Line: UPDATE!TheVirtualBeret
From sarah smiley <smi...@world.std.com>
· rec.arts.ascii
· 2 Nov 1994 03:57 · View full thread
· report
This is the November 1994 edition of The Virtual Beret Update. Due on the
first of every month, I post it it alt.artcom, rec.arts.misc, and
rec.arts.fine. This month I am also posting it to rec.arts.ascii, and
alt.ascii-arts, as well as alt.postmodern.
TABLE O' CONTENTS:
1) THE VIRTUAL BERET QUESTION
2) NET RAMBLINGS AND MUSINGS
3) A FEW ASCII-ARTISTES
4) ARTWORK BY SCARECROW
I) THE VIRTUAL BERET QUESTION
For those of you who aren't familiar with the Virtual Beret Project, here is
the essence of it:
Call to Writers, Artists, Doodlers, Channel-Surfers, Mouse Clickers, or anyone
who sees this:
My name is Sarah Smiley, and I am a media artist in Boston, Massachusetts. I'm
working on a project called "The Virtual Beret: Perceptions of the Artist in
the Online World" I'm putting out a questionaire, and your response will be
archived with others at a Web site, managed by Patrick Jordan, a computer
artist from Sydney Australia, and myself. Answer these questions in any
manner which you see fit-image, audio, video, or text. Complete html (WWW
hypertext) pages are also acceptable. If you participate, you will at least
get a thank-you, and further information will be available online.
The Questions:
1) Invent an Artist. This Artist can be a he, she, or it, working with any
materials, in any medium, with an unlimited virtual budget.
2) Describe the Art created by said Artist
3) Describe said Artist's Beret (hint: what is a Beret? In this case, an
Artist's Hat. What is the nature of this Artist's Hat? What is the relation of
the artist to said Hat?)
Please tell me if you want your piece to be included in a collection such as I
have described. Also, tell me what city and country you posted your response
from.
If you send text response, please send it to sar...@bmugbos.org. I will
respond within one or two days at the most.
If you are sending audio, images, or video, please uuencode your submission,
and send it to smi...@world.std.com. It may take me longer to respond at this
address. Include as much information as possible about the work's original
format and how it was compressed. I will confirm when I receive it, but it
will take me a bit longer to look at it.
To take a look at the Web site, the address is:
http://www.rp.csiro.au/~pjordan/VirtualBeret/
(No spaces between Virtual and Beret, trailing / is important). Please send
comments, suggestions, or complaints about the Web site to
pjo...@rp.csiro.au
If you just want to comment, or say hi to me or Patrick, you can do that
too...
Thanks for taking the time to do this! And please feel free to distribute and
post this as much as possible.
Regards,
-sarah smiley
My address is: sar...@bmugbos.org
II. NET-RAMBLINGS AND MUSINGS
This month I didn't go to several groups like I usually do. Instead, I
stopped by rec.arts.ascii, and alt.ascii-art. Apart from the instant ascii-
gratification of seeing pictures immediately (for those of us who are -ahem-
text-based wanderers) the ascii-groups have plenty of info for those who want
to find out more about how to make, view, and shall-we-say- collect ascii-art.
What is ascii-art? You'll have to read the FAQ to get a more full explanation,
but it is essentially art that can be created through using the characters on
your keyboard. There is a tremendous amount of it floating around the
Internet. To me, it almost seems like the Hieroglyphics of the
Internet...except text becomes pictures, not pictures text. Though it has had
its origins in the "Real World", it has really come of age with the advent of
text editing, and ease of distribution via the Internet. Sounds familiar yes?
I find that writing is taking on some of those same characteristics. And
ascii-art, like writing, is making its own rules of distribution in the online
world.
The ascii-art groups were considerably more organized than many Usenet groups
where I have wandered. Even the alt. group was well- organized, with peoples'
subject headings. actually reflecting the content of the message. Well, blow
me down. (I've added Popeye cartoons to my morning TV viewing habits) I guess
if enough people follow the rules, others follow. In the case of the ascii-
art groups, it's very efficient. LINE indicates that there is ascii-art to
follow. TALK indicates that there are technical issues being discussed.
