Die Ghul Show with ARCTOA!

: Welcome to my humble show, !
Do you enjoy being here?
: Thank-you for the welcome, and I appreciate the invitation to take part in such an interesting project. I am looking forward to our correspondence, but as I don't normally speak about myself or my thoughts, my enjoyment here is edged with a subtle sense of trepidation!

: That sounds intriguing… So, what DO you normally speak about?
: I speak very little, actually. I'm a rather reticent person outside of deviantART, and on the site itself - particularly in my position as a Gallery Director - I feel it's important to place the arts first, and the social aspects second. This is contrary to the site's official stance on itself as a social network, but I've always had something of a stubborn, insubordinate streak in me.
That said, I do have hobbies and interests. Aside from the obvious artistic ones that will have caused most of us to converge upon this site in the first place, I enjoy listening to music: evidenced by my weekly musical recommendations that I publish here. I'm something of a gamer, and I've watched many films over the years. Recently I've taken quite an interest in local history, and I've long since had a voracious appetite for theoretical physics and physical cosmology: that is, the structure and foundation of the universe we find ourselves in, and where it might all be heading.
Science is often derided by the artistic community as a whole, but the great artistic revolutions and movements in history are usually mirrored with a corresponding scientific age. The two fields are intrinsically linked; creative thought gives a pathway for scientific discovery, and the process of practical experimentation and refinement leads to innovative artistic creation. It's a symbiotic relationship.
I also enjoy watching 22 guys kick a ball around a field and chase after it, and 22 other guys driving odd-looking cars around in irregular circles, but that is neither here nor there.

: I think all of them really GREAT scientists would agree with you here!
So, what do you think art means for each of our very LIVES?
Also, what do you think is the great difference between being an "art site", and being "social networking?"
: Art is everywhere, in a sense; it's how we see the world and make sense of it. It isn't just about producing compositions in the traditional sense, it's about creative thought in general and seeing the world in new ways for yourself. As an example, it's about being able to look at a brick wall and see past the fact that it's just a pile of masonry; it's about being able to find aesthetic interest therein; about being able to draw a narrative from an otherwise mundane scene. Art is a continual process of discovery, of which the production of creative works is but a snapshot of the whole. Without this sort of creative cognition, what would we be?
To be honest, the difference between an art site and a social network is largely to do with image and presentation. Both would promote interaction between their members, and both would create platforms to make this interaction easier. The division comes in the detail; in llamas versus collaborative features, if you will.
A lot has to do with the user, too, of course. I think that you reap what you sow when it comes to places like deviantART, so if you come into it thinking that it's little more than a Facebook-with-more-pictures, that's what you'll get out of it. However, if you make an effort to collaborate creatively with others, and browse and interact with artists and their work, the experience you'll have will be profoundly different.
It's a difficult balance for the core staff of the site; they need to keep the site competitively placed in a market with an ever-decreasing attention span. In the circumstances they do a decent job; this place is thirteen years old and still running strong. Most internet communities don't last anywhere near that long, and many that do are greatly reduced in stature.

: Well, YOU tell us! Where WOULD we be without that cognition?
Also, how would the "ideal" dA user look like to you?
: Heh, it's something that I'd be worried to even consider. Perhaps we'd be still be living under trees, failing to work out how to make the shiny hot flickery stuff that appears out of nowhere from time to time.
The ideal deviantART member just needs to be someone who is respectful of others, in my opinion. I don't mind if people just come here to chat idly with others, or to try to sell their work, or are here to collaborate and create, or merely to browse. So long as they're not causing any trouble - through flaming, stealing work, or otherwise drawing negative attention to themselves - then they are ideal enough for me.
Beyond that of course, those that take the time to publish regular art features or curate active group galleries, or just bring interesting work to my attention via notes and mentions, all contrive to make my job a lot easier. It's impossible for me to personally keep up with everything that gets submitted to the site, so having a stream of material presented through these routes is an invaluable resource.

: Let's talk about your CV job for a moment… How's it going so far?
You know when your predecessor attented my humble show, he admitted that he never imagined to be such a target for HATRED in that position…
Your opinion on that?
: It's going pretty well, although it is a rather relentless position to be in! I would say that I've enjoyed my time in the post, but I'm certainly looking forward to passing the role on to the next guy when my term expires at the end of November. I intend upon taking a lengthy break from being so active in the community at that point, and I hope to use that free time to concentrate on my own artistic practice again. That is something which has been severely neglected this year, mostly due to these deviantART-related commitments I've found myself with.
I can relate to what Florian described in that interview; I had a particularly rocky start to my own tenure that had me doubting whether I had made the right decision in taking up the baton from him. I knew from previous experience that there would be rough days, but that first month left me uncharacteristically vulnerable and exposed - not just for myself, of course, but for the way that the people I was featuring were themselves being singled out. However, the malcontents either lost interest or found a new target because I've been relatively lucky in that regard since early January.
That said, a potential torrent of abuse is always lurking around the next corner and that does sour the experience a little. It is what it is, though; there's something about the anonymity of the internet that turns otherwise mild-mannered individuals into aggressive sociopaths, but over time I've learned to distance myself from their ire when it is directed at me. I prefer to dwell on those who send me effusive messages of thanks or offer regular notes of support for the work that I do; for those I am deeply grateful.

