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June 22nd
Untitled 2004: Putting the "SCP" in "Sculpture"
Part One: Pika-Don
Art is explosion!
- Tarō Okamoto, on a 1981 commerial for Hitachi Maxell videocasettes.[28][32]
A nuclear shadow lies upon Japan, transcending those thousands killed instantly in atomic heat, left to die in city ruins, or suspended in radiational suffering. The shadow has ruptured the country's skin, left a keloid scar, and morphed national identity. One can find, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami argues, the earliest examples of atomic influence on Japanese culture and media in films like Godzilla (1954), the infamous kaiju not only symbolizing the nuclear era's threat but the transformation the country undertook in light of these weapons. Only upon the H-bomb's detonation did the lizard assume its monstrous form.[28]
Japan's surrender allowed the Allies, particularly the United States, to sculpt the Land of the Rising Sun to its liking. Infamously, Article 9 of the post-war Japanese constitution blocks the country from waging war or maintaining a military. This, paired with such physical acts of the control as the US' occupation of Okinawa Island, further introduced traumas to the Japanese consciousness and left the population with feelings of "anxiety, shame and a pervasive sense of impotence"[34]. These feelings find outlets in popular art and media, such as the Godzilla co-creator Eiji Tsuburaya's Ultraman and Ultraseven series. The alien species Ultraman fights in Ultraseven mirror in moral ambiguity Tsubaraya's experienced on American-occupied Okinawa.[28]
This was the condition Tarō Okamoto found Japan in as he returned to a life of personal artistry. Okamoto, son of a painter and a poet, spent his pre-war years in Europe, acquainting himself with surrealist and abstractionist artists including André Breton and Pablo Picasso. Along with the new, Okamoto found himself fascinated by ethnology, attending classes by the "father" of the practice Marcel Mauss.[32]
Such pursuits would not continue, however, with war-time conditions in Europe, forcing Okamoto to migrate back to Japan, forcibly conscripted as a war-time painter for the Japanese army. By the time he could stop betraying his conscience and return to purely personal ambitions in 1945, he found his childhood home and all his Japanese artworks destroyed. Such conditions, however, would not deter his artistic career.[32]
Dogū figurines (right) from the Jōmon period influenced Tarō Okamoto's (left) art.
Okamoto combined his contemporary views on Japanese life and culture (averse to "conservative" art circles and nuclear war) with his ethnological studies on the prehistoric Jōmon people, incorporating the designs of dogū figurines into his artwork[32]. As an example, one may view his Myth of Tomorrow, currently situated in Shibuya Station, portraying a skeleton burning emotionlessly. The hollow face simultaneously reflects Jōmon art and the disillusioned attitude of the Japanese populace towards World War 2 and the atomic bombings. As the Kyoto Journal observes, the painting seemingly promotes an optimistic outlook, while acknowledging the past.[42]
This combination of past, present, and future would culminate in one of Okamoto's most renowned artworks, the Tower of the Sun built for the Osaka Expo '70, Japan's first world fair. The event arose contemporaneously with economic growth during the 1960s, thus giving the Japanese citizenry an impression of hope[27]. Okamoto's optimistic worldview finds its double in the fair's theme, "Progress and Harmony for Mankind", which the giant tree on first glance reflects in its symbology of growth and life. However, in several ways, the artwork goes against its theme. As Lockyer remarks, the artwork pierced the fair's central plaza, disrupting the architecture's "harmony", and Okamoto's distinctive blending of elements similarly disrupted the "harmony" in traditional Japanese art circles.[23]
The tower finds more solace in "progress", as if growing metaphorically into tomorrow while looking back at yesterday (one may venture into the artwork and find a "tree-within-a-tree" inhabited by dinosaurs). This led, in an incident both oddly and appropriately approved by Okamoto, to a leftist protestor inhabiting the eye of one of the tower's faces, railing against the Japanese government yet again signing its US security treaty. Okamoto viewed the event as in-theme with the exhibition, and the swift police response almost gave the appearance of a show, yet another attempt at grabbing the attention of the fair's audience.[23]
As Japan entered the 80s, and western culture continued to extend its influence in Japan, the false optimism of the Osaka Expo '70, and the simultaneous existence of past, present, and future artforms, began to hold central importance in an artistic history Takashi Murakami deems infused with "superflat" culture and technique.[28]
Takashi Murakami's (pictured) "superflat" movement attempts to define Japan's relationship with art.
