What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Summary:

So you want to be an anartist - who says you need AWCY?

What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Eridian Empress 25 Feb 2020 02:27

The idea for this is simple - a firearm that, when fired, instead of launching a bullet, instead teleports a random bullet-sized volume of the user's biomass from their body and fires that out of the barrel with the kinetic energy of a bullet (I'm currently trying to decide whether or not to have the projectile anomalously have the same effect as a conventional bullet).

The effect is that it doesn't do anything a normal gun doesn't do, but it, in addition, also hurts you. Maybe it takes a chunk of body fat and you get off with some internal bleeding. Maybe it takes half an eyeball and gruesomely blinds you. Maybe it takes a piece of gray matter and kills you on the spot. The idea is that this skip was made by a pacifist anartist to rather dramatically demonstrate their belief that war is an inherently self-destructive and ultimately suicidal endeavour. Some get off easier than others, but in the end everyone who's involved in violent conflict loses a part of themselves.

A big influence on this idea of mine is my irritation that damn near every anartist that appears on this site is connected to AWCY in some way. It strikes me as ludicrous that every last artist in the entire (anomalous) world would associate with a single organisation/group, especially given how anarchistic anartists (and oftentimes real artists) tend to be. It's a big world, there ought to be thousands, at the very least, of anart groups and collectives and whatnot, and countless more anartists who aren't affiliated with a group at all.

With this skip, I hope to be able to tell a story about the creator, an anartist who wanted to distance themselves from AWCY and its influence, and hopefully shine some light on the world of anart beyond AWCY, or perhaps why we see so little of that world.

I envision the gun as being a military rifle from the interwar period (1918-1931), as that way I can explore, at least a little, the history of the anart community and use the historical moment the artist was operating in to add thematically-appropriate context and hopefully a dissonant mixture of historical foreshadowing and irony.

(This is my first foray into writing here, so I'm admittedly fairly nervous about getting off on the right foot. It took a while to understand the guides on how to navigate the bureaucracy, but my understanding is that this is the best place to get my start as a writer here. Here's hoping I make a good impression and get some reviewers' blessings.)

Last edited on 26 Feb 2020 08:47 by Eridian Empress Show more

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Mew-ltiverse 25 Feb 2020 03:38

Yoooooo I've got an anartist character that isn't a part of AWCY either! Nice

I honestly really like AWCY, so that drew my attention, even if this idea is basically the opposite of that. I feel like the idea has merit, but the kinks will need to be worked out, especially the main character of the article, as this is likely to be a character centered piece.

I recommend the following:

• This essay on generic items and how they succeed and fail.
• This essay on humanoid SCP objects and how to make them real.
• This essay on terror and how the familiar can be scary.

To ensure that you portray this the absolute best you can. Good luck. :)

Last edited on 25 Feb 2020 04:17 by Mew-ltiverse Show more

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Eridian Empress 25 Feb 2020 05:13

I went ahead and read the guides you linked me, though I don't know if the ones on humanoids and terror are exactly relevant. I don't intend for this to be a horror story, my intent is instead to look at the wider world of anart and AWCY's relationship to all of it. My idea is to tell the bulk of the story through addenda detailing the skip's history from its creation in the interwar period to the present day. In effect, the skip itself, an inanimate object, is the protagonist of the story, as we follow its journey from the day it was created by the (currently unnamed) anartist, to its acquisition by the Foundation.

My hope is to explore snapshots of the anart community's history over the past century through historical records of various kinds that record how the skip's various owners used and interpreted the piece, from those that agreed with the artist's original vision, to those who held the exact opposite perspective. For example, the skip's final owner is an AWCY group that gets raided by the Foundation, giving an ironic ending to the piece's story. Or, perhaps, not so ironic, as AWCY itself no doubt changed a great deal in the hundred years since the creator interacted with them. That kind of ambiguity can be left for the reader to chew on.

I'm sorry I started rambling, but I hope I clarified my idea to you. And another thing, what kinds of kinks did you have in mind, regarding the concept? I'm curious to know what weakpoints you see in it.

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Mew-ltiverse 25 Feb 2020 13:41

If you're going to have an article that focuses on people, the anartists outside of AWCY, I feel like you need to have a decent understanding of how to write a character into an article, which is why I linked that guide. I see your goal a bit more, the weak points I see could be easily getting the science wrong, writing boring characters, and that it could be easy to try to hard to show that these artists aren't part of AWCY, and not enough on the rest of the article. Most of my worries are precautions.