: If you had to sum up your CV experience in just one word, which word would that be?
: I've had to think about this question for some time. Administering the role has become an intrinsic part of my daily routine, so it's particularly difficult for me to strip down nine months of experience to a single word. If pressed to give one, I would go with bittersweet - it's been a rewarding and enjoyable experience, but there's that spectre of trouble and abuse waiting to pounce at any moment.

: Yes, I know that question was kinda mean…
But hey, at least it leads us straight to our next subject!
Because you really ARE pretty damn good with WORDS!
Processional SoliloquyTick.
        Tick.
                Tick.
                        Tick-
Tired eyes, an
            aching w(hole)
            in this relapse
Ebb and wane,
            bowed before
            a broken altar
Counting hours,
            these days that
            fall
                 A(nd I've alway   42                                 Fourty-two miles an hour.
                   Sixty minutes of jolted perspective
                   in a blinding neon
                   irrelevance.
                                                                ParasomniaSightless eyes conspire
to create malignant Möbius
loops of loss:
Between scorched earth
and cracked Asylum-skies
lurk blackened forms,
macabre monuments
that dissolve into
an amorphous grey murk.
Ranged like gravestones,
titanic industrial habitats
are inhabited by faceless figures:
hives of insipid humanity
compressed inside
saturnine symphonies.
Placebo-comfort in sound:
dischordant notes discharge
and caress the persistent
funerary perceptions in
falling hearts and minds,
to paint pictures of
  soundscapes
    that spiral
      downward in
        diffusive
          Contrition of
       constrained
     convulsions,
    
    Where
  frantic eyes
  flicker; forced
    to fail in fearfu   ArmadaLight leaks
from cuts carved
across the static sky
By satellite:
Signal-ships sent
in search of new worlds
(and old lovers)
Long-lost to
rocket-fuel run-off
As Heavens burn
in halo-burst.
So what's the story of your WORDS, and how come you don't write anything new here any more? Too less attention for written things?
: Creative writing is a realm that I was essentially thrown into during my high-school years. At that point I was in a band, if one could stretch the term to include "some guys making dissonant noise in a bedroom". I was the only person in the group who was going to attain a reasonable grade in English, so by default I was designated the lyricist. It took quite some time to sweat anything out on to paper, but while those early experiments were certainly cringe-worthy, some formed the structure of later works that weren't quite so awful.
It was at this point that I came to the realisation that writing could be an effective form of catharsis for me, and that fact is part of the reason why I've not written anything since early 2010; I only write as a form of emotional release rather than as a creative outlet, so when I have nothing new to say, I have nothing to put into words. My mind functions only in terms of imagery, so it's practically impossible for me to try to force the issue: I just end up with a large number of empty Notepad files and a chronic sleep deprivation.
As for deviantART and literature, I would say that the community is in decent shape. Back before the idea of groups caught on and after the popularity of dAmn tailed off, it was indeed difficult for a writer to even know where to go to try to gain some exposure for their work, and as such many would fall between the cracks. It was at this time that I published the majority of my own material, but I was never particularly bothered about the lack of attention any of it garnered. It was just out there because it needed to be.
However, this has left the relative status of my works curiously lop-sided. My earlier efforts are considerably more popular on the site than my newer submissions, despite the fact I think that the recent examples are of a much higher quality. I'm entirely unable to read through the majority of my earlier work without rolling my eyes!

: So I figure that your CATHARSIS is over by now? If so, what did it make of you? Has that also something to do with you, rolling your eyes while looking at old stuff? Also, how would you describe what you are doing NOW instead?
: It's more that there's nothing new to write about, rather than there being nothing at all. I've never been one for attaining any sort of inner peace, despite my best efforts!
In terms of my old work it's the quality of writing and choice of language that gets to me more than the subject matter itself, although some of that is indeed fairly inane gibberish. It is perhaps because some of these pieces are no longer relevant to me that I'm able to look at some of the compositions with a neutral, or disconnected, perspective.
I previously mentioned that I don't really have the time or energy to produce anything creative of late, so I'm sure that also has something to do with the indefinite block on my writing. There is a chance that once I've more time to myself I might tap into something new to write about. As it is, though, I've never really considered myself a writer: photography, or at least visual imagery, has always been my primary method of artistic communication.

