Ken

Freedom: A closer look at Enslaved

2011-07-09T05:18:14Z

Another quick piece on Destructoid from yours truly, examining the way in which gameplay and narrative elements work together to reinforce a theme.

(inner voice: Don't say ludonarrative harmony. Don't do it. It makes you a wanker. Resissssssst!)

Freedom: A Closer Look At Ninja Theory's Enslaved.

Once a boy named Mr. Me...

2011-06-25T22:22:46Z

Goddammit, not this guy again. Every time I'm wandering through my head just minding my own business and trying to have a good time, this fucker shows up. Just be cool. You didn't hear him.

"Ignoring me? Yeah, that'd work if this was a busy street or some bullshit, maybe. I'M IN YOUR HEAD, JACKASS..."

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Street art, Stockholm, Summer 2009.

"Hey. Hey guy. Hey, guy who didn't write anything today. YOU SUCK!"

Goddammit, not this guy again. Every time I'm wandering through my head just minding my own business and trying to have a good time, this fucker shows up. Just be cool. You didn't hear him.

"Ignoring me? Yeah, that'd work if this was a busy street or some bullshit, maybe. I'M IN YOUR HEAD, JACKASS. You and me are the ONLY PEOPLE HERE RIGHT NOW, SO YOU OBVIOUSLY HEARD ME."

Balls. "Look, alright, it's so important to you, why don't YOU write something? Just let me sit here and nurse my recovering cold and drink coffee and play video games and not care for two seconds."

"Oh yeah? Yeah, I think maybe NO. That's not my job, you fucking scrub. YOU'RE the 'writer,' if you could even call it that. I'M YELLING GUY. I JUST YELL. THAT'S MY THING, AND I'M DOING IT. YOU'RE NOT DOING YOUR THING. THAT'S WHY I'M YELLING. ASSHOLE!"

I really hate it when Yelling Guy is right. I don't like that he lives in my head and has a really negative attitude about everything. But he's right in the sense that, if I don't put forth effort to create on a regular basis, then I'll get sad. And Yelling Guy really doesn't like Sad Guy, because Sad Guy makes him weak and sleepy. So he yells at Lazy Guy to get him to turn into Writing Guy, and as long as Writing Guy is around, then Sad Guy is stuck out in the brush somewhere, and things stay okay.

I spend a lot of time resenting Lazy Guy. He seems like a broken part of the equation, right?

But we need Lazy Guy too, is the thing. Lazy Guy is the one who knows how to chill out and have a good time. Lazy Guy understands that a lot of the problems that we struggle with are self-created ones, and that a good many of them can be solved by just chilling the fuck out, having a beer, or having a nap. Without Lazy Guy around, we would absolutely be hair-chewing pants-shitting bugfuck crazy.

But Lazy Guy has a half life. At a certain point, doing nothing provides diminishing returns. And that's why Yelling Guy is here.

To remind me to keep it moving. Movement is life. Stasis is death. Stay static for long enough to wave hi to gentle death, but keep on moving moving on, because you'll be back to stay before long.

You'll be back to stay, before long.

Don't Forget - the Century Linker

2011-01-25T05:27:24Z

My post history is as spare as ever! Let's amend that a bit, today.

I should probably get back to using del.icio.us to bookmark things, although I'm still not quite convinced that Yahoo intends to keep it around. But for expediency's sake, a while ago I started mailing myself links that I found interesting but never had time to actually read while at work, because, you know, working.

I started an email with the subject line, "Don't forget," and every time I found something of interest, I'd open it, paste the link, reply, and then get back to whatever it was I was supposed to be doing. But, I never really would get around to revisiting them very often - they'd just sit there, collecting in my inbox.

Luckily, gmail queues continuing conversations under the same line. But a few days ago, I discovered that the queue has a limit. The limit is 100 (a round, sensible number, like the number of soldiers Gatsu killed in one evening in order to keep his loved ones safe.)

Good old terrifying, broken Gatsu.

Anyway, once you hit the 100th post, the thread is finished. If you continue to reply to it, it simply starts a brand new thread with the same subject line. No real problem, but I found myself thinking, "Really? A hundred links, and I've barely bothered to engage with them past noting their existence. Oh internet, have I ceased to appreciate your beauty? Am I merely a gawking bystander now, without the patience to drink in your grisly, magical wonder? FORSOOTH. It cannot be. WHAT HAVE I BECOME???"

Accordingly, it seems like at the very least, I should hand the information off to more people who might have some kind of interest. Plenty of these are way old, and in internet-time, where anything that was posted longer than three hours ago is Old News, I'm sure it'll be unimpressive to many of the techno elite. But you know, fuck those guys.

According to that magical site of wonders io9, IBM now has the technology to recreate a working cat-brain inside of a computer. If you don't understand why that is awesome, I challenge you to prove to me that you are more complicated than a cat in any significant way. Maybe you can! But maybe you just think you can, because you're a biased human that believes Costco is actually a positive mark of cultural progress rather than a temple to caloric suicide.

The cat robot revolution is coming. Mark my words. Its heralds are already among us. You were warned.

