Created by: Matthew, Damon, Tom and Josh
By: bran
Wow! This corpse is a blast to look at - the blending is fantastic! Compositionally, the veritcal, downward flow, and the repeated conical and spiral imagery are great - very solid. The colors are thoughtful and well-harmonized, and the individual visual metaphors that are raised are very witty and sexy.
What are we trying to say about cones and spirals, subconsciously, and their relationship to (*sexy*) human bodies (see Brittany in panel 2, and the three semi-nude bodies in panel 3)? Check out the snake, also, in panel three (sea-serpent/dragon thingy...) - kind of a metaphorical blend of spirals and cones, when you think about it... And what are Damon's real feelings for Brittany? (After all, he's looking awfully cheekish and reaching for his crotch to the right of her...) It spins down nicely in the last panel, as well (and I can't tell you how much fun I had with the first panel).
So, all in all, I think that this is a wonderful corpse and worthy of a place in a Best of Gallery.
March 15, 2002 09:59 AM
By: Andrew
Wowza! Excellent corpse, all!
As Bran said, beautiful transitioning work, combined with well-unified imagery. One of my favorites so far.
March 15, 2002 10:16 AM
By: Charles
Very slick! Could be a Bennaton ad.
March 15, 2002 10:19 AM
By: Gabriel
Okay, Gabe the complainer here.
At first I was about to congratulate Damon on a masterful blend with Matthew's tile--the matching of Brittney's arm and hair was uncanny.
To good to be true: I realized what he had done and I'd like to point it out to the group so perhaps we can get a revision posted to the rules, or at least agree not to do it.
Damon has incorporated Matthew's strip into his own tile. Notice that the corpse is only 785 pixels high, instead of a full 800. This is due to the fact that Matthew's tile was absorbed by Damon's. It's much easier to get great transitions this way, but seemingly against the pure corpse idea that I've formed in my mind. The horse, Brittney, and the flag are all elements of Damon's artwork that he pushed on to the fringe of Matthew's.
So maybe I'm the only one who thinks this isn't right, but I thought I'd point it out.
Great corpse anyway though...
March 15, 2002 10:20 AM
By: damon
brandon, man...damn!
i'm not reaching for anything... that's just where my hand rests when i have to pose for pictures. yeesh... the role of cheeky spectator/ogler was intentional, though.
who's in the photo in top panel? i keep thinking it's osama bin laden, which might show my ignorance if it's the person attributed to that phrase.t
March 15, 2002 10:30 AM
By: damon
what? well, perhaps i've misread the rules, because this is the same thing i did in my first corpse (0065, i think). without being indignant, it looks better that way. hope this won't cause a stink. am i going to have to appear before congress on this?
i'd better start to delete files...
March 15, 2002 10:40 AM
By: Jessica
Beautiful!
Everyone did a fantastic job, and Matthew, wow, what a great starting panel.
March 15, 2002 10:44 AM
By: RJD
Love the colors - a great corpse!
I thought of Laurie Anderson's 'O, Superman' when I saw the military guy in Tom's and the 'long arm' in Josh's - very nice.
Gabriel,
I thought the same thing you did, that all 4 panel corpses should be 800 pixels hight and all 5 panel corpses should be 1000, but going back and reading the rules page, it seems that you are given the option of overlaying your corpse section onto the strip you are given, as long as the final section you send is only 200 high. That seems like cheating to those of us who didn't realize it was an option.
I think the rules could be a little more clear and that you should have to indicate which choice you made when you send in your section.
I think I personlly like the idea that you can see the previous person's work, but that you can't change it.
March 15, 2002 11:08 AM
By: mirla
Actually, I seem to recall Phineas posting something about its being okay to mess with the slice you get and add it into yours. But what I don't understand, Damon, is how you got Matthew not to send his whole panel. What, did he lop his bottom pixels off so it would seamlessly blend with the remodeled 15 pixels, or did he, like another corpster, assume he wasn't supposed to send the bottom 15 to Corpse Central. Hmm...
It does seem to require more skill to simply continue from the slice you've been given, rather than editing it. Still like the corpse though - think it looks great (even though Brittany Spears perpetually makes me want to retch).
March 15, 2002 11:27 AM
By: michael
As has been pointed out, the overlap thing has been going on for a little while now. It's nothing new. I do have mixed feelings about it though.
There's two ways I view it. First would be the obvious one, which is, it feels a bit like an intrusion. Someone may have created what they thought would be an excellent transition area for their fellow corpser, only to see it dismissed and 'covered over' as it were. This is also dependent on how much of an intrusion there was. Sometimes it's just a peek of something from the section below. Occasionally that 15px area has been covered up entirely to make the transition more seamless.