Takashi Murakami, born during the economic growth of the 60s, sought to analyze Japan's historical relationship with art, particularly in the wake of post-war American influence. This turns out more complicated than one may think at first. The Japanese language features two terms for art, "geijutsu" and "bijutsu", neither of which encompass in their totality the western conception of "art". His term "superflat" refers to a myriad of different aspects regarding Japanese art, both historical and modern. In his Superflat Manifesto, Murakami analyzes shared techniques between Edo-era artists, composing elements in an image to guide a viewer's eye in an ultimate culmination: one "superflat" image from many.[27]
Through the complicated intermingling of western and Japanese art, the more western-oriented, “avant-garde” artwork became associated with “bijutsu”, while more traditional Japanese artwork merged with “geijutsu” and the notion of “celebration” and entertainment[27]. Resultantly, within Japanese art, “high” and “low” art merged into one artform, another variant of the “superflat” term.[33]
Superflat, thus, refers to a composite of ancient and contemporary Japanese practices and artforms, in an attempt to trace Japanese art throughout history and where it will emerge next.[27][28]
While the superflat hypothesis has received criticism for its broad nature, particularly within the mindset of defining Japan’s relationship with art, and the potential of further dichotomizing Japan and “the west”[3][35], the notion of superflat has continued its influence beyond Murakami’s initial theory, with his Little Boy exhibition. The final part in a superflat “trilogy” of exhibitions, Little Boy, named for the atomic bomb which leveled Hiroshima, analyzes in-particular the connection between Japanese modern art and “otaku”, those under intense obsession and often hesitant to interact with individuals outside their interest[28]. Here, Murakami emphasizes the “infantilization” of Japanese culture by western influence, manifesting in “kawaii” media like Sanrio’s Hello Kitty franchise. This, along with art inspired by World War 2’s Pacific Theater and the aftershocks of the atomic bombings, consumes much of Little Boy‘s preoccupations.[34]
Among the pop-culture iconography and subversive art in the Little Boy exhibition, however, one artist managed to distinguish himself. An up-and-coming artist: Izumi Kato.
Izumi Kato grew up in the Shimane Prefecture, home to some of the Shinto religion’s oldest shines (see the Izumo-Taisha shrine, pictures). Shintoism heavily influenced Kati’s work.
Born in 1969, another of what Murakami deemed an “otaku” generation in the wake of Japan’s 1960s prosperity[28], Kato spent his childhood playing outside, drawing, and playing football[36]. Growing up in a rural part of the Shimane Prefecture, the animistic belief system of Shintoism, wherein all aspects of the world have life and paranormal “kami” inhabit the Earth, influence Kato greatly. This same rural upbringing, however, spurred Kato to enter an urban setting, wherever the city life may take him. He enrolled in the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, despite having little interest in visual art and finding far more solace in music.[11]
After university, Kato worked as a manual laborer, only occasionally producing artworks. At age 30, however, Kato felt a break-through in his life. He suddenly felt he could make a living creating art, and began to dedicate himself to the craft[11][24][31]. He began seeking exhibitions in the year 2000, the same year Murakami published his Superflat Manifesto[28].