Long Gone Automaton

2010-12-02T04:32:35Z

Should you find it to be geographically plausible, you should by all means track down Edward Bateman's Mechanical Brides of the Uncanny exhibit at your earliest convenience. Failing that, simply following the link may bring some small, fascinating glimmer of the future past to your present. Finding oneself puzzled by the strange and wondrous inventions of the modern age, it is often a comfort to look back and the strange and wondrous inventions of yesteryear, to find that in some respects the world is not now more saturated with amazement than it has ever been, though the aesthetics may change with each passing year.

And to all ye Floating Island denizens that have drifted many places in this specific passing year - fire off a warning flare from time to time, so that we can see you off the bow and estimate your locations. We'll swing around and pick you up eventually, never fear.

Man on the Street - Freezepop, Portland

2010-10-21T23:29:14Z

We sent our cyberpsychonaut into a Pacific Northwest orbital velocity to investigate. He never came back. About a month later, we received this capsule containing a recorded communication, $12, an opium pipe and a breath mint. Apparently, it was a hell of a show.

]]> Freezepop show. Chris Onstad was there, so they performed the "Philippe is a very special boy" song. And of course, Science Genius Girl.

K: Well, shit. That's awesome.

T: But my fave was opening act Ming and Ping.

T: Imagine if the love child of Bowie and Billy Idol grew up in a Chinese opera house. In the future. With the Monkey King as hypeman, and Fu Manchu on drums.

T: Also he talks to and sins [sic] with his 'twin' who is on a video screen with psychedelic backgrounds.

T: In the Blade Runner future we were promised, this is what blares from floating video screens in our rainy metropolis.

K: Welcome back to the future.

T: Oh, indeed. Good night and good luck, good sir.

Word of the day: Panopticon

2010-09-16T19:57:00Z

1) From Wikipedia:

The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in 1785. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the incarcerated being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the "sentiment of an invisible omniscience."^[1]

Bentham himself described the Panopticon as "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."^[2]

But wait, there's more.

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The prison in Silent Hill - The Room is a type of panopticon. The wikipedia entry for panopticon also contains a list of actual prisons built on this principle.

The word panopticon can also refer to any room or place for the exhibition of novelties or oddities, or simply a room where everything is clearly visible.

In addition, "Panopticons" refers to a set of four modern scupltures located in Lancashire. Check out the Singing, Ringing Tree.

Finally, these scary camera birds are known as panoptICONS.

panoptICONS Utrecht 2010 from Helden on Vimeo.

You can find out more about these dark observers, here. Maybe they're in a city near you - let us know if you observe them, observing you. ^_^; As an art project, they invert and play with the word's meaning. We can refer to these creatures as panopticons, but they are a reminder that we are the ones in the prison. Further irony, in that birds are normally thought of as the free-est of the free.

According to Merriam Webster online, panopticon is not a word available to the hoi-palloi. You must pay for the privilege of access to vocabulary, by adding filthy lucre to the coffers of the stalwart guardians of culture at Merriam Webster. Luckily, we're here for you, simpleton dregs of the internet, providing you with free words to use at your discretion. No thanks necessary, netizen. Now be on your way.

We're watching you.

Welcome to the Plain of Jars

2010-09-06T20:16:37Z

The legends say that these huge stone jars in Laos were drinking vessels belonging to a race of giants. There are nearly a hundred of these sites, each having as few as one jar, or sometimes hundreds, scattered about the plains like plastic cups on the floor of a general admission area after the final act leaves the stage. Perhaps that's exactly what they are, the remains of a race of strange beings that visited to see something magnificent occur, and left when the lights came up.

If it were not for all the unexploded ordinance that still litters many of these sites, we could all explore there freely, like ants, dreaming of the giants' afterparty and sifting their dregs for nourishment.

Source: Weird Asia News

UFO Response Team

2010-08-26T18:57:44Z

So, I saw these guys driving east on Lincoln this morning, around 9:15 AM or so.

Photo by Timoni

This isn't the actual car that I saw; I tried to get a shot of it myself, but of course my piece of shit WinMo phone camera chose that perfect moment to crash, as it so often does. The shot in fact is from a Flickr user - and if you search for "UFO Response Team," you'll find a whole lot more. Not just from San Francisco, but from all over the place. The one I saw was nearly identical, though - a refurbished police cruiser, the top having been spray-painted a matte black to try to match the rest of the car, Response Team decal on the back, UFO "tally" on the bumper.

In fact, they seem to have their own website. A privately funded organization, clearly, if they can't afford a better than a blogger site. ;)

Either they're crazy enough to actually be trying to find UFOs, in which case my hat's off to them - or it's an art stunt. If it's the latter - what do you feel they're trying to say?

Artist aggro

2010-08-10T22:12:47Z

All of we Island denizens are creatives, covering the range from hobbyist to amateur to semi-pro to professional. On a regular basis, we take these creative activities that we love - writing, drawing, mixing, designing - and we ask ourselves, "Is there any way I could do this all the time, and support myself with it? Can I find a way to get by in this world, doing these things I enjoy? And if so, how?"

That being the case, I've been idly clicking back to this thread, which has been generating quite a buzz among Deviants and other creatives on the net.

