"Shay" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Loud!, just for fun.
>
> In 2007, I planned a lot of this out on pencil and paper while working my way
> across the Atlantic on a jack-up drilling rig--which was itself perched atop a
> massive submersible cargo ship.
>
> Career wise, life is a little less interesting now, and ambitious hand-coded
> digital art is--as far as I can tell--dead. I rebuilt this model last year (with
> a slightly different set of compromises), but I never bothered to show it. There
> aren't many left in the world who can see it for what it is: 100,000s of
> triangles, 1000s of lines of code, 10s of deliberate mathematical choices, 10s
> of pages of notes, days of work, compromises, design, details, details, details.
> [snip]
>
> I have an arguably negative habit of developing skills no one understands or
> cares about. I wonder if my career would be more interesting if I'd made LESS
> interesting choices...
>

That last sentence is something I think about a great deal as well. Then I think
of all the wonderful adventures I've had because of my own acreer choices in
far-flung places (while others of my friends have never even left the towns they
were born in!)

I think that hand-crafting *anything* shows a desire for improving one's
abilities-- and takes skill and dedication. Which, sadly, many people just don't
seem to have.  It also has added benefits, of improving the mind in general--
because having to THINK is good mental exercise, no matter what the subject.  As
I look around me, at people my own age (and especially younger), what I see is
essentially a world of button-pushers-- people who are relatively good at their
particular jobs (and those job skills) but who really don't know HOW things
work, HOW to make things, or WHAT to do to solve problems that are outside of
their own little spheres of life.  The on-rush of technology can be blamed for
part of that (especially smartphones and their apps)-- but what I see is an
increasing laziness to actually THINK.

Consider yourself to be part of the 'enlightened' few!

It's probably true that *anything* in the modern world can now be made -- and
made faster-- by robots, or 3-D printing-- or even more efficient CGI programs
;-) But there is pride in creating something by hand (whatever that something
is), just for its own sake; and of having to solve problems along the way. (I
think problem-solving is one of the most enjoyable aspects of making things--
even if I fail!)

Just because robots can now paint lifelike paintings doesn't mean that we should
throw away our paintbrushes and declare that art is 'dead' ;-)

Post a reply to this message