Siggraph06 was a strange experience. On the one hand, i met wonderful people who i never see for the rest of the year, on the other hand you have so many things that want your attention and you suck in so many new ideas (both good and bad) that you can only feel oversaturated.
As i already stated in my more professional blog, siggraph will definetly have an impact on my work and the perspective i see for what i do.
Though these things also remind me of a strange bubble that you put yourself into from time to time. Detached from all earthly woes and untouched by recent news and developments, you traverse this small universe of people who all work in synthetic pictures and digital abstractions.
Once inside, your world starts spinning around research grants, art funds, the next symposium, the next exhibition, my personal favorite: "projects" and cool new things that people you know or people that know people you know did. And if you're not careful, you might loose ground and fly away, all inside your precious little world.
Above all Siggraph lay the question of "why". Why are people doing this?
Why am i doing this?
I think the question actually was spoken out loud at least three times during the ten days i was away by all different people...
The answer is far beyond just a simple blog posting. But i still firmly believe that there is an answer to that and that realtime animated movies, interactive art installations and computer graphics programming can make a change for good, even though the steps are subtle and there's no big moving and shaking going on.
It is not easy to stay focussed, but i feel that there is a big picture somewhere and that it makes sense to keep it in the back of your head, and to realise that what you're doing, you're not just doing for yourself and because you can, but you're also doing it for (maybe nowadays, only a smallnumber of) other people to show them new ways of how to approach their everyday life.
You are adding to the significant pool of things that define human culture in a non-commercial way and broaden our understanding of what is human and what is not. Albeit, on a (for now) very detached level.
For many reasons, the question was more apparent during the last two weeks than before, as our planet seems strangely divided between areas that fall back into undissolving conflict while other areas celebrate virtual war as the peak of human entertainment.
It's hard to get all of this into your brain and write machinima press-releases while you pale when reading the newspaper.
So what was the big picture again?
Culture,
right.
Sometimes it's hard to stay focused.
Pictures of Siggraph06 in Boston can be seen at my Flickr Siggraph set.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
As i already stated in my more professional blog, siggraph will definetly have an impact on my work and the perspective i see for what i do.
Though these things also remind me of a strange bubble that you put yourself into from time to time. Detached from all earthly woes and untouched by recent news and developments, you traverse this small universe of people who all work in synthetic pictures and digital abstractions.
Once inside, your world starts spinning around research grants, art funds, the next symposium, the next exhibition, my personal favorite: "projects" and cool new things that people you know or people that know people you know did. And if you're not careful, you might loose ground and fly away, all inside your precious little world.
Above all Siggraph lay the question of "why". Why are people doing this?
Why am i doing this?
I think the question actually was spoken out loud at least three times during the ten days i was away by all different people...
The answer is far beyond just a simple blog posting. But i still firmly believe that there is an answer to that and that realtime animated movies, interactive art installations and computer graphics programming can make a change for good, even though the steps are subtle and there's no big moving and shaking going on.
It is not easy to stay focussed, but i feel that there is a big picture somewhere and that it makes sense to keep it in the back of your head, and to realise that what you're doing, you're not just doing for yourself and because you can, but you're also doing it for (maybe nowadays, only a smallnumber of) other people to show them new ways of how to approach their everyday life.
You are adding to the significant pool of things that define human culture in a non-commercial way and broaden our understanding of what is human and what is not. Albeit, on a (for now) very detached level.
For many reasons, the question was more apparent during the last two weeks than before, as our planet seems strangely divided between areas that fall back into undissolving conflict while other areas celebrate virtual war as the peak of human entertainment.
It's hard to get all of this into your brain and write machinima press-releases while you pale when reading the newspaper.
So what was the big picture again?
Culture,
right.
Sometimes it's hard to stay focused.
Pictures of Siggraph06 in Boston can be seen at my Flickr Siggraph set.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