]]> In summary, Christopher Gregorio is a 16 year old flash game developer, who has been able to generate some tens of thousands of dollars in profit. For a struggling fledgling, that's not too shabby!

In May 2010, he made the blog post that you'll find at the above link. Here is Object Lesson #1 - no matter how insignificant your little blog in your little corner of the web, somebody who doesn't like you can find that post and blow it up so huge you'll never be able to live it down.

Despite the cries of outrage and claims of eternal vengeance from the amateur art community, I have a feeling that this whole little internet fiasco will have blown over in about a week. However, it's a dialogue that is worth paying attention to, as it raises a number of questions that are vitally important for creators who are trying to make a living at what they do in this day and age.

I'm not going to get into arguing for one side or other - you can find comments sections for that in plenty of places. (Although, only a few commenters are actually handling the conversation with intelligence or tact - it is, after all, the Internet.) Rather, I'll just present some of the major talking points.

Part of the art of business is finding the best quality you can for the lowest price you can. If Resource A and Resource B are of comparatively equal quality, but one costs more, and you decide to pay the one that costs more, as a business person are you making the correct decision?
Many amateur artists will charge below-average prices for their services, due to inexperience or youth or desperation. If you take them up on this offer, knowing that other artists would charge more, does that mean you are exploiting them?
Is an freelance/contract artist working on a project entitled to know how much money the project makes?
On small projects, what is the value of profit-sharing?
On small projects, is it better sense to involve everyone as partners, or to aim for a more studio-like approach?
The author of the original piece advocates targeting younger, inexperienced creators, withholding all payment to the artist until project completion, as well as trumping up early deadlines and penalizing the artist for failing to meet those deadlines. Ethically, that is all obviously shaky at best, reprehensible at worst. But, as the viewpoint of a young, moderately successful developer, do you feel this attitude is likely to lead him to success or failure in the long run?
The language in the original post is pretty inflammatory, from the perspective of a struggling artist. Do you feel the art community's reaction is appropriate, constructive, or abusive - taking into account the OP's age and his target audience (young people needing to learn how to manage work for hire)?

Finally, Encyclopedia Dramatica sums things up thusly:

The entire debate in a nutshell

"FFS HE ONLY PAID ME $15 FOR THIS COMMISSION AND HE IS USING IT FOR A FUCKING MASSIVE PROJECT I FUCKING HATE HIM"
"How much did you ask for?"
"$15"

In conclusion, the entirety of DeviantART is fucking retarded.

While my sympathies are always with the artist, I have to say this sentiment is not entirely inaccurate. You might not want to work with this guy, but you need a correct understanding of why that is. Rather than being angry on the internet, let's form working partnerships with people who want to support us in the same way we want to support them. Let's be smart about what we do. Let's have these discussions and learn from them. Let's do the research on how the business works, rather than having a knee-jerk reaction and then patting ourselves on the back. Shall we?

Also see: Jon Jones' critique.

Sucker Punch

2010-08-03T07:16:18Z

My favorite Youtube comments so far:
"It's as if DeviantArt became a movie!"
"This is going to make so much sense."

Let Me In

2010-07-26T04:55:30Z

For the record, you should probably see Let the Right One In first, as it's a remarkable film. But there's some good buzz hovering around this remake, so you may want to keep an eye on it.

Beginnings and Endings

2010-07-12T04:37:41Z

Lali Singh of Sanai Sampura, India, was born with two faces, and lived for two months, according to the Wikipedia entry. Somewhat different than the condition of being a conjoined twin, Lali's condition was caused by an overabundance of a type of protein involved in the development of facial features.

How might our lives be different if we could look in two directions at once? How might language be different, if we could express two things at once? How might our lives be different if we could sing with two voices, smile with two smiles, cry twice as hard?

After she passed, it is said that they planned to build a temple in her memory. Here in the western Empire, we do not build temples to honor those so marked by difference. Mainly we bury them, and construct powerful dreams from their ashes. It's a different tradition.

Create the world

2010-07-09T21:43:26Z

Like puzzles, games, logic, fantasy, and world-building? Or perhaps, like me, you just have a god complex? Either way, you should go and play Doodle God. Like, right now. Frighteningly simple, frighteningly creative, frighteningly addictive.

Test Pattern

2010-07-04T10:19:54Z

My humblest apologies for the dearth of content. There were a couple of weeks of serious crunch going on at work, and a couple of weeks of visiting a strange and pleasant world. More updates to come. In the meantime, spend a little moment with the Sad Cow.

The Mysteries of the Crypt of Sansevero

2010-06-07T20:07:30Z

Now, as to the "black legends" surrounding the Prince of Sansevero, there are many, each stranger than the last. That he was a mysterious figure, multilingual, an inventor of wonders, a Mason, an artist - to these things we can attest, and speak of publicly.

But as to the darker rumors - the whispers that he experimented on human subjects, could create blood from nothing, and authored a process by which men could be transmuted into marble - of these things we cannot know. The path of deeper inquiry is open to you, should your -- unusual curiosities provoke you in that direction. As for us, we shall retreat to safer climes. Some stones are best left unturned.

-K