:: sacred arrow rain/call itha draw/inexplicable/what monstrous god/gotta light ::
Gonzo, Bjorn,Shaun,John and Melanie
[ Melanie created her section as an animated .gif image, and while saving the entire Corpse as a .gif is unreasonable bandwidth-wise, creating a popup of her work isn't. So here it is.
::| an.exquisite.corpse : discussion : 31 |::
I really like the notion of using animated gifs.
Though linking from one would be nightmare... challenge.
I know it couldn't be done all the time, but would creating the odd Flash or gif corpse be possible?
Eoin at May 27, 2002 11:13 AM
I was charmed and amused by the giant picture of Will Smith. Now that's surreal!!
Haleee at May 27, 2002 11:20 AM
I think I'd like it better if (Will Smith) had anything at all to do with the 15px in front of it. Maybe I'm not on the right drugs to see it...
Jessica at May 27, 2002 11:46 AM
i dont care for the will smith section. i dont get a very good sense of continuity from this corpse.
gerald at May 27, 2002 12:14 PM
I have mixed feelings on this. I was hoping the color scheme would be established. I really like the blending done by Bjorn and John though.
But, I like the idea of the animated corpse. Maybe do a 'special' one that's fully animated?
Gonzo at May 27, 2002 12:33 PM
Mmmm sections 1 and 2 work together, sections 3 and 4 work together but the wil smith bit just ignores the previous strip altogether. Nope -I don't like it when the artist totally ignores the strip they've been given. Surely the whole point is to be inspired by and work from what you've been given. Otherwise it's just ramming unconnnected random images together - which can be surreal in it's self -much like the "Umbrella and sewing machine on an operating table" way. But it's not exquiste corpsing -it's just laziness.
groc at May 27, 2002 12:37 PM
whut? i don't see any animated gif-ing....
mac/ie
kat at May 27, 2002 12:56 PM
This is corpse is far too pretentious, from the rainy medieval theme at the top; through scratchy, angsty goth art in the second panel; self-congratulatory intellectual reference in the fourth; and ridiculous overblown animation at the bottom. At least Shaun, seeing that the 15px he had been given was a pile of tosh, had the sense of humour to make a clean break and throw in Will Smith.
The title says it all.
Burnyeat at May 27, 2002 2:56 PM
I don't find it funny. I think it's appauling. The other four participants' efforts are exceptional, and they should be angry with Shaun's disrespect.
My recommendation would be to remove the third slice by Shaun, make the 'sky' of the bird & swimmer mesh with the last 15 pixels of Bjorn's offering, and you'd have a very nice 4piece corpse. No offense meant towards Will Smith or Shaun personally, but it's insensitive and unfair to allow anyone to treat their place up at bat in this project so flippantly. If this is kept unchecked, there are mischief makers out there who would threaten to topple the whole house of cards. All Shaun did was turn one jpg of a celebrity on its side and copypaste into the right size dimensions. The least he could have done was blend the background properly with the previous participant. There was minimal thought and creativity put into his work. I for one am offended.
I've noticed a tendency by most of us to be openminded and polite in our discussions of the art being made here, and rightly so! We're not pretentious and overpaid art critics judging one another's work. We're just appreciating each other's efforts and enjoying this grand experiment in collaborative expression. However, I find Shaun's effort inexcusable and I hazard to guess mean-spirited towards the other four participants also on this corpse. There is no doubt still a long line of people wanting to participate in this project. When it was my turn, I did my best to create something fun, thought provoking and in keeping with the spirit of the idea. I'd ask nothing more or less from anyone else.
Also, in reference to Melanie's offering (which I will admit is a colorful and imaginative concept), an animated gif is strongly discouraged in the Rules section if I'm not mistaken, yet this is the second or third time I've seen it attempted. Why bother making an animated graphic for the corpse when it's clear that it's not part of the project? To make an animated graphic corpse work, first you'd need much more bandwidth. Then you'd need every participant of the corpse to make the same number of frames for their respective gifs, the same time delays per frame, and each frame would have to mesh pixel for pixel with the time respective frame of the previous participant. Is what we're doing now not enough of a challenge for some people? Many can't properly mesh pixel for pixel with only one image to worry about.
Let's try to consistently get static corpses right before exploring the idea of making an excessive high-bandwidth corpse movie.
ZachsMind at May 27, 2002 8:37 PM
Oh good grief.
