Artmerce Evolution
posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 12:00 AM
Every time a question like one of those comes up, I need to do a little mental check and ask myself to define my goals here. Games can be a great avenue for an artist's creative expression. Whole new worlds can be created and explored. Some games are even vast collaborative art projects -- worlds being discovered and evolving in real time at the whim of participants around the globe. No game is really complete without this mass-mind involvement. Yet, at the same time, they are the engines that drive a huge commercial entertainment industry. These collections of little mathematical equations and dots on a screen are easily packaged and sold down at the corner mini-mall. It's easy to point to this and say "Commerce is a bad thing". "Don't commodify my art, man". I actually have little problem with my work being turned into something that will sell, as long as it is not a sell-out. Part of the fun of creating a product that can reach the masses is that there is a vast network of art participants ready to evolve the worlds we create. But, I have to ask myself, what I am doing here. Here at the coop, where I give my work away. Why do I do what I do? Is it art or is it commerce? Is it some hybrid, like commercial art? Prod-art? Art-merce?
The answer is that it is art. And that's that.
This is not to say that it is Art with a capital "A". I don't see it as something someone should stand around passively admiring. This stuff should never be hung in a gallery. What I mean by art is that this project allows me an avenue to filter the world through my eyes and send it back out to you with my own perspective on how I see it. You can appreciate it, you can scoff at it, you can take it and morph it to your own use, you can ignore it if you wish -- any one is an acceptable response as are any number of others. I won't mind any way. This is really just a way for me to relate to the world, and to communicate with other people. I want you to understand me and the best way for me to do so is to do it visually.
But commerce? Nope.
I made a conscious decision as I was pulling away from commercial projects last summer to make this a project that does not create a product. The work I send out to the void arrives to you "as-is", "no warranties of merchantability" is how I believe the open source crowd says. I create things to the best of my technical knowledge, trying to deliver objects that can actually be used by developers. I mean, I do want my work to be used and seen after all. There is craft involved in making this stuff. But, if it arrives without a normal map, or if it arrives in a format that a developer must import and export, I'm not going to lose any sleep. I purposely leave things a little raw in fact, because I expect everyone who receives my art to change it, modify it, evolve it. Think of my work as a nice neat little box of playdough cans, tools, and cutouts. It all looks pretty in the package, but the clay inside needs to be molded and played with before the substantive beauty happens. I am not providing to you a product meant to be consumed, enjoyed, and thrown away. I am giving you the tools and the raw stuff of creation -- it is up to you to decide its worth, value, and ultimate use. So, the answer to why I do things a certain way is that I am not here to manufacture a product.
Seeing as how I view what I do as an art project, I really care little about the most efficient path or getting something done on time or finding the "right" way to do things. I leave the efficiency for the stuff I don't want to do, like washing dishes (those of you who've chatted with me in the evenings are plenty familiar with my "time to do dishes" line). Anything to save time on menial tasks is well worth it so that I can concentrate on creating art. And there is nothing about the art creation on this project that feels menial or like a waste of time to me. I enjoy it all. My only real measure of how well I did something is if I can stand back, look at the model, and say that it is what I wanted to do. I also ask myself if I grew from the process of crafting it. If it meets those tests, then it is done. Often, I purposely avoid automated processes. I don't use tools that make things easier on myself. I believe that the very nature of my work utilizing a computer already relies on so many technological crutches that to add another one hinders my ability to give you my raw perception of the world. So, I avoid automated uvmap tools, I avoid making lightmaps, I avoid making normal maps, I avoid purchasing $2000 software. It's not terribly efficient. It eats up time. But it is the way I want it. The multilayered step-by-step process of discovering an object's complexities and intricacies takes me to another place -- my happy place.
My art place.
Stay free.
~shs~
During the course of this project I have been asked many times why I do something a certain way. Why don't I do normal maps? Why don't I use this great tool? Why do I paint textures with lighting in them? Why did I put so much/so little detail into a model? Why don't I do it some "better" way? Sometimes the answer is because I am just plain ignorant of the best way. Sometimes it is because of good old-fashioned stubbornness, of which I lay claim to more than my fair share. But these are both lesser reasons, neither really get to the heart of why I am doing what I do here. Deep down, it all comes down to a seemingly simple answer -- it's about art.