REQUEST indicates that there is a request for ascii-art. In a group such as
this, the organization is a good thing. You don't want to open a message,
hoping to view some ascii-art, only to find that some net-BOZO is vomiting
their manifesto/advertisement into a message that could only very loosely be
called ascii-art, and then only by abstract expressionists who have a penchant
for text as object.
My experience in the ascii-art groups is that usually, there are more requests
than drawings. However, there are certainly enough drawings to keep you
amused for some time, and around various holidays, you can expect to see, for
example, pumpkins, jolly old elfs, and whatnot. Happy Birthday stuff seems to
pop up fairly often, as well. I think it is fair to say don't put in a
request, and expect to see it the next day...especially if what you are
looking for is fairly obscure. (Spot, the Wonder-Pup napping in the nude on
the sun porch for example. Oh, that's no example.) However, a lot of ascii-
stuff has been already created, so if you think it has, then take a look
around for it.
Who is responsible for this ascii-order in the midst of Usenet chaos? I
couldn't help but notice that there were many posts by Bob Allison, a.k.a.
Scarecrow, and that those posts were usually answering questions that people
had asked. He has written an excellent FAQ, which he posts fairly frequently
to these groups, so take a look at it before exercising your curiosity
publically- I found that this FAQ was very well written, and it also answered
some of my basic questions about uuencoding and text editing as well. Both
these functions are vital to ascii-art creation, especially text editing. He
also maintains various Internet sites, with one of his Web sites being
http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/scarecrow/html/
You can access this thru lynx, if you are a text-oid like myself. When you
take a look at the extensive holdings within, it becomes immediately apparent
(if you hadn't discovered this in the ascii groups) that ascii-art is more
than birthday cakes, and halloween pumpkins. As an additional bonus, there is
a link to the Spider's Web at the top level, which basically lists hundreds of
Web sites. So even if you aren't an ascii-art fetishist, you can go for the
Web site info.
There are actually different kinds of ascii-art. Here are a few kinds to
begin with. This info is taken from the FAQ which can be found at the Web site
before mentioned, or within the Usenet groups.
"Other forms of ASCII art using the standard printable set include the
following four:
o Geometric Article - Text is formed into interesting, meaningful shapes.
o Picture Poem - A geometric article that is also a poem. See the swan in
the examples in ASCII Art Resources and ASCII Art Reference (the Web
version of the FAQ).
o Page Making - Text and graphics are intermixed, as in a magazine.
o Picture Story - A story told with accompanying ASCII pictures. Created
using ASCII art page making techniques."
Who owns ascii-art? How does it get distributed? Well, in the early days of
ascii-art, it was common to take something, sans the signature of the artist.
So there are a number of ascii-pieces floating around who are by artists
unknown. However, common protocal is that you can take something, as long as
the original artist is credited. I think this is facinating...since there is
essentially no commercial value in ascii-art, its distribution sets its own
rules according to convenience. Would that it were the case in general. It
certainly lends itself to an attitude of co-operation amongst people, in terms
of creation, and distribution. The FAQ is fairly clear in terms of how far
you can take distribution of ascii-art. From the FAQ:
"Is it OK to copy ASCII art?
Assuming the ASCII art is being used for non-commercial purposes:
ASCII art that is posted is considered copyrighted by the poster. But
since the post goes around the world, and copyright laws vary, you'd have
trouble enforcing it in some places.
Even when ASCII art is copyrighted, there is a general agreement among
most of us that it is OK to copy and clip, repost and pass it around. It is
generally used AS IF it were Public Domain.
All that most artists ask is that their credit be left on the art. Until
recently, it was common for the creator's credit to be lost.
For example, you could make an instant sig with a piece of existing art, a
Figletized name, a quote, and your email address. The one thing that is
generally considered bad is to copy somebody's sig, only changing the name and
address."
END QUOTE
In the course of my ascii-art wanderings, I asked myself "how did this all
start?" Certainly, the concept of using text as art existed before the
Internet. It is its explosion within the context of the Internet that
interests me.
