WHY INFINITE FILL? WHY NOW? (SOME THEORIES)Speaking of Infinite Fill patterns, an artist saw the image of mine below printed out in the studio and said something like "It's so old it's new again." That's actually kind of a bad reason to be working with these patterns and programs: what might be called the fleeting buzz of historicization. Two generational moments connected with an emerging technology are when you experience it in all its newness (especially in pimply adolescence), and when you encounter it nostalgically as a kind of "future past." The rubbing together of those two instants can throw off some sparks, but they're pretty meager to power a body of work, or a career. Better reasons for using old programs might be: (1) to access good effects that have been superseded or "improved" in newer programs, (2) as a way of clearly revealing the futuristic assumptions, mass production values, or plain bad aesthetics of existing programs (most of which are just tricked-up, bloated versions of the old ones), and (3) because less is more, as Kate Moss once said. 
nice insight and clarification, Tom. I like your suspicion of nostalgia. This post reminds me of an article by Jim Munroe on the Cultural Gutter about retro-gaming. I'll say pretty much the the same thing here that I said to him, which is that another benefit of sitting longer with the old tech is to process it's cultural significance. Software and games both fly by at such a pace, that we don't consciously absorb their impact as we go. There are tangents untaken, and implications unexplored. Maybe an upside to nostalgia is that it functions as is the cultural agent that lets us revisit what we aren't finished with yet.
Wish I could see the show! Hope its good, sounds like it will be for sure be fun.
I like it. It reminds me of my early drawings in MacPaint.
As many people might feel, there is a huge chunk of adolesence contained in the early graphics of Mac programs, Ataris, and Nintendo Entertainment systems. I too agree with suspicion of nostalgia, and being 24, this is one of my first sincere attempts at dealing with nostalgia from my life span. Of course fashion and other cultural commodites cycle around us, but I think there is something different about my generation's socialization through the interactive. One could argue that toys of the 60's and 70's have a level interactivity, but early video games changed this paradigm by bringing a highly complex environment of interactivity. I think Cory Arcangel has a significant point when discussing 'internal architectures' inside of nintendo games. In addition to this, I feel that our (people who grew up with early video games) relationship to games involves one of importing virtual structures and scenarios. It is strange to hear a band like The Advantage who replays NES songs verbatim. I immediately realized my memory was still encoded with every note to every song, and along with that, all of the maps, levels, strategies, items to be found, and sleep lost over these games. There is definitely a cultural divide in terms of complexity and a variety of vantage-points that video games brought us in the 80's. We still have a lot of information to sort out. Sorry this is so long.
A quick thanks for your comment. I have a reply in progress that I hope to post on the blog soon.
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WHY INFINITE FILL? WHY NOW? (SOME THEORIES)
Speaking of Infinite Fill patterns, an artist saw the image of mine below printed out in the studio and said something like "It's so old it's new again." That's actually kind of a bad reason to be working with these patterns and programs: what might be called the fleeting buzz of historicization. Two generational moments connected with an emerging technology are when you experience it in all its newness (especially in pimply adolescence), and when you encounter it nostalgically as a kind of "future past." The rubbing together of those two instants can throw off some sparks, but they're pretty meager to power a body of work, or a career. Better reasons for using old programs might be: (1) to access good effects that have been superseded or "improved" in newer programs, (2) as a way of clearly revealing the futuristic assumptions, mass production values, or plain bad aesthetics of existing programs (most of which are just tricked-up, bloated versions of the old ones), and (3) because less is more, as Kate Moss once said.
- tom moody 7-22-2004 11:05 am
nice insight and clarification, Tom. I like your suspicion of nostalgia. This post reminds me of an article by Jim Munroe on the Cultural Gutter about retro-gaming. I'll say pretty much the the same thing here that I said to him, which is that another benefit of sitting longer with the old tech is to process it's cultural significance. Software and games both fly by at such a pace, that we don't consciously absorb their impact as we go. There are tangents untaken, and implications unexplored. Maybe an upside to nostalgia is that it functions as is the cultural agent that lets us revisit what we aren't finished with yet.
Wish I could see the show! Hope its good, sounds like it will be for sure be fun.
- sally mckay 7-22-2004 7:27 pm
I like it. It reminds me of my early drawings in MacPaint.
- chatterdada 7-24-2004 10:29 am
As many people might feel, there is a huge chunk of adolesence contained in the early graphics of Mac programs, Ataris, and Nintendo Entertainment systems. I too agree with suspicion of nostalgia, and being 24, this is one of my first sincere attempts at dealing with nostalgia from my life span. Of course fashion and other cultural commodites cycle around us, but I think there is something different about my generation's socialization through the interactive. One could argue that toys of the 60's and 70's have a level interactivity, but early video games changed this paradigm by bringing a highly complex environment of interactivity. I think Cory Arcangel has a significant point when discussing 'internal architectures' inside of nintendo games. In addition to this, I feel that our (people who grew up with early video games) relationship to games involves one of importing virtual structures and scenarios. It is strange to hear a band like The Advantage who replays NES songs verbatim. I immediately realized my memory was still encoded with every note to every song, and along with that, all of the maps, levels, strategies, items to be found, and sleep lost over these games. There is definitely a cultural divide in terms of complexity and a variety of vantage-points that video games brought us in the 80's. We still have a lot of information to sort out. Sorry this is so long.
- jimmy baker (guest) 8-15-2004 3:40 am
A quick thanks for your comment. I have a reply in progress that I hope to post on the blog soon.
- tom moody 8-15-2004 8:38 am