The second way I view this sort of thing is to try to see it in the spirit of this experiment and in the spirit of collaborative art. However, this is where it all gets grey. The question of equality of space and feelings of intrusion are certainly to be expected. I feel everyone has to be ok with it, for it to be ok. I don't think we want to step on each others toes, or clip each others wings.
I do also think this sort of thing stems out of how to deal with transition or 'flow'. All sections except the first have to deal with how to best transition from the previous piece. And since we use a different medium for our experiments here, people tend to approach it differently.
The overlap thing hasn't happened often, but when it does, I still find myself on the fence about whether or not I like the idea. Ultimately it's px;'s game and I'm just here to pee in the sandbox play.
March 15, 2002 11:30 AM
By: Matthew
Wow, nice work everyone!
The face at the top is Buster Keaton, but the phrase is
attributed to the office manager of the mathematics
department for which I teach. It's written on a little guide
to repairing the photocopier which has three large
components (like an insect!). However, treating the machine
like an insect doesn't mean squashing it, pinning it to
styrofoam, or appreciating its unquestionably critical role in
the ecosystem. Rather, it means to remove the head and
abdomen before trying to fix the body, just as you would
with any insect...
Oh, and overlap schmoverlap. If it helps get llamas and
skiers on a Buster Keaton mountain I'm all for it.
Thanks for the nice comments!
March 15, 2002 12:00 PM
By: D
incorporating was deemed okay way back in the first month after I did it twice. Besides, the flow of a corpse can make or break it and here it has most certainly made it. A great corpse, well done all.
March 15, 2002 12:02 PM
By: jaime
I just wanted to give my two cents on the overlap/slice issue. I think it's better not to modify the last person's slice. You can still make it blend seamlessly. I just open up a new file in photoshop that is 15 pixels higher than my section is supposed to be and paste the last person's slice at the top. (Keep the slice as a separate layer, or at least a copy of it as a separate layer so that you can overlap it as you make your section and still bring the original slice to the foreground to check how it will look.) When you're done, lop off the top 15 pixels before you send it in. Easy cheesy.
March 15, 2002 12:23 PM
By: me
I agree with jaime. Having two options for the slice is too confusing, and by being explicit that you must not include it in your pixel space makes it very clear, and gives you the full 200 pixels high to work with. So, I second Jaime's instructions, and recommend that they be included in the rules. Then, everyone can focus on creating and how wonderful these exquisite corpses are.
March 15, 2002 12:37 PM
By: Gabriel
Jaime: That's exactly the process I go through.
Regarding the rules, quoth the rulemaker:
You have the option of including and modifying the strip you are sent if you feel that doing so will smooth a transition and benefit the Corpse generally. Or you can only use the strip as a cue and fill you 200 vertical pixels with completely original material.
March 15, 2002 12:48 PM
By: Tom
Oh Wow! That came together much better than I had hoped - I was convinced that my slice was going to look awful - that it wouldn't fit or blend at all - and while it's not the smoothest transition of all time, I think it's come together pretty well! Phew! NEXT!
March 15, 2002 01:11 PM
By: Jerry
ok, here goes... I like this corpse! very cool.
I always take the 15 pixels sent to me, add it to a 450x200 blank canvas and add to the 15 sent to me. I find it challanging to guess what ends are sent to me and really look forward to the end result. I would never want to see the entire piece of the previous work though. It's a fun guessing game. ok, so there ya go! Great job folks!
March 15, 2002 01:42 PM
By: Jerry
BTW, The face at the top.. George Washington from the $1 bill. No?
March 15, 2002 01:43 PM
By: djc
Wow! perfect transitions, colour blending and composition.
On the subject of blending my understanding of the process accords with jaime. No matter what you do with the slice you are given, it is only *your* 200px continuation that goes into the final composition. You send 200x450px to EC and copy the last 15px of that to the next on the list. I too find it useful to start with a 215x450px canvas, place the incomming strip in its own layer at the top, and then cut it away before posting my contribution.
March 15, 2002 01:46 PM
By: Suzanne
On the topic of redoing the slice you receive -- I received a slice with that appeared to me to be a flaw in it.
No matter what I did with the slice, there would have seemed to have been a seam because of this flaw, which was a 1px line from the right of the panel part way through a rounded colour, right at the bottom of the strip, as if a larger object's anti-alias was included.