I posed this question to Scarecrow, and he answered thusly:
"I too would like to know the history of ASCII art. It's the unwanted
step child of the established art world. It isn't 'serious'. Nobody has
bothered to chronical it. What I mention above is about all I know of
it's history. If you find out anything, please tell me.
As to my involvement in it, I just sort of accidentally started
collecting it, posting it, offering archives, etc. Then came the FAQ,
the rec.arts.ascii group, the FTP site, the Web pages, etc."
END QUOTE
This information is something I'm willing to post in the next Virtual Beret
update, if I find out between now and then. If you, gentle reader, can shed
some light on to this dark mystery, feel free to respond. However, maybe it
is just a bit too early in the online life-span of ascii-art to look for a
"history". I'm especially interested because I find parallels with the
distribution of ascii-art and the ease of distributing writing online. But
that for another Virtual Beret issue.
Halfway through the month, I was a convert to ascii-art. In my personal
opinion, the best ascii-art is the kind with fairly simple drawings, with a
short text explanation. (See the infamous "cows" in the humor section of
Scarecrow's Web site) If someone uses text as a drawing tool, this
contradiction results in a certain amount of humor, and as a result, ascii-
humor is amongst the most convoluted that I've found on the net.
That's about all I have to say for now, because this is a big issue..since
instead of the usual beret, I've included work by Scarecrow at the end of this
Update. And tho its text, it's no small thing. So on, for now...to a new
aspect of the Virtual Beret project...
III. A FEW ASCII-ARTISTS
I'll admit it- I jumped on with a sonorous thump to the ascii-art bandwagon,
and here I have created some ascii artists of my own. Please feel free to
alter these in any way, and if you send'em back altered, we will post them at
the Web site. We will also credit you with the alterations.
VARIATIONS ON AN ARTIST
by sarah smiley smi...@world.std.com
?
?
?????????
???????????
| |
{| 0---0 |
| ^ |
| ___ |
(_______)
ARTIST SORELY MISSING ONE
EAR, WHICH WAS CHOPPED OFF
IN A FIT OF ANGST
?
?
?????????
???????????
| |
{| 0-0 |}
| ^ |
| ___ |
(_____)
STARVING ARTIST
(WITH BOTH EARS, SAME BERET)
?
?
?????????
???????????
| |
| X-X |
| ^ |
| ___ |
(_____)
STARVED ARTIST
(MISSING BOTH EARS)
?
?
???????????
???????????
| / \ |
{| 0---0 |
| ^ |
| O |
(_______)
DISMAYED ARTIST WITH
ONLY ONE EAR AND
A SQUARE HEAD
?
?
???????????????
?????????????????
| |
{| 0---0 |}
| ^ |
| ___ |
(_____________)
WELL-FED ARTIST (NOT TOO
MANY OF THOSE.) ALSO, IF
YOU TAKE OFF THE HAT AND
GLASSES IT LOOKS LIKE
TED KENNEDY.
4) ARTWORK BY SCARECROW
This month, I've decided to feature work by Scarecrow for this last section of
the Virtual Beret Update. For his Real-World existence, he resides in
Chicago, where he does pagemaking for the locals. He can be reached at
bob...@wwa.com
..:::::::::..
..:::::::::::::::..
..:::::: ====== :::::..
..::::: ========== ::::..
..::::: ==== |\ ==== ::::..
.::::: ==== /%#| ==== :::..
.::::: === |&@/ ==== :::::.
..::::: ===_\|_==== :::::..
..::::: /| .:. | :::::...
..:::: || .:. | ::::...
...:: (| .:. | ::....
.... | .:. | ....
\ ,. ', , . \/ ,".). ', \/. ',
\\ ,' /, ', \), ', . ' ,'|// / (/ ,. ' ,\( / ,
.' ,"|| // ) , . ' ,'\ ,.' , '|\/ \| \\,' ,'.' || \\,' .'
