ISSUE 040

Greenhouse

Between bouts of freezing weather and torrents of rain, we’ve been preparing the garden for next year. We’re setting up a small greenhouse so I don’t have to keep all the plants in the porch anymore. The foundation is done, the frame assembled (save the door and panels). That just leaves putting both together and adding the final bits and pieces. A good start for a new year I think.

Today’s topics:

• Fun and games
• Picture books
• Typosphere
• Pixels
• The inevitable decline of civilization

# Made #

The game I’ve been working on for a while, is finished. You can play it online over on itch.io or buy a ROM file you can play on a Game Boy (or emulator).

‘The Empire of Dreams’ is a (point-and-click) exploration game, where you get lost in a world based on the paintings of surrealist René Magritte. You choose 1 of 5 characters to go out and collect tools and treasure objects in order to find your way out of the dream world.

I hope you’ll try it and let me know what you think!

As you can probably imagine, a lot of time and effort went into this, especially the artwork. But reimagining a painted oevre into a pixel art world as a somewhat cohesive landscape, was a lot of fun. The game mechanics and scripting on the other hand, were very annoying at times and the most difficult thing to get right. But you know, it’s the challenge that makes it interesting and exploring limitations helps the next project be even better.

# Read / Seen #

I have a few book recommendations, if you’re looking for something different to read or leaf through.
The first one is ‘D’, an auto-bio graphic novel by Eva Vanrysselberghe. The ‘D’ stands for Dermatillomania, which is a condition where someone compulsively has to pick at their skin. The story is a personal one about discovering some things about yourself you might not know or want to be reminded of, told through very evocative artwork. It’s not a long read but it lingers.

The book on the left is the catalogue for the exhibition ‘Shin hanga – The new prints of Japan (1900-1960)’ about modern block printing in Japan. It’s still running in Brussels until the 15th of January. If you in any way like illustration, I can wholeheartedly recommend going to see it. It’s an overwhelming experience, walking past wall after wall of these beautiful, bright and lively prints. Having the book is handy to give more context and remind you of the highlights, as trying to read and see everything in those rooms is pretty much an impossible task.

In stark contrast, stands ‘Gardens of Remembrance’, a photography project by a co-worker of mine who’s been photographing old graveyards and monuments to the dead. There’s something quite beautiful about these once strong stone reminders getting eroded and lost to time, just like the people they are meant to guard and represent.

# Retro corner #

Accidental new typewriter, a Brother Deluxe 800. It’s from 1978 or ‘88 (I’m not quite sure). Smallest typeface in the collection, at 11 characters per inch.
I’ve run out of space so I’ll have to resort to using typewriters as bookends and doorstops…

# Photography #

In the new year, I’d like to do some more macro photography and there’s also a lot of my typewriter collection I still need to photograph. But this eclectic mix from the last 2 months will have to do until then.

# Closing thoughts #

The 2 stories that keep getting new installments online, are the fate of Twitter and what’s going on in A.I. development.
The first, I don’t really care about but I can recommend the movie ‘Glass Onion’ if you’re in for an old-school murder-mystery and like to see a take-down of rich techies and hanger-ons.
As for the latter, there’s been a lot of back and forth on what AI tools will change for artists and writers. What I find very telling, is the way it’s been talked about by the mainstream and what is being shared from the tech-sector point of view. It’s at best the copyright issues that are highlighted or at worst, comparisons being made between artists and angry luddites. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what making art means for the people doing it vs. the people consuming it as ‘content’ online. For one thing, if the problem with making art was a lack of shortcuts, artists wouldn’t spend a lifetime exploring tools and mediums. Shortcuts can be interesting for parts of a process but not to replace the process (eg. synthesis or original creation). I’m thinking of some of the repetitive work done in comic books or animation, for example.

If this is all news/interesting to you, I’d suggest following a few illustrators online and reading what they have to say about the commodification of art. People like Sarah Anderson for example, are publicly discussing real-life consequences. In her case, her comic has been misappropriated by alt-right.

There’s also a video essay about ChatGPT (the writing AI) and what it could mean for learning and language, which is interesting: “Language is how human beings understand themselves and the world. Writing is how we understand uniquely.”

I won’t claim to know where this is all going but I think it’s always good to stay critical of ‘the brand new thing’ that’s supposed to make our lives better and easier. Especially when it’s rich techies at the helm of it.

With that, I wish you a very good New Year. Hope you had some good food, company and/or rest. Here’s a little something from Ian McKellen to start fresh.

Byeeeee