: I see…
     
So, what can visuals communicate that words can not?
: Imagery has an immediacy that the written word does not; there's more of a universal understanding and strength of response for pictures over literature that is fairly easy for an artist to tap into. I also admire the way that some imagery, particularly abstractions, can be so open for interpretation by the observer. It's interesting to learn about the vastly different narratives that people are able to unwind from a particular composition. In that sense it's a process of self-discovery as much as it is an act of appreciating art.
Of course, I am not attempting to dismiss the way in which written works can leave a lasting impression upon a reader. Those with a modicum of literacy are shaped in time as much by words as they are by pictures, and there are novels that were particularly influential upon me when I first discovered them, but imagery - in my experience - is generally much more accessible than literature.
Pictures affect us in a visceral way, reaching back before words and before intelligible language.

: So you think you have found a universal language here?
If so, what would be the ONE item from your gallery that you would like to say something to all of us now?
: Oh; it's certainly not a concept that I discovered myself, although it is something that I discovered for myself, over time. Drawing pictures as a child was always much easier for me than verbal communication.

I'm unable to pick out a single image, but I think that these four compositions do a reasonable job of putting across what I'm trying to convey in my work. These concepts often revolve around a sense of passing time and the idea of visualising dreams or memory, and showing the deconstruction of form and a disassociation of perception and reality therein. Isolation and informational decay is present in all of these images; a disconnect between the perceived self and the surrounding environment. Capturing a visual process of entropy is what I aspire to achieve with my work.
However, any number of differing interpretations are no less valid than my own. This is what the work means for me, but it is to be expected that other people are going to draw upon their own thoughts and memories and construct their own stories for any particular artwork. This is a fascinating phenomenon.
It should also be noted that I don't capture all my images with such a conceptual statement in mind; sometimes I will take a photograph just because the scene is visually appealing to me. There is nothing wrong with that, I feel; not everything needs to be drowning in conceptual context. A simple picture of a plant, for example, can have as much of an expressive impact as the most meticulously thought-out series of images, and the content of my Favourites folder here on deviantART is evidence enough for that.

: Talking about perceived self and environment, just how exactly do YOU understand "disconnect?"
Also, what do you think of BOKEH?
Also, just how important do you think IMPACT actually is, for an artwork as a whole?
: It is about the separation of an environment and the perception that someone has of that environment and their place in it; from person to person and location to location, the variance between these two concepts can be quite pronounced and even rather profound. It is this that I attempt to capture, usually by skewing perspective or focus.
Ah, bokeh. It's difficult to even classify bokeh before talking about it, as the word itself is just an Anglicised translation of boke or boke-aji: a blur or haze, or blur-quality. The word isn't always used within the field of photography, either; it can also describe a particularly murky or vague state of mind - which, for the purposes of my work, is an interestingly harmonious double-meaning. Often the word is just used to describe the way in which blurring can emphasise points of light found beyond the depth of field in an image, and from that perspective I do enjoy the aesthetic of bokeh. However, there is a time and a place for it and sometimes it can be detrimental to a particular composition. I use blurring aesthetics extensively in my own work; as previously mentioned, it helps emphasise or otherwise depict a removal of a scene from the mundane, from regular perception and interaction. Additionally, it's something of an analogue of how I see the world myself: my eyesight is far from what is considered healthy or normal so my view of the world revolves around a rather narrow depth of field.
Impact in artwork is everything. It's what makes art exist as art, in my opinion: if a piece of work hasn't had an impact on either the person who created or anyone who thereafter observes it, can it really be considered a piece of art? I'm not so sure; it's just a canvas with some pigment on it, or a block of wood, or ink on paper.
I remember reading about an artist, Ben Wilson, who travels around Europe painting scenes upon trodden-down chewing gum on public streets. The works he produces are not of any great technical standard: in fact, they're rather simplistic and infantile in appearance, and there are no particular concepts to consider in any of them. However, as a whole body of work I think it's remarkable art. This man is creating something that will certainly make an impact upon anyone who comes across them afterwards; little fragments of personality and brightness in an unexpected place. I admire that.
Elsewhere, the impact of a place, a time, even that of a meeting or conversation upon a person: these moments can be considered art. They serve no tangible purpose other than that of the emotive, and our own perception of them; there is no practical functionality. We see and feel art everywhere, and the work that we produce is the mimesis of that persistent interaction; an attempt to replicate these influential flashes of experience.