Anyhow.
Kat - I've got a Mac/IE combination and I can see Mel's cool little thingy just fine.
mirla at May 27, 2002 10:22 PM
Kat - Edit > Preferences > Web Content (left hand menu of dialog box) > check "Show animated gifs" (right hand of dialog box). Then reload the page with Mel's gif. I keep animated gifs habitually turned off because 99% of the time they are just ads. (Doesn't stop Flash ads, though *sigh*)
I think poor Will Smith does break the corpse... Ok, so technically this is art, and that means that anyone can do whatever they like and it will still be art - but that alone doesn't make it good art. I thought the point of corpsing was specifically to make art using someone else's starting point, which I don't think that panel does. 'Nuff said.
Elizabeth at May 28, 2002 7:41 AM
Elizabeth ~ thanks for the suggestion, but i just looked & animated gifs was already checked... so, i dunno why i am the only one not able to see the thing. *sigh*
kat at May 28, 2002 10:41 AM
ohgoodgrief... kat is a dork. i didn't read the note about the gif & the separate link. yes, click the link & then i can see the gif animate. *kat turns beet red*
kat at May 28, 2002 10:44 AM
Thank you zachsmind, for daring to object. A lot of people do work very hard on their sections, and what Shaun did is pretty disrespectful. If you don't want to participate, just let Phineas know. Don't ruin other people's work.
Having said that, I'm very pleased with the rest of the corpse. I love the top two pieces in particular, and while it's hard to make an animated section work, I think Melanie's part is great as a stand-alone.
As far as the "self-congratulatory intellectual reference" in my section, it's called a joke. The "monstrous god" who's directing his angels of death to do their work, BTW, is (for lack of a better descriptor) my "stepson". Instead of "What Monstrous God", I like to think of the title as "What Monstrous God?".
John at May 28, 2002 11:52 AM
I completely agree with ZachsMind. Except on a grander scale I think any time someone does not take considerable effort to blend their corpse into the one before it is offensive.
But who knows, maybe Shaun was pulling a funny much akin to my prior comment (that was blown out of proportion) about cutting-and-pasting pictures into corpses and calling them art.
According to the large majority of the comments on the corpses on the site, what Shaun did is clever, witty, and most definately... art!
Who are any of you to judge Shaun's idea of art? Hmm?
Quite frankly I like the image of Will Smith being an object of ANGER and appearing in a body bag in the lower segment. (The concept being that ANGER is more of a cause of violence as opposed to ANGST, which I would consider as being like 'little kids playing DOOM' and not 'little kids shooting up their schools,' which is obviously ANGER).
It would be Melanie's corpse that would upset the balance of the DARK (top) and LIGHT (bottom). In all, without Melanie's corpse, I think the corpse reflects the darkness of anger/life and the lightness of death. (Even through the act of violence, I suppose Death for Will Smith could only be a good thing).
On top of that I find the fact that Melanie would try to do an animated corpse offensive, because she should have known it would mess up the flow and continuity, and over all her corpse wouldn't blend at all, any way, so why do it?
*takes a bow*
Stuy Parker at May 28, 2002 2:29 PM
BTW: Bjorn's segment is the best, for obvious reasons.
Stuy Parker at May 28, 2002 2:31 PM
If I walk in and take a dump on your dining room table--GG Allin style--you might consider it art. Hell, *I* might consider it art. But that doesn't mean it doesn't stink.
Art is confrontational. Art is disruptive. Art is, often, rude. I dig that and--giving him the benefit of the doubt--I dig Shaun's statement. But if the aim of the other corpsers involved was to *blend*, and his was to fuck us up, he has still detracted from whatever we were trying to convey. Our panels cease to have meaning of their own, and become merely a backdrop for him to contrast against. One could argue that the corpse as a whole is better for his having done this--maybe will smith on his side is the most accurate statement yet about what this whole EC project is--but it's been done at the expense of the other four corpsers.
If shaun can live with that--that's fine. If those who appreciate the corpse think it's worth it, then fine. I believe that Art supercedes the individual artist. But personally, I remain pissed. :-)
John at May 28, 2002 3:41 PM
Why are you arguing over whether Shaun's piece is art or not? What's relevant is whether it's corpsing, in the true spirit of the activity. And if I know my surrealism correctly, the idea is to reveal the true nature and essence of thought, by expressing it without aesthetic or moral concerns, without the structures of reason. Dropping the implausible psychologico-metaphysical aim, let's say our aim here is to reveal something, anything, interesting, by the same method.
