MetaChat - So, I have an idea....

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

25 May 2005

So, I have an idea.... Actually, I want to steal an idea. See this? It's a collaborative... something... from untitled.nu, and I'd like us to do the same thing, if anyone's interested. Here's how it would work: maybe every month or so, anyone who wants to participate contributes a 300x375-pixel panel (or two of the same size to be stacked side by side), and just like the example, we have serial editions of these collaborations. I've started the first one, as an example.→[More:]

I didn't have a great idea for a name, so I just called it "emcee" (for M.C. - metachat) for the moment, and as the "cover panels" for the edition, I've given it the theme "gilded age" (which is just a joke anticipating down the line when people start complaining that metachat isn't as good as it used to be). Contributors can do anything they'd like, sticking to that theme in some way, or not. Just make your art 300 pixels wide, by 375 pixels deep, and don't make it horridly unsafe for work, please. It doesn't have to be totally PG, but don't do knife butt, if you don't mind.

Anyone who wants to contribute, please email your image file(s), preferably jpg or gif, to me.

La!

post by: taz at: 13:54 | 28 comments

This sounds a lot like iconomy's quilt project, from back when she used to have a blog with lots of fun things on it, before she apparently had to "work" all the time.

posted by yhbc 25 May | 14:41

True. I had a couple of squares on iconomy's quilt!

posted by taz 25 May | 14:48

Hehe. Yes, remember the good old days, commish? Like that time when I didn't realize I had a floppy in the A drive, and I couldn't boot up, and I ended up reformatting my computer, and then you laughed at me? Or, er...you laughed WITH me. Yes, that's it - you laughed with me!

taz, what you made is so gorgeous. I don't know how to do layers or anything like that, which is why I'm always playing with pixels and using scanned stuff. I would love to be in on this, if my ragtag and scrappy style would work with such gawjusness. Count me in! Oddly, I was thinking of something collaborative as well, more along the lines of mail art. I loves me some mail art.

posted by iconomy 25 May | 15:06

Ico, I was counting on you. Get to work! I mean.. PLAY! Play. (ooo... "work". icky word. ptoooie, ptoooie)

Mail art would be fun, too.

posted by taz 25 May | 15:12

I'm totally in.
See my exquisite corpse work here and here.

posted by me3dia 25 May | 15:38

Ah, great! I was actually thinking of doing a corpse version at some point if people were into it. I have a couple of things at exquisite corpse, as well - but now, of course I can't remember my log in, or even what email I used... Too bad, because one of them I liked especially. Maybe if I can ever locate it on my computer, I'll post a link.

posted by taz 25 May | 15:58

i'm in, but give me til the wkend to do one.

great idea--a corpse would be fun too.

posted by amberglow 25 May | 18:08

you guys--
*sigh*
i so wish i had the wares, hard and soft, to play properly. i so wanna play but at the moment i'm still trying to prioritize space and means for non digital art. and it's such a good time for the art buzz and collaborations too--
*sad bunny, ears down as i mull where to play catch up*

very nice stuff, taz

posted by ethylene 25 May | 18:50

Ok what do we do, taz? Does someone save your piece and then add to it or alter it somehow? Does one person claim it and then the others wait for that person to do something?

ethylene, can you download a trial version of Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop, maybe? Hope you can play!

posted by iconomy 25 May | 18:58

you have no idea how much i want to. i finally broke down and was playing with a very old photoshop on os9 a little bit ago. i downloaded a 7 i haven't had the time to check out yet. but lacking a scanner and tablet, i've only just started playing with the most basic things through an old but nicely teched out digital camera.

i would love a reason to make playing digital catch up more of a priority.

now i have to get my laundry and you are all making it very hard to finish my mental "stupid crap i'm getting done today" list.

posted by ethylene 25 May | 19:11

People should just send me their image (300 pixels wide, by 375 pixels high) via email. This one isn't a corpse, so it doesn't need to "connect" in any way to any other piece of art. Easy-peasy!

ethylene, hope you can play - but if not this time, definitely next.

posted by taz 25 May | 19:18

you've already motivated me
to keep my ass in a chair
*and once again the eternal struggle reprises
on what to do with my ass*
as long as the government stays out of it, i think i'll be ok

posted by ethylene 25 May | 19:29

don't mean to be too chatty but as i've been out of the digital art loop for a while, the stuff that catches my eye still seems to harken back to the 4AD stuff and Neil Gaiman associated stuff of the late 80's/90's--

anyone wanna help get me up to speed?
still wondering what happened to a bunch of stuff that was all the rage in the last millenium

posted by ethylene 25 May | 19:35

Well, the kids seem to like that Photoshop these days. It can get mighty expensive. Of course, there're always a few shady ways to acquire a copy. *Cough*BitTorrent*Cough* Once you've *ahem* purchased a copy, I'd reccommend looking through this for starters. Of course, if you're looking for a legal option, you could use the GIMP. That's kinda like PhotoshopLight. It's pretty useful, considering the $0 price tag.

