tom moody

On a topic we're constantly griping about here, Firefox is introducing an add-on to keep sharp pixels from going blurry when enlarged. It will apparently be introduced in Firefox 3.6.
(hat tip drx)

From my email to drx about this, some lingering questions/issues:

One thing I'm confused about: the screenshot for "crisp edges" is just as blurry as the screenshot for "optimize quality."
Also, this is optional so the Ordinary User would have to turn on "crisp edges" in Preferences, right?
That doesn't solve the problem of ordinary users seeing html-enlarged pixel art blurry. Most people never go into preferences.

On a conceptual level, I guess I didn't realize that SVG was vector and that most browsers use it now. [Big duh--but I never claimed to be an expert on this stuff, just a concerned artist user. See "Bitmap vs Vector" discussion.]
Resizing in a browser is always resampling, it's just a "taste" for nearest neighbor or bicubic.
This still seems wasteful to me but I guess there is no going back.

The discussion of Bug 423756 is as gripping as a Ken Ludlum novel.

Update: Since I wrote this it appears SVG isn't as universal as I thought--some browsers support it but the HTML5 standard has gone with an Apple graphics rendering element called Canvas, which is bitmap-based rather than vector-based.

There are fans, and then there are fans of fans.

mixed media, 42 x 34 inches

1 (Chicago cable access - "A" for audience interaction)

2 (club)

description and internet research (2004)

first post (2002)

YouTube commenter ftwelve12: "Way ahead of her time. Every attention-starved suburban hipster girl has been copping this electropop kitschy shit for the last decade."

Found some old notes with the texts of Ed Ruscha paintings, late '90s, Leo Castelli:

IF NO CASH BY NOON YOU WILL HAVE VISITORS

IF YOU EVER TELL I'LL HURT YOUR MAMA REAL BAD

WHEN I'M RELEASED I'M SMOKING A STRAIGHT LINE TO YOU, GOT ME?

AGREE TO OUR TERMS OR PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A BLAST FURNACE

BE CAUTIOUS OR ELSE WE BE BANGIN ON YOU

LITTLE SNITCHES LIKE YOU END UP IN DUMPSTERS ALL OVER TOWN

Have only seen a couple of episodes of Xavier, Renegade Angel, a computer-animated TV series from the Wonder Showzen producers.
Here's what an IMDb commenter said:

It's sub-par 3-D animation. I've seen one episode where they made us watch an acid trip while this shitty character Xavier (who is already an eye sore) plays a damn flute! This went on...and on...and on...and on... THIS IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT! There's zero balance. The show is such a constant mind-fudge you never really get a break from the insanity and you come out of the episode feeling a bit dumber and mentally drained.

Pushing hard against a medium with inherent limitations (Bryce or Poser-style animation), the producers have given us the state of the art of anti-Pixar, at least in a commercial vehicle. In Pixar the artists try to do everything "right"--obey the laws of perspective, continuity, etc to create "marvels" within a convincing illusionistic framework. In Xavier, the animators are turned loose (or directed)* to be as "wrong" as possible--so knee joints swing forward, skies change color for no reason, etc. The question is whether this is genuinely subversive or a frisson of subversion in a show that plays by the ultimate rule of never breaking out of the "game grid" (to use a Tron term). In either case it seems like an experiment--half comedy, half a network equivalent of Silicious. It's amazing something this difficult and/or "mentally draining" has lasted a couple of seasons.

*The animators normally work in video games--thanks to J for the info--and they seem to be reveling in their freedom from 3D convention, but it's hard to know from casual viewing how much they are being guided by the writers. Thanks also for J articulating the show's central dilemma well.

Artist buys manga character, remakes her, gives her to other artists to remix as "open source" gesture, symbolically "gives her copyright back to her," thus "freeing" her, until wealthy private collectors buy her, buy up all the "open source" versions, lend to museum to celebrate the wonderful "open sourceness" of the artist and the concept, whereupon museum guards yell at visitors "No photography! No photography!"

This tribute to the marvelous freedom of creativity is currently on view at the Tate in London, as described on AFC. And by the way, stop walking on that Carl Andre, you peasant!

...AKA, the current run of images on the Vvork blog (where every artwork in the universe is reduced to a photo and one line of text).

aphorism scrawled on rock

science fiction book on flowers

holes cut in philosophy book

Click for post-structuralist wisdom, easy on the eyes and mind.