" , '\ \/|| \\," ,' " ,\\/\," ,' .| \_ |\/ |#\_/#| /_|\_ |#\_/,) ',. ,'
'/ (,'|\/\|#\_//| /,'( \)|\./#|(,' ) \\\#\ \##/ ||/ \#\ \###/\ \/ |/.',
Y '\\ \#\ \###/ || |V\\ \#\/ || ) | \ |/ /#/ |#( \|\\| |#/ /##( )| \\'/
|/,'|| |#| |#(',||,\\.|'.|| #( \ |.\\ |\_/#| /#)|##\ \\_/#| |######\ \\/#|
\\_/#| |#| |##\ \\_/#|\_/#| #\ \\_/# |#\##/ \# bob...@wwa.com ##@##@#\ /#/
\##/ /###V##@#| |##/@##/ /#@#\ /##/# ##\/#@####@@###V###\/#@####@@#Y###
##\/#@####@@##V###@##\/#@####Y##@@##@##@@###@@@###@##@@###@@@###@####
##@##@@###@@@@##@##@@@##@@@###@#######@@@@@#@@@@@##@@##@@#@@@@@#@@@####
_________________________________________________________
| |
| ___________________________________________________ |
| |<<<<<<<<<<<<!< | |
| |<<<<<<<<<<!<~ '<:HHnni::: ::: | |
| |<<<<<<<<<<<<< <!MMMMMM988Nbn:. <<<<<<<<<| |
| |<<<<<<<<<~~ <<!XMMMMM88888888Nz <<<<<<<<<| |
| |<<<<<<<<< `!XXHMMMMM988888888Br << | |
| |<<<<<<<<``: :xXX9MMMMMMM888888888RM<'`<<:<<:: | |
| |<<<<<<<<. '<MM!"""~`"""*M888888RMM~<~<<xx<<<<<| |
| |<<<<<<<!H 'i::HHXxx.. . ^"9M##MMX<<:<<MMHX!:<| |
| |<<<<<<<<<< ~xBHMMM?MMMHxXMMu. .df `"!<<<<MMMMMXX| |
| |:::::::xn: 9RM!!!!!MMM98NN8MHH98ixx '!!<<<!M88MMMM| |
| |MXMMMHHH9ML.MM!<<<<<!MM8888#S9MN88MMM!<<<<<<988MMMM| |
| |^`""""""MMMR?!<< <<~!MMM8X ^""#88MM?!<<:<<!988RRMM| |
| | MMM!~~~` '<~<H**MRMx .xMMM?XXXXX<x!MRRMMMM| |
| | : tM~ '~ '4Mk. "!**@MMXM!<XMHHH<XXMMMMMM?| |
| |<<<<: ` ~ <MMMM"?#*n:3MM<!MMMMM:HM!MS?!!!| |
| |!!<!<<. !tMNWiiHMM"!<<!MMMMM!MM!!!!!!!| |
| |n::<~!!: `!MR88RM!<<<<!MMMMM!MM<!!<~!~| |
| |??%H<<::<: `"?XHX<<<<!MMMMM!MM<<<!<<<| |
| |XXXMHX:!!!!<. xH!XMMMMHX<<!MMMMMfMM:<<<<<<| |
| """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" |
| B O B A |
!_________________________________________________________!
_________________________________________________________
| __________________________________ _________________ |
|| --- VHS ------------------------ | | -- ----- ||
||__________________________________| | 4-2-94 12:05^ ||
| __________________________________ |_________________||
|| /\ | :: | << | >> | > | o | -- | O O O O O |
| """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" '''''''''''''''''''|
!_________________________________________________________!
==============================================================================
==============================================================================
== i""""i === /""""/ == /"""""""""""""/ = /""""""""""""""""/ ========= /"""/ =
== | | == / / == / ____ / = /_____ ______/ ========= / / ==
== | | = / / == / / = / / ======= / / =============== / / ===
== | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= /"""""""" / ====
== | | / / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / ____ / =====
== | |/ / == / / = / / ======= / / ======= / / = / / ======
== | " / == / """" / = /"""""" """""/ = / """" / =======
== |________/ == /_____________/ = /________________/ = /___________/ ========
==============================================================================
==============================================================================
.___________________________________________________________________________.