Bjorn's segment fails in this respect. It is so heavily imbued with his own intention to express personal emotion, aesthetically. It severely restricts the whole corpse's chance of revealing something surprising in assembly. Similarly for the other segments.
Corpsing can be summarised with the following formula: 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1. A number of elements, with no (or as little as possible) meaning themselves, when put together take on meaning as a whole. Shaun has made an admirable attempt to participate in this holistic meaning-creation. The others, too interested in the glory of their own pieces, have ruined it.
Burnyeat at May 28, 2002 5:46 PM
Gonzo's piece isn't too bad.
Burnyeat at May 28, 2002 5:51 PM
ahem.
*best 'sam the eagle' voice*
"We are all weirdos."
that being said, if the (or _a_) purpose of art is to engage its viewer, to inspire emotion, discussion, and thought, well then, judging by the number and length of comments here, i'd say that shaun's gettin' jiggy with it. annoying? yes. provocative? apparently.
allen at May 28, 2002 11:29 PM
I really like the way this corpse started out but it certainly went south after that. Burnyeat makes a good point about the pursuit of the 'glory of their own pieces'. The only problem I have had with this whole corpsing thing is the pairing of those with questionable familiarity with the tools they use to edit the images with those who do not lack those skills. Things like this are bound to happen in a sort of 'free range' corpse situation. Not much we can do about it unless we want to formalize a sort of structure...those who can do...those who cant, but then who gets to decide that?
Gotta admit, its certainly provocative, we are all chatting it up...seems to have struck a chord.
As an aside, any info on when are those 3x3 grids going to be done?
moaiz at May 29, 2002 3:02 AM
The purpose of corpsing is not to be provocative and annoying at the expense of your fellow participants. The purpose is not to be or do ANYTHING at the expense of other participants. If someone wants to be provocative and annoying they can do so on their own time, with their own artistic projects. When you work with others, you should at least contribute responsibly. You should give others the same fair treatment they offer to you.
Shaun's piece brings to my mind an image of four preschool fingerpainters working together, and then a fifth kid just running in, throwing his dirty diaper on the table and running out snickering with the teacher hot on his heels. Sure his contribution illicited dialogue, but I can run into a movie theater and scream "fire" and illicit dialogue. There's a reason why such disruptions are illegal in our society.
What Shaun's done shouldn't be illegal, but it should be shunned and it shouldn't be acceptable behavior in this project. If everyone started doing what Shaun did, we might as well pack it up and not do corpsing at all anymore.
ZachsMind at May 29, 2002 1:32 PM
Hmmm, regardless of whether it works or not, it seems pretty apparent that will smith was just tossed in like a grenade -as such, it worked -too bad.
I agree that an animation has no place here but it would be an interesting experiment for those of us who can take a 15 pixel set of frames and do a moving corpse, lots of work though but maybe we could do one each time -any animation volunteers? Probably should limit number of frames though.
Cris at May 29, 2002 4:01 PM
anyone else noticed that Shaun hasn't said a single word here?
kat at May 29, 2002 6:55 PM
AUTHOR: michael
EMAIL: michael@hell.com
IP: 151.202.107.155
URL: http://www.treetrybe.com/imm/
DATE: 05/29/2002 08:27:50 PM
michael at May 29, 2002 8:27 PM
*wild applause*
Stuy Parker at May 30, 2002 12:56 AM
Now THAT is funny! (And appropriate.)
Craig at May 30, 2002 10:45 AM
Does anyone else find ZachsMind's moral crusade a little ridiculous? To compare using a non-connected image of Will Smith in an online drawing game, to various illegal activities?
Burnyeat at May 31, 2002 8:19 AM
Yes, Zachs mind seems rather small. He often decides to criticize what he perceives as the intent and technique when these corpses don't meet his seemingly narrow personal definition of what constitutes art.
I just ignore him, because I know his opinion is only his opinion, but it is rather tiresome...
Jason at May 31, 2002 4:39 PM
4 selfish pieces.
jonny at June 2, 2002 12:18 AM
I like it. It really speaks to me.
Fresh Prince at April 19, 2005 12:27 PM
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An Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative experiment in the creation of visual art through the tapping of the collective unconscious...
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