Influences on Kato’s work range from the previously mentioned Shinto belief system to African idols[31], dogū figurines[36], and the works of Francis Bacon and Van Gogh[24]. One cannot, however, call Kato's works unoriginal. Several publications note his paintings and sculptures depict baby-like figures, the colorful auras surrounding Kato's figures in his paintings resembling embryonic fluid.[22][28][30]. Despite their infantile look and primitive design, they also have notably sexual characteristics, features resembling genitals. To walk into Kato's gallery feels like an intrusion into an otherworldly kingdom, says John Yau for Hyperallergic.[43]
The sculptures call to mind, argues Murakami, that same infantilization felt by post-war Japan[28], and the sculptures call to mind Japan's "kawaii" art movement in their curious charm and cuteness[11]. Yet Kato leaves the viewer with no final interpretation. "I don’t want the art work to have any [definitive] meaning. What I mean is, it’s not something I want to explain," says Kato in an interview for Post-ism magazine[11]. Kato paints what he feels only he can paint, and sculpt what he can sculpt, which happen to compose these ethereal human forms[31]. Often, Kato switches mediums when he feels blocked by one artform, such as he did in 2005 from painting to sculpture after a period of experimentation.[11].
Among those experiments: Untitled 2004. Kato's uncanny sculpture epitomizes his style: cute, creepy, colorful, and completely inscrutable. As the Scai Bathhouse art center notes, Kato maintains an "equality between himself and the painting", resulting in artworks that appear not only uncategorizable, but living[30]. One can even envision it moving, in its own odd way.
This sculpture certainly captivated the press, among them the New York Times[34] and Wall Street Journal[21], each noting Kato's unique work. The artist blew up in popularity after Murakami's Little Boy exhibition featured Kato as a central artist[28][22], gaining eyes worldwide. A couple years later, in 2007, the superflat movement and Kato continued to grow. Murakami directs the artwork for Kanye West's Graduation album, Kato participates in the 52nd Venice Biennale International Exhibition, and one anonymous user on 4chan's /x/ board stumbles upon a photo of Izumi Kato's work, taken by Keisuke Yamamoto in what seems like some kind of bathhouse or locker room.
The sculpture seems to captivate his imagination.
Part Two: Origin Is As Of Yet Unknown
We want to see the newest things. That is because we want to see the future, even if only momentarily. It is the moment in which, even if we don't completely understand what we have glimpsed, we are nonetheless touched by it. This is what we have come to call "art".
- Takashi Murakami, in his Superflat Manifesto, 2000.[27]
The sculpture, paired with Moto42's enigmatic text, captured a sentiment of curiosity, disgust, humor, and horror in 4chan's /x/ board. Some of the anons found the statue "cute", while others called it "creepy", highlighting the dual nature of Kato's artworks. Most of all, the board desired more of this dangerous, hidden world Moto42 had created, in conjunction with the curious setting and imagery of Kato's Untitled 2004. The explosion of SCP content across the internet traces back to this one stick of dynamite.[4]
The SCP Foundation Wiki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Despite the inherently collaborative nature of the SCP phenomenon, many of the site's fundamental early authors felt hesitant to spread the concept to the larger online sphere, often with good reason. The CC BY-SA 3.0 license the SCP Wikidot site fell under was more of an afterthought than a serious consideration. In an early example of the site reckoning with the larger fandom and Creative Commons license, from 2010, site administrator Dr Gears received a message from a supposed contact with several large movie producers, inquiring about movie rights for an SCP film. Several staff understandably hold doubts over the message's veracity, but the concerns go deeper than mere suspicion.
DrClef initially fears selling film rights would mean "the end of the scp wiki". Further misunderstandings regarding the Creative Commons license include the misconception that a film adaptation could not charge its audience for admission. While communication never went further than the initial message, this understandable lack of knowledge surrounding Creative Commons would continue in further staff activities.[20]
The attitude towards CC BY-SA 3.0 changed from aloofness to a grudge, with fears that commercial adaptations of SCP media put the original authors in a bad position. Some just wanted to ignore licensing altogether, including former site administrator The Raven whose attitude toward others regarding this issue would partially lead to their demotion[38]. Others attempted to change the SCP Wiki's license to a non-commercial variant, blocking commercial SCP projects. Two times staff attempted this change, with initially unanimous support, only to back off after considering the legal ramifications.[37][15]
Central to these concerns is SCP-173. Per thedeadlymoose's argument, given staff cannot remove the CC BY-SA 3.0 license from the SCP-173 text, and the rest of the site essentially forms a derivative of SCP-173, then staff also cannot remove the CC BY-SA 3.0 license from the rest of the site. Concerns like this, and with help from lawyer and site author
spikebrennan, block potential changes.[15]
Thus, staff held the Creative Commons license at largely an arms' distance, dealing with offsite licensing concerns as they came and, notably, not considering much the legal liabilities non-compliant images created on-site. At this point, authors could put any image on their articles without consequence, and the on-site licensing guide only got posted after a Minecraft mod caused issues in late 2012[16][10]. One certain article, however, would soon force the issue onto staff's plate.
