Category Archives: Creative

Art.. and a bit of software

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Art is “the documentation of a thousand interesting decisions”.

Signs of Art from Rands in Repose… you’ll have to read this (at least the beginning) to get context of what I’m talking about… or you could miss these small letters and get confused… your choice


Now I don’t agree that this is the precise definition of art (fortunately I gave up thinking there was any such thing as a precise definition of anything a while back), but I do like its approach. And I think it brings up some notions of Art that don’t come with all those dusty textbook definitions from my Art theory class. I’ve certainly heard things about capturing/substance and difficulty/size/complexity but decisions — that is a new vantage point.

I like the notion of the decision making of/on/about Artwork because if you have ever been in the process of seriously trying to create — it seems like its all you are doing. Creating a mark of such shape, texture or bracketing your shot to attempt to get the exact exposure you want or decrescendoing till the note falls from your lips or designing your software abstraction in such an elegant and comprehensive fashion (well to start at least. we all know that abstractions are leaky and spherical).

The problem with decisions is that the term feels so rigid. Even the most non-organic of us still don’t think in black and white despite the fact our minds make us think that we do. You could never take a piece of Artwork and create a flow-chart from it. If you could, well… you are super-anal or its no where near a piece of art (moving to lowercase due to laziness). The decisions you make — while very intensive — are more often subtle (sometimes unknowingly subtle) or spontaneous and intuitive. Calculated decision making certainly takes place in artwork. “I like that wash, but I need to balance it.” … “How can I support the weight of that?” …”I need to use higher-speed film/this rated flash for this light.” … But, if you are you trying to create solely formulaicly* you will have a very difficult time (psst.. your subconscious is actually smarter than you think, let it have a bit more control every once and a while).

Does this mean that software is too black and white to be artistic? No way! I’ve already talked closely to this topic a bit before when I compared software to literature (word or sxw). In fact I think software is extremely artistic. Writing software is like having to elegantly dance a story around various constraints (hardware, language, requirements, OS, dependencies…). Sometimes you have to tip-toe, sometimes leap, but it all must be smoothly interconnected and yet still be recognized as part of a whole.

Where I disagree with Rand(s?) is his critical eye of modern art. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of it either (most of the time), but it does have its place in the art world. One part of art is the progression of itself. Post Moderns built off the Moderns built off the Abstractionists built off the Cubists built off the Impressionists built off the Romantics… I really am no art buff (believe me, I just looked at Wikipedia to make sure that what I just said isn’t too glaringly wrong), but I feel that part of the point of modern art is that it is so different that you have a difficult time placing it as art. Artists need to explore, need to push the boundaries, and also need to cross the line. If there wasn’t anyone saying something isn’t art, then how can it be art?

I help rationalize this because I do not think that there is anything that completely un-artful (yes double negatives can sometimes make more sense then their counterpart). So art to me is more of a spectrum to me than a classification. And more so, things can be more artistic to some than others. This has to be true since so much of the importance is the experience you have with the work. A piece can only be boring if everyone had the same response! Then all you would have to do is read a review to tell you what that response is.

Whew.. why don’t you go forth and break some new boundies then?

* probably not a word, but I like it nonetheless

Climb your own mountain…

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Inspired from Chris’s post

Impressive. Quite eloquent yet still same old Chris underneath.

I think that you are quite right that the religious “seed” of many comes from such spiritually inspiring situations. It is unfortunate that as our memory of the experience fades in time we tend (we as in the world) to latch on to the dogmas we’ve learned/been taught/guilt-ed into rather than maintaining the captivating sense of wonder we originally experienced.

I believe this happens since seeking the truth is difficult, in fact I would even call it scary. When searching for truth you are teetering on a razor-thin cliff which is constantly crumbling underfoot as you ascend. At some point you realize that you have no choice but to switch to another equally precarious ledge in order to continue. The new path will become safer over time, but inevitably it will start to crumble and you will repeat the process again, and again, and …

Isn’t is easier, safer, and more practical to stop and set up camp when the path broadens? Yes in fact it is. But don’t you remember why you started the climb in the first place? Was it to reach safe ground? Or was it to get a better look at the stars in the sky?

Its true that some of you have been carried up some distance unknowingly. Some of you have accepted this and learned to live where you were placed. Yet a few others have either stormed ahead or ran back down as fast as possible, arms failing.

No matter how you have gotten to where you are remember why you have set off on this climb. If you don’t know that answer there is no shame climbing back down. As soon as you reach the bottom you will realize that there is only one way to go — up. You may decide to climb right back up the path you went down or start up another one entirely, but at least this time you will know why.

And equally there is no shame to continue climbing up, even without reason or assurance. You may come to place where you can no longer continue up and have to come back down. But that is not a bad thing since you have learned that the path you were on was not for you.

In fact there there is no shame however fast you are moving up or down, as long as you are moving. Sure every once and a while you may stop and take in the view, but hopefully another glance at the stars will set you in motion again.

I’d have to say that I’m currently taking a slow stroll down mine. Where are you on your mountain?

A new approach…

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![41048549][small][] Ah, yet another few weeks of no update despite all the times I’ve told myself, “Ya know, that would be something good to blog about.” To help fix this, I’m going to try to force myself to post something everyday. No, not because I think that I need to publicly express myself that much, but rather to force myself to actually try and write something. I don’t care whether I post a single link or single sentence (maybe I should do something more than just a word though).

I think my problem of desiring to write yet somehow never getting around to it is rooted in my wonderfully helpful/inconvenient perfectionism. With every good idea comes to guilt of taking the time to do it justice. So lets cut the crap and see how it goes.

Another idea, to play around with Writeboard, try a somewhat collaborative “blogstorming”, give myself a head start, and keep myself accountable I’ve created a blog ideas writeboard. Feel free to check it out, insert suggestions, and do whatever with it. The password is timmfin (and tell me if you have problems with it!).

Design, design, design…

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Well, if you are looking at this (not in an RSS feed) you porbably have noticed that things have changed to something new (finally). Its really not complete and there are still many small fixes and bugs. The biggest of which is how small pages (like the artwork page) break in Internet Explorer. I’ve only really tested the site with Firefox (if you don’t know what this is, go and try it!) and IE 6. If any of you are using other browsers (especially the Mac/Safari crowd), please look around and tell me if anything looks wrong/funny.