Every time a question like one of those comes up, I need to do a little mental check and ask myself to define my goals here. Games can be a great avenue for an artist's creative expression. Whole new worlds can be created and explored. Some games are even vast collaborative art projects -- worlds being discovered and evolving in real time at the whim of participants around the globe. No game is really complete without this mass-mind involvement. Yet, at the same time, they are the engines that drive a huge commercial entertainment industry. These collections of little mathematical equations and dots on a screen are easily packaged and sold down at the corner mini-mall. It's easy to point to this and say "Commerce is a bad thing". "Don't commodify my art, man". I actually have little problem with my work being turned into something that will sell, as long as it is not a sell-out. Part of the fun of creating a product that can reach the masses is that there is a vast network of art participants ready to evolve the worlds we create. But, I have to ask myself, what I am doing here. Here at the coop, where I give my work away. Why do I do what I do? Is it art or is it commerce? Is it some hybrid, like commercial art? Prod-art? Art-merce?
The answer is that it is art. And that's that.
This is not to say that it is Art with a capital "A". I don't see it as something someone should stand around passively admiring. This stuff should never be hung in a gallery. What I mean by art is that this project allows me an avenue to filter the world through my eyes and send it back out to you with my own perspective on how I see it. You can appreciate it, you can scoff at it, you can take it and morph it to your own use, you can ignore it if you wish -- any one is an acceptable response as are any number of others. I won't mind any way. This is really just a way for me to relate to the world, and to communicate with other people. I want you to understand me and the best way for me to do so is to do it visually.
But commerce? Nope.
I made a conscious decision as I was pulling away from commercial projects last summer to make this a project that does not create a product. The work I send out to the void arrives to you "as-is", "no warranties of merchantability" is how I believe the open source crowd says. I create things to the best of my technical knowledge, trying to deliver objects that can actually be used by developers. I mean, I do want my work to be used and seen after all. There is craft involved in making this stuff. But, if it arrives without a normal map, or if it arrives in a format that a developer must import and export, I'm not going to lose any sleep. I purposely leave things a little raw in fact, because I expect everyone who receives my art to change it, modify it, evolve it. Think of my work as a nice neat little box of playdough cans, tools, and cutouts. It all looks pretty in the package, but the clay inside needs to be molded and played with before the substantive beauty happens. I am not providing to you a product meant to be consumed, enjoyed, and thrown away. I am giving you the tools and the raw stuff of creation -- it is up to you to decide its worth, value, and ultimate use. So, the answer to why I do things a certain way is that I am not here to manufacture a product.
Seeing as how I view what I do as an art project, I really care little about the most efficient path or getting something done on time or finding the "right" way to do things. I leave the efficiency for the stuff I don't want to do, like washing dishes (those of you who've chatted with me in the evenings are plenty familiar with my "time to do dishes" line). Anything to save time on menial tasks is well worth it so that I can concentrate on creating art. And there is nothing about the art creation on this project that feels menial or like a waste of time to me. I enjoy it all. My only real measure of how well I did something is if I can stand back, look at the model, and say that it is what I wanted to do. I also ask myself if I grew from the process of crafting it. If it meets those tests, then it is done. Often, I purposely avoid automated processes. I don't use tools that make things easier on myself. I believe that the very nature of my work utilizing a computer already relies on so many technological crutches that to add another one hinders my ability to give you my raw perception of the world. So, I avoid automated uvmap tools, I avoid making lightmaps, I avoid making normal maps, I avoid purchasing $2000 software. It's not terribly efficient. It eats up time. But it is the way I want it. The multilayered step-by-step process of discovering an object's complexities and intricacies takes me to another place -- my happy place.
My art place.
Stay free.
~shs~
posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 12:00 AM
1 Comments:
here here buddy
the way we want to, because we want to
6:02 PM
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