Mistigris January 2017:
Getting there in our chosen fashion,
at our own pace...
since 1994.
We had set a nice rhythm for our annual revival artpack releases:
first, announce an October call for submissions in April April 2016? Cthu,
how far back are we going to have to reach in order to explain the art were
looking at in whats nearly February 2017?... then, freak out in September
with no submissions having landed in /incoming/ yet, run ourselves ragged
coming up with quality material from outside of the artscene, then limp past
the finish gates under the heavy burden of a pile of quality material from
the usual suspects, slipped in the gate at the last minute. It gave us
wiggle room for side projects throughout the rest of the year -- arranging
for the release of a good deal of lost and never-released creative works
from years and decades back and putting on a couple of compos. Sure, putting
the artpack together nearly kills us, but -- and heres the important part --
it only nearly kills us once a year.
But we foolishly thought that we could improve on the formula. Instead
of curating an unwieldy and thematically scattered collection, perhaps we
could dish up a stronger artpack by splitting it up. Set the Halloween art
aside, let it stand on its own in October as it should have done the previous
year. Then that vents some pressure and buys us some time to finish up with
the presentation of the main chunk of art. Sorry, metric system here in
Canada. The last Mistigris artpack contained roughly fifteen kilochunks. I
believe you Americans would deem that three and a half heaps. In England
they would rate it sixteen three quarter hogsheads, two times out of three.
Thanks to Google for the conversions!
But as we approached December lo, what Christmas art through yonder
window broke? So we budded that off also, got the main artpack out the door,
and put together a Christmas presentation... OK, two Christmas
presentations... and, all right, pooled their assets in what well call an
artpack. Phew, somehow we planned to release one artpack and ended up
releasing three of them in three consecutive months. Havent done THAT for a
while! Not including this current collection, thats three artpacks, five
video previews, and a music disk from September - December 2016. Not bad!
But yow, thank goodness that spree has come to an end! The artpack
archives themselves cant keep up with the activity -- is that thick, acrid
smoke I see pouring out of the 16 Colours server? However... we hadnt
accounted for the Horsenburger factor. He just wont or cant! stop
drawing wild teletext illustrations of amazing subjects, and we just cant
bring ourselves to allow them to lie fallow, going unappreciated by fans of
textmode artwork starving for a taste of the good stuff. Even after
explicitly pointing him at Blocktronics and their wider audience he so richly
deserves, what remains is still an overwhelming embarrassment of riches, his
spree of activity averaging over a piece daily seemingly unparalleled since
Eeries incendiary run juggling five group memberships simultaneously in
1995. Quips tenure toward the end of the Mist Classic era came close, but
he couldnt bail out our sinking ship out singlehandedly. Here, Horsenburger
is singlehandedly providing us with a raison detre. It had been so long
since we enjoyed the custom of a member from whom art fell effortlessly,
without cease, that we simply couldnt bring ourselves to stop releasing
artpacks because we felt that pulling away his outlet might kill the goose
that laid the golden teletext, mojo we might not find ourselves able to
switch back on for another 20 years if we disrupted it. And lets face it,
20 years from now, the retro computer arts of 20 years previous -- today --
will not be as charmingly nostalgic.
And truth be known, our pattern of annual artpacks did not well serve
productive members with substantial back catalogues of virtuous work: what am
I going to do, throw 80 of this persons paintings from the past 15 years in
the artpack? Titan already sewed up that territory with their recent
surprise release! No, Ill pick my favorite dozen and maybe well run
another ten in a years time... at which point they will have heaped 20 more
essential pieces atop the slushpile. Its untenable, friends: the only fair
and reasonable thing to do in this situation is to just keep releasing
smaller, more manageable artpacks at a more regular pace until the glut of
amazing art corrects itself. And if it doesnt? Well... thats a nice
problem to have!
So, do I have anything interesting to tell you about this particular
artpack? Well, it is unthemed, though specific artists may have been
exploring themes of personal interest -- for instance, like Elin Jonsson in
MIST1116, Kalcha has been using his ShiftJIS keyboard to interpret Alice in
Wonderland characters. The Mythical Man has been continuing to rudely insert
mollusks into paintings in which they have no legitimate business. Sassy
octopi! TeletextR makes his debut here as our third featured teletext
artist I dont know how it is that were finding all the teletext talent --
Mist Classic adjusts their crystal ball at the idea that in the 21st century,
the two most active divisions will be teletext and painting, but Im not
going to complain!, touching on some classic nerd themes, and Nick Lakowski
continues to demonstrate how he can vacillate between landscapes and the
eye-bleedingly abstract. Did someone say abstract? Paging Maeve Wolf!
Awesome Angela from Sleepy Stitch also makes an artscene debut
demonstrating her mastery of the physical pixelarts of cross-stitch and
Perler beading -- popular pursuits these days, whose time to be reconciled
with their virtual descendants has come. Weve curated a selection of
Horsenburger teletext portraiture largely in a monochrome mode... and and
and... do you really need a roll call? The memberlist is the other
infofile! OK, a hearty welcome to Phil Mainwaring and the long-overdue Zarah
and welcome back to Bonemouse, Dubaiwalla, Melodia, Ice Cream Emperor, Jes,
LDB, Mondo Charisma, reNM8r, Theresa Oborn and Whazzit.
Really, weve just got a bit of this and that in some cases, a lot of
this -- the typical variety of approaches and styles that have come to
characterise the anarchic Mistigris flavour. Some say its a jumbled mess --
to other, more discriminating palates, its a stick of Willy Wonka Three
Course Dinner Chewing Gum. Either way, youre getting juiced later. Every
little piece in here belongs and is well worthwhile, whether their artists
submitted one work or a dozen, and fortunately I have a suspicion that they
will all be seen and appreciated long before you do or do not see my
weaksauce endorsement hidden away here in the infofile amidst a thorny
thicket of prickly words, ugh!
So, back to the info. There is more fun coming up in the Spring --
some silly stuff in April the stupider the better, please inquire!, at
least one more crack at the Blender and hopefully another Trackerfix, perhaps
some e-mags and possibly even further demoscene productions. But thats a
little far ahead -- will there be a February 2017 Mist artpack? Just how
long is this crazy joyride going to be going on? Well, you can answer that
question by answering my question: do you think you might submit any artwork
to our next artpack? Or if you really want to know, you could just shoot a
meaningful gaze over at Horsenburger... if you can make anything out through
the frenzied blur of activity!
Mistigris 2017: an object in motion will remain in motion
until acted upon by an outside force.
: Pardon me, but did my cousin pass by here? :
ldb