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Eridian Empress 25 Feb 2020 15:13

Alright, that's a fair point. I was just a bit concerned because that guide is more targeted towards writing humanoid skips, as opposed to human characters in general, but I'm still taking it to heart. I agree with your last point, I really shouldn't focus on making this "bleh look how much I'm not AWCY" so much as giving it a fair portrayal, albeit less in focus than most anart stories and skips. Do you have any other advice or suggestions?

(By the way, thank you for bearing with me on this, even if I may be a bit slow on the uptake. I appreciate your patience.)

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Mew-ltiverse 26 Feb 2020 13:44

Essentially just make sure to keep the narrative and characters strong, as that is gonna lead the article, as this appears to be very story based. I'll go ahead and greenlight this as you seem willing to incorporate advice for the better, which is a very good quality to have.

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

rioludoodle 25 Feb 2020 23:59

As somebody who has also been annoyed with AWCY¹ at times, I think that this story is a cool concept! Skips that go against the grain of the status quo are pretty neat. Art in the context of history can be interesting; anomalous art in historical context could be a blast.

Greenlight. Remember that you can reach out to other users to get your second go-ahead.

Footnotes

1. I stopped disliking AWCY after coming to see the GAW as an offshoot of their peers who disagree with them, just because the rivalry makes both GoIs more interesting. I grew to actually like AWCY after learning about the Algonquin Round Table, which was, in the real world, a bunch of drunk asshats dictating the popular culture of the Roaring '20s. They admittedly had a lot of creative talent but were kinda full of themselves. To reverse-contextualize these hundred-year-old weirdos: in the Foundation universe, some of the people involved with the Algonquin Round Table probably would have been screwing around with anart.

Anyway, the point is that AWCY becomes a little bit fascinating when compared to a real-life historical counterpart.

Last edited on 26 Feb 2020 00:35 by rioludoodle Show more

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Eridian Empress 26 Feb 2020 08:39

Seeing as how AWCY is one of my less-favourite GOIs, and that I'm more of a science nerd, this AWCY-centred anart skip is going to be a decent challenge for me, and on my very first skip idea too. I don't mind, though, to be honest. I believe in challenging myself as a dare to go above and beyond what I would have done had I taken the easy route. And since I'm not much of an art enthusiast, I've been doing a bunch of research into 20th Century art history as I've been workshopping this. I actually had no idea about the Algonquin Round Table (or ART…I wonder if that's a coincidence) before you linked it to me, so thanks a million for that. Reading about the ART was actually fascinating enough to make me reconsider some of my ideas for my story. Originally, I intended for it to be of European origin (probably the Weimar Republic), and the story to mainly follow European art history. But the ART by itself has intrigued me enough to wonder whether I should look into perhaps setting it in North America instead. Do you have any thoughts or opinions about a choice of setting? You seem like you know a bit about art (or least that was what I surmised from the sample size of a single comment), so I'm curious to see what you think.

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

rioludoodle 26 Feb 2020 13:34

Since your anart gun is an anti-violence statement, you might consider setting the story in North America during the Vietnam war. Lots of people - especially young people - were protesting American involvement in Vietnam. Or for another option around the same time period, you might instead make it a product of the American Civil Rights Movement. Of course, the 20th century is an extraordinarily interesting time for lots of places around the world, so don't limit yourself to the United States if another setting catches your eye. If you want to dig into the Jazz Age vibe of the Algonquin Round Table, then the 1920s are it for you, probably in either Paris or New York City.

I don't know much about art history so much as plain old history. In this respect, I've just been lucky to have teachers and classes that like to address art and culture as important facets of history. I encourage you to keep doing your own research! You're taking a great approach to developing your story. Wikipedia is a writer's friend.

Once you have a finished draft, feel free to drop me a PM. I'd be happy to take a look at this in the drafts forum. Best of luck!

Last edited on 27 Feb 2020 00:11 by rioludoodle Show more

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Gabriel McQueen 03 Mar 2020 01:20

I definitely recommend that you look into the Dada art movement, which was explicitly a response to the unprecedented brutality of modern warfare. They created absurd art in the face of a world which seemed to no longer make sense. Dadaists famously created works of art that were left up to chance, for example, by dropping cut pieces of paper onto a canvas, and gluing them down where they landed, or constructing poems by cutting up a newspaper article, and drawing the words out of a hat one by one. Marcel Duchamp's "ready-mades," mundane objects which he would sign his name to, thus conferring to them the status of art, came from this movement.