This image by stephlynch for SCP-111 recently replaced the previous image, which spurred the wiki to better enforce its licensing policies on images.
SCP-111's former image, depicting several "dragonsnails" and the inspiration for the article, was cropped from the original version to not include the artist's watermark. Authors removed watermarks rampantly during this era, seeking to improve verisimilitude in their articles[13]. Upon the artist finding out their image had not only been stolen but their watermark removed, however, this reasoning did not hold as much water. Staff managed to work out a reasonable solution with the original artist for a time (prior to the article's new replacement image), attributing the artist as an in-universe agent, but the concern of several hundred, if not thousand, unattributed images troubled staff immensely[46]. This convinced staff to compose the first image use policy guide shortly after[39], and in TroyL's team restructure proposal the Image Team was made a separate entity from the License Experts Team, such did the issue concern the wiki.[40]
The Dragonsnails situation forced site staff to fully reckon with Untitled 2004 for the first time, with MisterFlames bringing up the issue of SCP-173 using a similarly stolen image.
Sorts supports the notion of asking for forgiveness rather than policing every image, a sentiment that staff largely shares, seeing how the Dragonsnails case ended amiably.
MisterFlames, however, brings up how the Dragonsnails artist could relate more easily with smaller creators like SCP author, a situation which may change with larger creators such as Kato[13]. The extensive rebranding the SCP Foundation Wiki has enacted on Untitled 2004 may not see such favorable response from an artist whose ethos denounces a clear interpretation.
As 2014 formally introduces the Image Team and the Image-Credit-a-thon, efforts on the Licensing front ramp up[2]. While the wiki's licensing and image use policy don't fully match proper Creative Commons standards at this point, they signify a major step from the outright dismissal of the license throughout 2012. All of this revolves directly around Untitled 2004, and site staff in English and Japanese desperately try to contact Kato, without success[14].
It comes much to staff's surprise, then, when a completely unconnected user gets permission from Izumi Kato to use Untitled 2004's likeness in a project.[25]
Staff initially treat Lotims (the user who contacted Kato) with suspicion, given staff's prior lack of success at contacting Kato.
Lotims, however, provides the receipts, with image and video proof of the interaction (along with a message of disappointment that staff had so doubted the interaction, to the point that users started sending
Lotims harassing PMs.[14][25]
Lotims and staff manage to work together to get Kato's attention, with
Zyn receiving a PM from the artist. Thankfully for the wiki, Kato allows usage of the image, given a disclaimer makes Untitled 2004's non-commercial status perfectly clear, and only threatens legal action should commercial uses of Untitled 2004 emerge. One can tell, however, Kato's hesitance in his permission, only allowing this specialized use of the image due to SCP-173's wide recognition across the internet, and even then doing so "reluctantly"[47]. For the contemporary site, however, even this conditional permission is a godsend.
As the years progress, the wiki's enforcement of the image use policy ebbed and flowed, generally increasing in severity. Some staff members conveyed dismay over these policies, with users like AdminBright asking "why go looking for trouble".
Gaffsey and
Vincent_Redgrave clarified the licensing team's perspective on this matter, noting the hypocrisy of having offsite media follow the SCP Wiki's license while the SCP Wiki doesn't follow its own license.[1]
Throughout 2016 and 2017, the Licensing Team and Image Team made great strides in making the wiki cc-compliant, with then-captain Vincent_Redgrave rewriting the Licensing Guide[41] and
Gaffsey proposing the cc-compliant tag to indicate articles with compliant images [19].
