvenile delinquents, monsters, aliens, killers, spies, detectives, bikers, communists, drugs, natural catastrophes, atomic bombs, the prehistoric past, and the projected future" (quote borrowed from the essay); it's a bit kitsch and a bit schlock. The aesthetic has been around for ages — questioned and celebrated — and the internet is indeed full of it.

Moody's choices (some are his own, while others are found) are nice and to the point, they are, as he said, "the money shots." They also reminded me of another GIF birthed from the great minds of a community I've quoted before: the Nom-wall.


It's a remix of a gruesome and sophomoric video from YouTube. The video itself borderlines on horror (just the idea!!) but the animation is pure hilarity. It is the money shot. As an animation it ticks off more boxes than the film itself: it concerns teenagers, rock and roll, juvenile delinquents, monsters, and catastrophes, but it is also a commentary on the shear absurdity of youthful delinquent behavior. You no longer feel bad for the kid, but laugh at the Nom-wall's insatiable appetite. Warning: Don't get too close to the Nom-wall!

Mathematical Art

Complex mathematical functions can be some of the most difficult stuff to wrap your head around unless you've got some kind of degree in the subject, but one thing that's great about math is that most functions can be described visually in a two or three dimensional format. What's even greater, though, is that because the functions are so complex and often require a lot of CPU power to generate, the representations are usually quite graphically simple, using bitmaps, basic 3d programs, and often sticking to a basic colour spectrum. I mean, what's important is not the graphic, but the clear expression of a precise function.

Here is a small selection of images and animations that inspired the need to post:

Math Artwork from Paul Nylander's Home Page.

Mathematical Images from Wolfram MathWorld.

abstract_1.gif

I downloaded free image editor Pixen a little while ago and I finally got around to trying out it's animation feature.

As an editor it isn't that easy, nor is it stable. It's easy to crash, and its functions aren't terribly evident, so my production was very limited. I started with a bitmap that I created with another free editor (Paintbrush ... until it also crashed) and then just played around with what little effects I had access to (circles and paint bucket). My favorite part is how the colours got completely screwed around in the compression process, although I'm also a bit irritated with how slow it is ... anyway, I should probably play with it or read the readme file or something.

T-Rex is affraid of dying? Who isn't?!

I love Dinosaur Comics. I like to read it whenever a new one becomes available. The clever/absurd humour just makes me LOL everytime. This one I especially like because I can relate to it; I relate to T-Rex.

Utahraptor: "Oooh, look at me, I'm T-Rex and I've found another way to be terrified of the future!"
T-Rex: I'm not!
T-Rex: I'm terrified of DYING. Totally different.

Priceless!

Halo Corpse Alphabet; or When Play Becomes Art

A couple days ago, Boing Boing posted a link to the Halo Corpse Alphabet and I was tickled. Halo3screenshots.com came up with an interesting and creative idea and managed to muster up their community to join in and keep their eyes open for corpses that land in the form of a letter or number (even some punctuation!) and screen capture it for the sake of the project. What resulted was, indeed, the Halo Corpse Alphabet font (yes, they edited the images to be used as a font, accessible by all from the bottom of the page).


One of my favorite things, I must admit, is when gaming and art come together. Games have often been looked at as art themselves (for their great graphics, programming, animation, etc.), but what interests me is when it's the user that takes the game to create something with/through it, whether it be a live in-game performance (especially in MMORPGs/MMOs/MPFPSs etc), video, or two-dimensional piece. While dabbling in the World of Warcraft (yes, I played that godforsaken game) I couldn't help but look to various in-game activities as performance or, more specifically, Happenings (such as nude gnome runs). As with other large scale participatory events like these, players document them (as a screen capture or multi-media video) suggesting that something has “happened” and was worth recording for others to see. Like with the Happenings of the 50s and 60s, these are often pointless, with no plot or direction other than what the main action should be. It becomes about the experience: of artist, audience, audience as artist (participant), and artist as audience.

Screen capture also takes on the role of photography (a good example being the above Halo3 screen capture site), so much so that already in 2000 it became the focus of the game Pokemon Snap (N64), where points were collected based on how well your photos came out. Artists have also been using the screen capture aesthetic as medium or inspiration for a few years now, such as Jon Haddock's Isometric Screenshots (also 2000) which illustrate classic moments from film and history using the third person view reminiscent of the Sims or Grand Theft Auto 3. (I'm going to mention here that I'm not even going to bother getting into Second Life, there's at least one thesis that can come from that ball of digital confusion)

Now with blogging and Net Art moving into the realm of online image collection and curation, as Tom Moody puts it (in response to the - first two installments of - online essay/curatorial project IMG MGMT), "We Are All Surf Clubs now." So indeed, "what makes [the net artist] special if everyone can do this?" What happens is that any user with the curiosity and creativity to engage with their games (or the internet in general) in an artistic manner, and then share their experience/product with the world wide web, in essence becomes an artist. It's no longer about the game-as-art, but the game-as-medium applied by a user-as-artist, where the internet (the original art as it's meant to be viewed on your own computer screen!) becomes the art gallery.