Having the ability to minorly edit the piece that came before made a big difference. I edited that small flaw (or what I perceived to be a flaw). Of course, then Murphy stepped up and everything took a tumble, but this was the panel in question.
I don't really think it's a matter of skill alone that determines whether you need to edit the strip. It's all for the overall corpse, no?
March 15, 2002 02:46 PM
By: Suzanne
On the topic of this corpse: Smashing! I love the conical text. Not enough cones in the world, nor spirals!
March 15, 2002 02:51 PM
By: Sixtieslibber
I understand the philosophical issues but am missing a technical point here. If you modify the slice you are given and the modified slice (rather than the original one) ends up in the final corpse, doesn't that just create a bad transtion 15 pixels higher than it would have been otherwise? I don't see how it helps whatever the morality or aesthetics of the situation.
March 15, 2002 05:59 PM
By: Suzanne
Therein lies the skill, I think!
I saved the top row of pixels on the strip to keep it a clean transition, made some very minor revisions to the other rows, and changed the last row altogether.
The goal being not to replace the strip, but to make it work a bit better so the transition was more seamless. In my case, so a transition would be possible without a big black line in the middle of it.
Morality? It's game!
March 15, 2002 06:32 PM
By: RJD
mirla said - "But what I don't understand, Damon, is how you got Matthew not to send his whole panel."
Sixtieslibber - "...doesn't that just create a bad transtion 15 pixels higher than it would have been otherwise?"
I assume that it would have to be up to the corpse assembler to try to determine what is going on with the submitted slices and clip out an extra 15 pixels where necessary. That's why I said you should have to indicate which option you chose when you submit your section. This is part of why it seems unfair, some people will submit 200 pixels, but only end up with 185 pixels in the final assemblage.
March 16, 2002 10:05 AM
By: Phineas
Ok, seeing as I am the chief instigator and proprietor of this little experiment I suppose it's incumbent on me to address some of the issues everyone's tossing about here.
Before we had any practical experience in this it was our intention that each player would have a discrete 200 vertical pixels to work in. He or she would use their 15px strip as a cue, but build their section without impinging on the strip they were sent. Then, in the third posted Corpse D pushed his addition into the 15px strip he was given and incorporated it into his section. While it wasn't in the original intent of the rules it really worked and enlarged the possible directions a corpse could be pushed in.
Since then the D Maneuver has been used by a large number of corpsers (myself included) and I think the results of employing it bear themselves out. Some of my favorite corpses have used this. Sometimes on all the submitted slices. So there's no way I'm going to try and prohibit it now.
But I'd like to say something about the idea of people being cheated by others incorporating their 15px into subsequent sections. What I'd like to say is: bollocks. As long as the next player is working in the spirit of the experiment and cueing off of what they are sent, your 15px are intrisically directing the outcome of the whole piece. And if the next player isn't working in the spirit of the experiment it wouldn't have mattered either way.
And it is the whole piece we are concerned with. This is a collaborative effort to make one work of art. Not just to string together four or five pieces of randomness. So don't let's get proprietary about what we're submitting here. It's in the service of a whole that will, with a bit of luck, be greater than the sum of its parts. And if you're going to get upset about what becomes of that little strip of pixels, it may be that you are not emotionally prepared to play in what is, after all, a game.
March 16, 2002 11:53 AM
By: Jerry
Well said Darlin'
Miss Cleo told me the same thing when I consulted her on this issue!
March 16, 2002 06:17 PM
By: hilary
Jaime, that's EXACTLY what I do too. I didn't know anything about the D Maneuver and assumed such a thing was against the rules. Now that I know otherwise, I think I'll try it. :o)
Ok, gimme another corpse. I'm ready....
March 17, 2002 04:05 PM
By: damon
uh... right. well, once again i get something started. i wanted to mention that the person who got "shorted" 15 pixels in this corpse was me.
i had to do it. in the slice that i received from matthew, it was easy to ascertain the font he'd used, so i knew i wanted to extend that in the same staggered fashion he had begun. that was overlay impulse one.
impulse two came from what i can now see was more spiraling text. when i saw the slice, the tops of the text looked like a llama's head. so i scoured the web for llama pix, and placed one directly over the llama-like letters in the slice... for what i thought would make a keener transition.
no harm intended, and no harm done.
March 18, 2002 02:39 PM
By: kat
this one is just soooo nice!! from the first moment i viewed it i was like "wow!" - all the panels work so well together :)
March 18, 2002 05:25 PM
By: cris
This is really amazing, so professional -did you guys channel a psychic?
March 21, 2002 12:25 PM
