building utility

wipdrag_alexander

Made this using an interactive page designed by Duncan Alexander. You can drag elements around, resize them, and change the colors of the "window" elements by double-clicking them. The image above was made before I saw the note about double-clicking so I worked with the colors the screen gave me initially. Caveat: better screenshot something you like--after I made this I double-clicked a window and was not able to get that same combination of colors again. Also, note that refreshing the page gives you a new selection of shapes and color combos. Minor questions aside, the program is recommended as a hybrid of art, game, experimental platform, and lark--Peter Halley might be especially interested in it as a way to test out some new designs for his paintings.

animated GIFS: struggle for the moral high ground

A couple of months ago artist Man Bartlett announced that he could no longer remain silent about the course of art on the Internet and specifically had to express his beef with the animated GIF.

Some unfortunate words like "post-hipster" and "depressingly vapid" got slung around and one of my pages got linked to so I replied by asking Bartlett some questions, essentially trying to move to specifics from flame mode.

He replied on Twitter and the answer is...he's not going to reply! This recalls the Paris Peace talks during the Vietnam war where the US kept proposing different designs for conference tables, thus forestalling actual talks:

manbartlett
@tommoody Turn comments on on your blog and I'll attempt to answer them. You make some worthwhile points: http://is.gd/kcK9Z

tommoody
thanks, @manbartlett but--you can't respond on your own blog? hyperlinks make speedy communication possible!

manbartlett
@tommoody I could, but won't create a new post to answer your questions. Post them in the comments of my original post then?

tommoody
...@manbartlett: arguing about where to have the argument is a great way to avoid substantive discussion

tommoody
if it's not worth two blog posts it's probably not something you care about or have much stake in, @manbartlett (i.e., web animation)

And that's where it sits. Talks stalled; GIF wars rage.