Lots of artists around this time, Dadaists included, were embracing the idea of art that was untrained and unrestrained by an academic idea of fine art. At the turn of the century, Fauvism/the Fauves ("wild beasts") were painting in a style that still had recognizable imagery, but with bright, unreal colors, and hasty, simplified forms. Others explored (often with racist and ableist views) what they saw as "primitive" art: art from non-white cultures, such as the African masks which were highly inspirational to Picasso's cubism, or the art of children or the mentally ill, termed "Art Brut" by the painter Dubuffet.

Meanwhile, the Italian Futurists were popularizing the artists' manifesto, with grand statements about how art should embrace ideas of speed, technological progress, and violence (and fascism). Futurists compared museums to mausoleums, and hated the idea that art should ever be preserved, rather than always moving forward and becoming new.

Just some directions to take your research in.

Edit: Also wanted to include another fun moment in avant-garde art: the riot, or near riot, from the audience, in response to the 1913 premier of The Rite of Spring, an orchestral piece by Stravinsky, choreographed by Nijinsky, and performed by the Ballet Russe. The discordant music, "pagan" dance style, and gruesome subject matter (the dance is about a virgin sacrifice/fertility ceremony) were too much for an audience who expected a sweet and typical ballet performance, and there's accounts of audience members starting fights with each other, basically, because the show was too weird, too ugly, too bizarre.

Last edited on 03 Mar 2020 06:21 by Gabriel McQueen Show more

Re: What Is Art, Baby Don't Hurt Me

Petrograd 08 Mar 2020 14:22

I came here to mention a few art things, but ended up with more general critique:

+ show block

I know you've got 2 greenlights above, but as a word of caution, in my opinion, the gun idea is pretty lackluster. It's been done at least once before on the wiki (there's a rifle that turns the entire firer into a bullet), which isn't a huge problem on the modern wiki, just an example of how it's not super original.

So, several pieces of advice:
1) Know that nobody is going to care about this from a detailed, clinical tone explanation about what the rifle does to people's internals or exactly what the anomalous effects are. It's also, frankly, not very different from the blunt violent anart that people associate with AWCY. (I mean, as an anti-violence artistic work, it's a pretty blunt metaphor. Also, what kind of art exhibit would let people fire a rifle, or keep it on display after the first person loses a chunk of themselves? Those questions might sound sarcastic, but they might also be story threads.) You can still pull off this article if your narrative and characters are strong, but don't expect the gun concept to be the thing that sells this, and (IMO)'don't waste a ton of space on the anomalous nitty gritty.

1.5) Violence and gore, by themselves, aren't very interesting to readers on the wiki. It's part of why people find AWCY trite/boring.

2) If you want an art article to work, it helps to show us people reacting to the art so that we have some emotions to identify with. I absolutely do not mean that it should anonymously create emotions, but if you could write, say, quotes from period people reacting to it, or period or modern scholarship showing what people thought and felt about it, that is going to carry way more weight than just relying on us to have an emotional reaction to a flat description of the anomaly. What did someone losing a chunk of themselves feel, what did it make them think? (If your answer is "Ahhhhhh that hurts why?", that's a pretty shitty artistic statement.)

3) It would also help if you know the personal story to the art and why the artist choose the medium of the rifle. For a couple of examples of art in response to tragedy that may seem pretty basic or blunt but (to me at least) were actually very affecting, both a pile of candy and a squirt gun come to mind.

4) Continuing that idea and getting into the art advice, I believe that your best bet would be digging into the biographies of artists in the time and movements you are interested in, particularly modernists from many different mediums (including poets and authors). Like, just skim a bunch of wikipedia bios, and dig deeper when someone grabs you. This will give you a better feeling for character and more inspiration than just trying to learn what broad art movements consisted of or meant. To expand on movements a bit, though: Gabriel McQueen mentions Dada which is a good example, but more broadly, Dada is part of surrealism and surrealism would fall into the very broad concept of Modernism that encompassed a lot of the artistic aftermath of WWI..

(Bit of advice: Dada is a strong example, but it's also a major inspiration for AWCY).

I can think of two SCPs off the top of my head that may be helpful for you to read, SCP-2739 and SCP-2188.

Last edited on 08 Mar 2020 14:37 by Petrograd Show more