Doctor Cimmerian, however, distinguished himself with the proposals he set forth for licensing and image use policy enforcement, creating a licensing forum[5], enforcing the image policy on new articles[6][9], and codifying image removals for old articles[7], receiving unanimous support for this effort[8]. All of this, however, danced around Untitled 2004, and the tenuous relationship the wiki held with Izumi Kato.
This development slows throughout 2018, as Vincent_Redgrave goes inactive,
ProcyonLotor taking the reins. Around this time, the Licensing Team formally absorbs the Image Team's responsibilities, though Licensing's slow activity means this does not get recorded until later.
As 2019 begins, however, activity once again picks up. Elenee FishTruck, in an unexpected turn of events, goes from banned to licensing junior staff in two days, working to source and remove/replace old images and organizing the Images sub-team to do the same[12]. The Image Use Policy receives two rewrites from
Elenee FishTruck[17] and
Naepic[29], the licensebox initiative fully gains steam with
CityToast's involvement[26], and around this time
ProcyonLotor finally proposes the official removal of Untitled 2004 from SCP-173.
His reasoning, made during a meeting with all SCP captains and admins, argues that, uniquely with SCP-173's text and the Untitled 2004 image, the two pieces of media form an inseparable whole. As conveyed in the original 4chan /x/ post, the artwork and text together created the SCP phenomenon. Thus, both elements must be compliant with the CC BY-SA 3.0 license for the wiki to also fall under Creative Commons, which the non-commercial nature of Untitled 2004 wrecks. As a result, for the wiki to fall completely under CC BY-SA 3.0, Kato's artwork must go.
There exists beyond this a moral reasoning: Kato, as mentioned previously, wants no definitive interpretation or explanation for his works, believing himself to stand on equal footing with his creation[11]. To force one of his iconic artworks into a de-facto interpretation of horror, as SCP-173 does, disrespects this vision, especially given his initial lack of enthusiasm for his deal with the wiki[47]. Ultimately, however, the legal argument takes precedent, and the wiki would rather stay safe than take any more chances.
Thus, in late January, the wiki began to make plans for Untitled 2004's removal, ProcyonLotor passing the responsibility to
LilyFlower after
ProcyonLotor's stepping down from captainship.[44]. A formal announcement was made on February 1st, the image set to be removed in the next two weeks[45]. The announcement, at the same time, brought attention to a project organized by
Elenee FishTruck: the SCP-173 Redesign Hub.[18]
SCP-173's original author, Moto42, insisted that, should Untitled 2004 be removed, no image should replace it. The Redesign Hub takes this request and runs somewhat perpendicular to it. Through
stephlynch's coding, the Redesign Hub showcased the community's interpretations of that same enigmatic text anons read nearly 15 years prior. Each design differs a little from the other, the result a composite of the community's imagination and the significance SCP-173 holds in several internet users' hearts.
Though Untitled 2004 lacks a replacement, its absence proves fertile for creative interpretation.
Part Three: Creatively In Common
I am constantly impressed and suprized by the content the SCP-files community is creating. I honestly thought SCP-173 would be forgotten in a week, and it would have been if others had not taken the idea and run with it.
I just cleared a spot of land and planted a tree, you guys have built a multi-acre garden of horrors around it and it always lifts my spirits when I read it.
-Moto42, releasing the text of SCP-173 under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Regardless of how the SCP Foundation Wiki has developed and changed with time, it owes its fundamental draw, in-part, to a sense of mystery and foreboding. The verisimilitude in formatting, clinical tone, and narrative structure seek to convince the reader not only that what they are reading exists in some shared plane of existence, but that they, too, live in it, the horror just under their nose. SCP-173 is an essential exercise in this format of suspending disbelief, hinting a truth just out of grasp.
Untitled 2004 fundamentally assists with this, with Kato's sculpture supplying the feelings necessary to buoy some of the inconsistencies in the original writing. Few things captivated 4chan's audience more than the combination of that image and that text.
