Art You May Hate: Video Game Cover Art

That's it. They've done it. They've evolved past anything we could have ever imagined.

Starved for ideas to write about, I found myself google searching cover art and reminiscing about the days when I had less discerning tastes. What you will see after my words here is a small compilation of a user by the name of David Freeman's collection of video games and covers he's collected. I give him all the credit to this posts existence. The reason I didn't hotlink you directly was because his collection exists on his Google+ page. A page I'm not sure is open to any and everyone [I think you may need at least a Gmail account to view].

Now scroll down and let your eyes drink in some of the best and worst video game cover art I've ever had the pleasure of posting on this blog.

Click to read more ...

Art You Might Hate: Pinkroad by Limee Young + U Joo

Many thanks to Colossal for pointing me in the direction of this power couple. Husband and wife duo, Limee Young and U Joo are a pretty cool team. I've been studying a lot on kinetic art, and sculpture specifically, Limee Young's name kept popping up.

Imagine my surprise when I ventured to their site and noticed some pretty amazing paintings, illustrations and video of their meticulous works.

I've always been interested in the construction of kinetic sculpture. I use to build robots for crying out loud! But this? This is a little over my head. The whole idea of kinetic sculpture is reliant on either wind energy, a standalone electricity source, or an artist having an active hand in how the kinetic energy is stored. Like being on a seesaw, but an amazingly beautiful and complex machine is on the other end of the plank.

So in these videos, you are seeing machines function because of liquid, weight and equal amounts of pushing and pulling on joints. Depending on how far a joint moves a microprocessor on a circuit board uses the energy generated to tell another joint to move. Or in the above video's case, a processor is telling a joint to move back, while the kinetic energy stored in the joints are telling it to move forward. This is as best as I can describe the very little I understand.

I thought I was getting closer to understanding kinetic art, but this work is proof I'm no where near comprehension. It's truly amazing work. After the jump is more stills, illustrations and videos. Thanks for the inspiration U_Joo and Lim!

 

Click to read more ...

Art You May Hate: Cosplay From A Sci-Fi Convention In 1980

Kathy Sanders @ Westercon

In my ongoing research of all-things-niche I've come to several conclusions. One undeniable truth is that the geeks, nerds and misfits of today are products of something and/or someone.

We grew up in the time of Lord Of The Rings, Transformers [unfortunately], Scott Pilgrim and if you're an old fogey like me ... Willow. But this all came from something. This all came from someone. Several someones.

As a new year starts, I thought it'd be most pertinant to look back to a group of people who grew up in the age of a Day Of The Triffids, The Outer Limits and the good Star Wars movies. More importantly, when our elders say "they don't get kids nowadays" (a phrase I'm finding creeping into my vernacular), we can dig into their shadowy past and say, "maybe you just didn't hang out with the right people?"

This post also functions as monument to me kinda-sorta coming around to cosplay as a culture. There are still aspects that I don't get, but I think me not getting something makes it all the more worth knowing about. You know, as opposed to giggling and pointing, whispering, "look at those weirdos." 

After the break are more amazing photos. They come courtesy of The Los Angeles Science Fiction Society [yes, that's a thing that exists]. More importantly, there was a photographer around this time that said, "you know what? This is worth documenting." His name is Dik Daniels. 

Enjoy!

Click to read more ...

Art You Might Hate: Charlie Crane Visits Pyongyang, North Korea

Charilie Crane’s photo-documentary of North Korea’s capital is currently blowing up the internet [figuratively, grammar czars]. It’s listed in this segments Art You Might Hate because I don’t think there isn’t an artist on planet Earth [and segments of Mars] that isn’t envious of the ‘guided experience’ Crane captured.

Below are more photos and a link to more info about how Crane was able to pull this off.

Click to read more ...

Art You May Hate: Jenny Burrows The Art Director

More Like Historically Gangsta...[yeah...that was bad]

By the time you read this, Jenny Burrows has already 'blown up' on the internet. I was sitting on this link for about at week then seen Reddit and Twitter trending her work. So consider this post a small drop in a bucket of people who love her work.

It seems quite hip that Smithsonian would be cool with such contemporary blends, but...here we are.

Below is more gangsterocity from Burrows' Historically Hardcore

Click to read more ...