On prescribing behavior

[trythil]

I feel as if there's been an upswing in the number of discussion threads that seem to have a vaguely prescriptive feel about them: say, threads which start with something to the tune of "well, there's style X and style Y, and I really like style X better", which seems to have a "therefore I want to see more people working in style Y" implicitly affixed to the end.

Occasionally, there will be threads which are more forthcoming and explicitly stick that last phrase in.

Now, this is awesome. Really, it is. I think it's really cool that we're starting to see serious meta-discussion about AMVs; it's a sign of maturity in the artform.

However.

I just want to say -- on behalf of myself -- that I'm not really keen on changing from purely external pressure. Oh, sure -- I love to see other examples of visual art, and I've stolen and hacked up countless ideas from countless real artists. That's obvious influence. But it's stuff I want to try out, stuff I want to do, stuff I want to change.

So what I do in AMVs, really, is all about me.

I'm sure I'm bound to produce things that people don't like. And that's great; differing opinions are always good.

However, inevitably, there will be some people who will try to make me do something in some way that they prefer, as if I'm making AMVs to their whims. This happens in quick comments, opinions, announcement threads.

To formulate my response, I'd like to borrow some particularly inspiring words from David Heinemeier Hansson, lead developer of the Ruby on Rails Web application framework:










Actually, I just wanted to use that image somewhere, because I thought it was (a) really, really funny, (b) quite hilarious in the context of an ostensibly "professional" conference, and (c) while crude, it does have some relevance to my attitude on AMVs.

You can take the rest of the drivel I spewed with whether degree of seriousness you'd like.

[trythil]

Hey, wow, it's really, really late, isn't it? Seems like it's so late, I don't know even know which sub-forum I'm in.

I meant to post this in General AMV. Heh heh. Go me.

[CrackTheSky]

Aww, and here I thought we had another trythil video.

You bastard.

[Pas]

Where iz dis nu AMV I was waitin 4??! O.o

Hahah but good read anyway.

[inthesto]

Dr Mario prescribes some MOTHERFUCKING PAIN



On a side note, why does he wear the goofy doctor getup if he's a PhD and not an MD?

[Purge]

gimme what i want you hippo

[Otohiko]

Yep, bingo. Every meta-discussion so far has left me thinking something like this.
I'd also like to pervert a quote from Zappa and rephrase it as "Talking about AMVs is like dancing about architecture". It's all in good fun and is also often quite practical (like AMV review), but I think there's ways in which talking about AMVs is really getting divorced from the reality of AMVs. For one, the previous discussion of 'concept' videos left me scratching my head thinking that it's hardly had anything to do with what's actually out there, and everything to do with this or other groups making up category X from something that didn't really exist in an easily definable form and therefore grouping everything that's not X into category Y. When in fact there was no X or Y, there was just a gradient of AMVs all over the place.

My thought for the day: if you have to think about AMVs, then at least think topologically, not typologically.

[Sukunai]

WTF!!??

Seemed like the right thing to say.

Make amvs any way you like, but if you want it in the top 10, you better please the people that vote.

I think Picasso sucks by the way. Art is subjective.

[BasharOfTheAges]

My thought for the day: if you have to think about AMVs, then at least think topologically, not typologically.

I agree some of the conversations are boring, repetitive, and filled with a fuck-ton of people that miss the god damned point entirely, but saying we shouldn't have discussions is tantamount to saying the forums (or at least the ones not specifically for technical questions) are unimportant and should just be deleted.

[Pyle]

Should have had better transitions.