| |
|___________________________,________________.________________________._____|
| ! | | | | | |
|_____|__,________|___________|______.____}__,________}___________|_____|
| | \ \ \ \ \ | | / / / / / | |
|_________|___\_,_\___\___\.__|___|___|___|___/___/___/___/___|_____.___|
| | | | \/ ,".). ', \/. ', | | | |
|___._|___| |. ' ,'|// / (/ ,. ' ,\( / , | |___|_____|
| | ,| '|\/ \| \\,' ,'.' || \\,' .' ,| ' | |
|_._______| " ,|' .| \_ |\/ |#\_/#| /_|\_ |#\_/,) ',.|,' |_________|
| | | #|(,' ) \\\#\ \##/ ||/ \#\ \###/\ \/ \/.', | | |
|_____|__,| || ) | \ |/ /#/ |#( \|\\| |#/ /##( )| \\'/ |___|_____|
| | \ |.\\ |\_/#| /#)|##\ \\_/#| |######\ \\/#| | |
|_________| /\\_/# |#\##/ bob...@gagme.chi.il.us @#\ /#/\ |_____.___|
| | | / ##/# ##\/#@####@@###V###\/#@####@@#Y### \ | | |
|___._|___| / :Y##@@##@##@@###@@@###@##@@###@@@###@####: \ |___|_____|
| | / :;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;: \ | |
|_________|/ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: \|_____.___|
..........
.......::::::.......
.......:::======:::.......
.......::===========::.......
......::===####@@####===::......
......::===####@@@@####===::......
.....::===####@@@@@@####===::.....
.....::===#####BOBA#####===::.....
.....::===#####@@#####===::.....
.....::====########====::.....
.....::=====####=====::.....
....::============::....
...::==========::...
..::========::..
|__________|
<__________>
<__________>
<__________>
\/
__________ ______________
|:""""""""|: | ............ :
|: |: | : | :
|: >boba |: | : | :
|:________|: | :>@wwa.com | :
| ..... :---_____---| :__________| :
| '-----" : |..............:
| @ :"-__-_ |"""""""""""""":
|..........: _-" |..............:
/.::::::::.\ /\ /.::::::::.:::.\
/____________\ (__) /________________\
--
?
? -"Walk softly and carry a large beret"
?????????
???????????
Original message headers
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f8267,94e92e6bca4b3ba2,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf8267,public X-Google-Thread: 10ed27,94e92e6bca4b3ba2,start X-Google-Attributes: gid10ed27,public X-Google-Thread: 1138b4,94e92e6bca4b3ba2,start X-Google-Attributes: gid1138b4,public X-Google-Thread: fbb9d,94e92e6bca4b3ba2,start X-Google-Attributes: gidfbb9d,public X-Google-Thread: fa3c8,94e92e6bca4b3ba2,start X-Google-Attributes: gidfa3c8,public X-Google-Thread: f996b,94e92e6bca4b3ba2,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-11-01 23:37:36 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!dearn!blekul11!idefix.CS.kuleuven.ac.be!ub4b!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!sashimi.wwa.com!not-for-mail From: smi...@world.std.com (sarah smiley) Newsgroups: rec.arts.fine,rec.arts.misc,alt.postmodern,alt.ascii-art,rec.arts.ascii,alt.artcom Subject: Line: UPDATE!TheVirtualBeret Date: 1 Nov 1994 21:57:57 -0600 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Lines: 474 Sender: bob...@wwa.com Approved: bob...@wwa.com Message-ID: <3972o5$m5...@gagme.wwa.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gagme.wwa.com Xref: nntp.gmd.de rec.arts.fine:7219 rec.arts.misc:1460 alt.postmodern:11178 alt.ascii-art:16219 rec.arts.ascii:2582 alt.artcom:3712
Related ASCII art in the Gallery
Explore these categories from our collection of 11,000+ artworks:
Make your own ASCII art
Turn images, text or 3D into ASCII, or draw your own – right in your browser.
About this message.
This message was posted publicly to the newsgroup
rec.arts.ascii
in 1994 and is mirrored here unchanged as part of the Historic Archives – only email addresses are masked.
The artwork and text belong to their original authors: if you copy a piece, keep the artist's initials or signature intact and credit them where you can.
Are you the author? Contact us to get your posts attributed, connected to your artist profile, or removed.
Report this message
Help us keep the archive clean and accurate. Reports are reviewed by a person – nothing is changed automatically.