: The last part would actually serve so good as some confirming LAST WORDS from you…
But, since I just seem to get artists here having problems with their EYESIGHT somehow so often… What's up with YOURS, and do you think there lies some deeper meaning in this?
: Heh; I am long-sighted, as well as having some other issues with my vision. I don't doubt that this, along with the other medical conditions that I suffer from, bear a large influence upon my work; taking up photography in the first place was a direct result of it, for example. A lot of my practice revolves around my own experiences in the last ten years, and that is why a lot of it features some sort of departure from day-to-day function and reality.
I think that many people who are somehow designated as being 'broken' may gravitate towards the creative arts, perhaps as a way to describe, through their works, what they feel or experience in a manner which cannot be articulated verbally. My own poor health is generally not something that I talk about or even wish to draw particular attention to, but I am fairly comfortable expressing my situation through art; there is a form of solace to be found in the process of producing it.
In terms of eyesight and abstraction, it's logical to conclude that those who cannot see clearly are likely to create work which follows that departure from normalcy. This can be clearly demonstrated by drawing a comparison between the early and late works of a famous artist such as Claude Monet: as his eyesight deteriorated, his work became increasingly amorphous and abstract in aesthetic, as well as taking on a significantly warmer tonal palette. What we can see, or the way in which we process the world around us, will govern what we will create.
Of course, I am not suggesting that all abstract artists are visually impaired, or that they are the only people capable of producing abstract work. Abstraction is a state of mind, to an extent; the ability to mentally filter or deconstruct an environment and then present that vision for others to see is most interesting, and I am glad that I am able to see marvels in the mundane for myself.

: Does "objectivity" exist?
: Let me preface this by saying that I am no great intellectual, nor have I ever delved into explicitly philosophical literature. Perhaps that makes me badly-equipped to answer such a question, or perhaps not: I do think that some people have a tendency to hide behind the words of dead thinkers in an effort to prove that they are somehow right, or better-than, in any given situation. It makes me wary of entering philosophical discussion, as a rule.
The idea of objectivity is a human concept in itself, and as such it cannot really exist. While it is true that many things just are - a tree, for example, is just a tree - no-one can look at it and follow that simple train of thought. It's not just a tree to an observer; it may remind them of a particularly nice tree they once passed by, or of a time they fell out of a tree, or of a time they made love under one, or crashed into one, or threw rocks at one, or carved their name into one, or set fire to one, or...
An object, or an observation, will always be associated with the experiences and prejudices of the observer. A lumberjack will look at a tree and think of it as potential firewood or furniture, while an environmentalist will think of carbon emissions and photosynthesis. An artist will assess lighting and composition, and a child could see it as an adventure. It's never just a tree.
Even in mathematics and science, which deal with independent truths, there is an abundance of subjectivity. Recorded observations are just that, and mathematical equations are relatively absolute, but there will always be subtext; there'll be a reason why a scientist or a mathematician is making these observations, and their peers will have opinions about the observations that they make which aren't necessarily related to the subject matter itself.
As with anything of this nature, though, there are degrees rather than two absolutes. A scientist can write something that's relatively free of subtext, or they can be lobbied to report something that's clearly in the best interests of a particular group. Both aren't absolutely objective, but one is considered much more-so than the other, and it's only within these shades of grey that discussing objectivity is at all relevant on a practical level. It's rather like justice or compassion or even the idea of reality; none of these necessarily exist on an absolute, physical level, but they do exist as mental constructs.
In conclusion, things are what they are and will work as they will, no matter what we think of them - the sun is a star, and it will continue to burn whether we're around to attach context to it or not - but, from the perspective of human cognition, it'll never be just a star. True objectivity is impossible. We'd like to think that we're able to witness facts in an entirely neutral manner, but there'll always be a degree of spin: if not in the observations themselves, then in the way that they are interpreted.
This isn't necessarily to our detriment. Creativity, surely, is a manifestation of subjective thought, and it is what drives us onward.

: No matter what I ask you, you always manage to come up with an essay somehow…
Which is actually great!
But it also means we'll have to end this noble show right now, for we still want someone to completely READ it, don't we...?
So, do you have any last words left for our humble audience?
: Agreed, and I heartily commend those who have somehow managed to make it this far without tuning out completely. I hope you're all not too embarrassed on my behalf! That said, this has been an unexpectedly enjoyable experience, and I do thank anyone who takes the time to read through these dishevelled and inherently superfluous ramblings.
As for final words? Hmm. I think I'll save those for when it's time to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Otherwise: good night, and good luck.

: It surely has been a pleasure being "unexpectedly enjoyable!"
Ladies and gentlemen, here's for you!



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