06-09-2017, 08:19 AM
(06-08-2017, 02:53 PM)emalin212 Wrote: (1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?
(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows?
(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?
(4) What causes do you care about the most?
(5) Who are your favorite artists?
(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?
1: I like to keep up with real world science and tech developments, so I read non-fluff sites like MIT Technology Review, Science, and Nature. I browse the Google Patent utility; one of my methods for finding artistic / sci-fi tech inspiration. I used to be a member of a couple of transhumanist groups on Facebook, but they got too damn political and annoyingly flaky in other ways, so I dropped out. I drop by Deviant Art sometimes.
2: Now, I mostly read educational books. I used to read more sci-fi, but I haven't seen anything new that grabbed my interest in probably around five years. The kind of stuff I really enjoy is packed with ideas and cool, e.g. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, Baroque Cycle and Anathem or any of Shirow Masamune's pre-balls-out-pervert work. If a sci-fi movie gets a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, odds are I like, or would like it. Hard or soft-SF, I don't care. I don't really care for most "Western" fantasy that isn't humorous. I had to really struggle to get through the Lord of the Rings movies. I can't even imagine the torture the books would be.
3: I used to read K. Eric Drexler's blog, but he hasn't written anything on there in three years. Very smart and thoughtful man.
4: The development of molecular manufacturing as soon as possible, humanity living in space (all eggs in one basket is a bad idea), non-flaky environmentalism (I'm pro-nuclear energy and pro-GMOs).
5: Syd Mead, Shirow Masamune, Doug Chiang, Jean Giraud, H.R. Giger
6: Real creativity. There are many artists who have great technical skills, but their work is uninspired, it could have been created by anyone with equal or greater skill. For an example, H.R. Giger-aping work is a dime a dozen on Deviant Art. Some of it even looks photorealistic, "better" than Giger's own, thanks to digital tools. Do I care about it? Not a bit.