Their relationship, however, goes even deeper than that, to Murakami's theory of Superflat. If Izumi Kato incorporates facets of numerous different cultural movements and ideas from past and present to produce something inscrutable yet immediately captivating, SCP-173 extrapolates that further. The combination of elements in Kato's sculpture itself transforms into a "flattened" facet all its own, combining with notions of conspiracy and pop-culture items like Men In Black and The X-Files. One can argue SCP-173 takes advantage of Untitled 2004 in this respect, and certainly it does legally, but the initial literary effect of the juxtaposition between image and text cannot be ignored.
In an ideal world, Untitled 2004 and SCP-173 can co-exist peacefully. But although they have taken their separate paths, the legacy of their composite will continue into the indefinite future.
- By Elenee Fishtruck
June 2nd
Wikidot, Hacks, and Regional IP Bans
As many of you know, from the 19th to the 24th of May every Wikidot site — including our site, the Wanderer's Library, the International Branches, and all of our sandbox sites — was down due to a hacking attack coming from the Russia region.
As for what we currently know, the hacker was a single person - meaning it wasn't any kind of government attack on Wikidot. We thank the Wikidot team for their relentless work and transparency via their Twitter @wikidot.
However, since it was assured where the hacking originated and combined with prior similar issues for Wikidot coming from the same region, Wikidot declared in this Tweet that access from Russia and Belarus would be closed; several reports by Russian Wikidot Members confirmed this.
Currently, our Russian colleagues are using a view-only redirect site, available here, VPNs — although, obviously, not something anyone can offer, considering that most of them are banned in Russia — and alternatives to sandboxes, such as MrNereof's (Tech Team-RU member) Skippy program.
SCP-INT and our representatives are working on a request to Wikidot's administration to remove the geoblock; in these trying times, we ask once again our userbase to stand with SCP-RU.
- By Siddartha Alonne
Editorial
One more month's leaving us, and another one joins us. As all of you may have noticed, it's pride month!
The SCP Wiki is proud to be a place where every inclusive user can feel safe and wants to now show it explicitly! Such an event will also be celebrated with a release of site news, with more interesting analyses, reports, and interviews coming this month! SCP Wiki's Site News Team thanks you for reading this and asks for any user interested in helping this project to give a look at this thread!
More stuff is to come, just wait for it!
- By Siddartha Alonne
Features Last Month
Top Articles of the Month
Ratings of course do not mean everything, but they are representative of what people happened to like seeing at the time. With this in mind, the following are the top-rated works last month, so if by some chance you haven't encountered them yet, be sure to check them out!
Top-Rated SCP
SCP-6764 Maddie by J Dune
The phone number by which SCP-6764 uses to contact an individual varies with each instance, and investigation shows that these numbers exist and can be linked to ordinary individuals.
Top-Rated Non-SCP
Working Dogs by Raddagher
They say you can't reprogram attack dogs. Whatever you train into them stays forever.
Front Page Features
Every month, an article is selected from each of the three common article types: SCP, Tale, and Group of Interest Format. These three articles are displayed on the front page for the month to bring further recognition to them.
If you would like to view the previous front page features, you can view the archive for the SCPs here, the archive for the Tales here, and the archive for the GoI Formats here!
SCP Article
SCP-6542 (by DarnellJermaine, J Dune, PlaguePJP, Tanhony, and Rounderhouse. Rewrite by JakdragonX and LORDXVNV): The Virgin Dairy [Featured by fabledtiefling and Lobster_tail]
SCP-6542 is a large white marble vat of anomalously preserved milk, located within the Marzec Church.
Tale
The Department of Humanoid Risk Assessment by GlassAutomaton [Featured by DianaBerry and BattleblockB0ss]
While many assume that the most dangerous anomalies have the most cost-intensive containment, that is only rarely the case.
GoI-Format
Critter Profile: Davy Bones! by Tropinano [Featured by tawnyowljones and CEDRIS]
But what is spectacular about Davy Bones is that Davy isn't the skeleton, but the algae CONTROLLING the skeleton!
Thank you so much for reading the SCP Wiki's Site News!
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