Anyways, I was messing around on a submission I think it turned out all right. I'l get cracking on some better ones.

posted by Josh 25 May | 21:48

... yes, that's it - you laughed with me!

*laughs again at the memory*. With you, of course.
*sniggers*

posted by dg 25 May | 22:11

see, now i had to go look at this again--
and to think i kinda thought that post would cut down on my comp time.

Thanks for the thought but i'm not a novice at photoshop, i was thinking more on web work trends and digital illustrations stuff i've not been keeping up on regularly.

See, now if i don't get a call/someone else to actively pull me out of this chair, i will end up in it for the next eight hours at least--

crap

posted by ethylene 25 May | 22:13

So sorry for misinterpreting you, then.

posted by Josh 25 May | 22:32

bastard! the damage is done! now i'll never get back to passive entertainments! i've overcommented and i'm exclaiming! and i never exclaim!
(and the cursor floats awfully but works ok)

posted by ethylene 25 May | 22:39

I suppose it must be done to salvage my honor.

ethylene, I challenge you to a duel. Do you accept, or are you a coward?

posted by Josh 25 May | 23:54

it's too late. i just sent off a fiddling effort to taz and spent more time writing the email than i spent on the image. it's a show of good faith.
and now i'm just paraphrasing what i wrote.

i totally blame you.

posted by ethylene 25 May | 23:57

So sue me. Everybody does. The average settlement is $32,000.

posted by Josh 26 May | 00:59

ok, this is the part where i entreat taz to dump the trash i sent, curse Josh for forcing me into hasty action, and you all are grateful i shifted the bulk of our chatter offsite

posted by ethylene 26 May | 03:55

Aw. No problem, ethylene - but if you feel like it, send something else.

posted by taz 26 May | 08:41

This is fun! I'm doing a non-digital piece. In other words, I'm drawing a picture.

'member those? Drawings? It's actually an altered book kinda thing, with paint and pastels. Thanks for thinking of this, taz, I needed something to motivate me to do more book pages. This was better than a nice swift kick in the arse. Or a knife in the butt even.

posted by iconomy 26 May | 08:46

owwwie! but, yeah, that's the best thing - if there are different styles and mediums. Photo, ink, paint, digital: it would be great to have a mix. That's one of the things I liked about the one I linked to.

posted by taz 26 May | 08:51

i just had a late night brain futz attack in sending off something so banal. when something is so manipulated to look relatively unmanipulated that it looks like you just threw a color inversion and filter on it-- blahblahblah-- there just seemed so little art about it, and all about speed.

people like what they like and i'm not precious about stuff when it's done (i gots people all over who store or steal my stuff so i won't destroy or reuse it), but the project deserves something better-- been to focused on target audiences too long.
you can use it or not use it, i sent it so it was in your hands. i just never want anything attached to my name anymore, has to do with competitive crap i walked away from.

also, if they were all to be side by side, i didn't know how they would all play to the eye if they didn't work off a base color palette or some such, to not take way from what you already have.

i could just fix the size of some finished work and send you an assortment to play with and pick through. Or find reason to fish for older stuff.

those newer "adult swim" place cards they have with the slogans "love me harder", etc. are so much on the same train as these paintings i was working on a few years ago, that now if i showed them, i'm sure people would be all "hey, it's like those things on adult swim", except those are all clean and digital.

you have already given me the much needed asskick to make this a priority again, all you bad bunnies, so i gratefully curse you all.

talk about chatfilter
am i banned yet?

posted by ethylene 26 May | 15:38

No, not banned! You can send me other stuff, or stick with what we have... You choose.

About the palette, We may do future ones with color requests, or other limiting parameters, because it might be fun to add those kind of elements to the game, but for the first one I wanted to make it as simple and easy as possible to contribute, since I didn't know if anyone would even be into the whole idea at all. So this one is...

f r e e w h e e l i n g!

posted by taz 27 May | 04:23

etsi
'twas but the obvious joke
but it seems you've become our artistic pole star/fulcrum point/nurturing asskick

posted by ethylene 27 May | 13:07

← Connection refused... || I'm going to stick a screwdriver up my nose →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN