i have observed pretty much the opposite regarding skins. to me it rather seems every little bunch of pixels is praised as the greatest thing since sliced bread no matter wether it looks good or awful. deviantart or wincustomize are the worst examples for that. <br /> <br />friendly competition means progress. as in reggae (or hip hop) or sports like extreme skiing or skateboarding. we had something like this on the old LS.net. the only place where i see this happening in skinning is the Winamp scene, but that´s separate from the other skinning scene anyways. <br /> <br />and finally: skins are not art. :)
travelian
Member
Most great art is commercial...ie just about all the great artists needed to make a living and guess what...Raphael, DaVinci, Van Eyck, and all the other greats got paid for their services. People need motivation and money/prizes/contests are a great way to get people involved. And guess what...most the really good skins/wallpapers come from professional sites (ie Skinsfactory, Digitalblasphemy etc) Not that i´m saying freely available wallpapers and skins aren´t any good...I guess what i´m saying is your idea of "true-art" is just plain false and art is whatever the creator "creates" for any reason...whether its to compete, poove something, make a living ,or whatnot.
craeonics
Member
I find the whole concept of "true art" to be a contradiction. Art is art, there is no such thingas true art. Is there fake art then? <br /> <br />I also find that the word "art" is one of the most over-abused words out there. To me, the concept of skill is intricately entwined with it. Yet nowadays everyone thinks he or she is an artist. I say that´s pretentious.
grimspoon
Member
I aggree with Crae, everyone is either an actor, musician or an artist. Art is the product of imagination, competition is a product of human nature, comercialism is the necessary evil... <br />I fArt.. therefore I am. <br />()() ... {:p
Anonymous
Member
yes...that´s true...even my mechanich can be an artist in what he does. <br />Good point... :-)
flamme
Member
I think that what matters is the feeling inside, it always shows in a creation. <br /> <br />Trying to re-create the look of a CD Player or a numeric camera or else, it´s not art, it´s craft. That´s my problem with technical looking skins, it´s getting harder to find any originality in them... Craft is useful because it teaches the technical basis that will be used in more "artful" projects. But not everybody have the soul of an artist... <br /> <br />So If there must be some competition, it´s to make the difference between the good crafters and the really original and creative people, who have a good feeling for design (and are good crafters too !). <br /> <br />Hope you understand what I´m trying to state, I feel difficult to find the right words today... :p
prettyboy
Member
Art is such a broad field. True art doesn´t really help it narrow down. I mean who are the real judges on what someone creates? Is it the consumer? And, if it´s popular commercially does that make it True Art? I also was told that in the Fine Art field that if you were to be commercially popular you wouldn´t be considered fine art anymore...you would be kitsch. I don´t get it. Anyways, that´s all for now. Thanks.
craeonics
Member
Kitsch is commercialised "art". For example, the picture of the crying gypsy boy you can find in half the households over here. Or eiffel tower paper holders, etcetera. <br /> <br />To a certain extent, some skinnable apps are "kitsch" in a way. Mediocre programs that are only skinnable in order to boost their popularity and that would fade away in the masses were they not skinnable.
hobnobber
Member
Well I think you make a valid point. However I feel that the <br />artists you mention had a real hands on way of creating their <br />classics... Rembrandt and Picasso experienced the feel of <br />their paintings and had to wash up afterward. Beethoven <br />and Mozart created the classics with each movement of their <br />fingers to produce each musical note.... Satisfaction,,, that <br />filled their inner most feelings... That is my way of <br />explaining the Artist himself. As far as their physical works <br />are concerned they are still judged by their peers... people if <br />you will.... With as many different likes and dislikes as <br />seconds on the clock.... Did they experience Competition?? <br />I’m sure they did.. If not with their peers, then within <br />themselves.... <br /> <br />In this day and age, the method of creating art has changed so <br />much with all the technical and computerized mumbo jumbo that <br />do it for us.. We hit a key here and key there and see what the <br />computer created.. Yes, we can define and re-define those results <br />just as they did in years past. That is what makes each of us <br />different, You see the art one way, I see it in another.... You as <br />the creator of the piece see each and every move you make to <br />produce the final product.... I can only see the final product. <br />This in its self breeds Competition... <br /> <br />Anyway, remember you asked what I think..... :)
dlight
Member
()() :sss <br />
bugzlitey
Member
Welp, guess I should be glad I´m not an artist....
xenu
Member
Mozart IS better than Beethoven and Bartok!! :) <br /> <br />I thought about this question as well.. I dont see much competition around here.. well for my side, I just upload my wallpapers and I´m happy if they get nice comments or lots of downloads. this tells ME that the people want my work, and that makes me happy. <br /> <br />There is no competition for me, I dont want to kick adni from the first place !! <br />he is too good anyway! :)
bugzlady
Member
my feeling about whether a piece is considered "true" art all lies in the heart and intentions/reaction of the artist. my opinion is that "true" art should be created for the purpose of expression, getting out ones thoughts or views. if it just happens to be popular with the consumers, my reaction would be "great...". on the other hand if nobody seems to like it my reaction would be "oh well.. no big deal... I like my design, and i feel like i acomplished something". it´s great to be competitive and have goals to strive for, but when an artist cares more about what other people like than how their designs make them feel, it becomes solely competition and the meaning and emotion is lost.. and meaning and emotion is what art is all about! i just get happy when i get a comment... even if they are all mindless ramble from bugzlitey lol
jim373
Member
To my perception, it seems that this site and others are certainly highly competitive between the artists who seem to want to vie for first place. This doesn´t concern me much as it is only human nature to be competitive in all things. I am just happy that some people like what I do and leave nice comments for me. That is what I truly appreciate and the competition I´ll leave to those who feel the need for it... :)
xenu
Member
oy "prettyboy" you have a good point there.. <br /> <br />it IS actually the consumer! but as we can see the consumer´s gone mad, buying lots of crappy music cd´s ;) at least for my taste the music from today is not very creative.
The number of downloads tells you that people like your work or not, but it does not tell anything about the quality. If you want to make mainstream skins then you might see this differently. In that case a truely creative skin is too much of a gamble. The same goes for ratings. But ratings are a bit more dangerous, because the one who rates may have a different opnion about "good skins". The same goes for comments like "this skin is great" or "it sucks" and these don´t tell much. But the comments meant to improve the "quality" (technically or otherwise) of your skin are valueable. At least it can make you think about it or improve your skills or just fix a bug. <br /> <br />I don´t mind that people want to number one, unless you are obsessed by it.
doreen
Member
Is that Mrs. Bugz? Hellooooo =) <br /> <br />and yeah what she said...
bugzlady
Member
❤️ i will "officially" be Mrs. Bugz within this next month :9 ... nothin fancy, since our families are in different states... i´m soooo excited 8O
xenu
Member
i know sites where competition is on the first place - customize.org :) <br /> <br />dont like it..
travelian
Member
I´ve been away from this site but i´ll throw my thoughts into this discussion. <br /> <br />Competition has brought out what some people consider the greatest and most legendary pieces of art. <br /> <br />I recently took come college courses that covered art history and most great paintings were done on a contract bassis by (then) the well to do upper elite. Most artists did their work for money and pushed themselves to create better and better work to proove that their work was better than the other artists of the time. Competition is always a good thing no matter what. And its human nature to be competitive so you can complain that your idealistic view of what art "should" be but i´m sorry...that´s simply not the way things are. <br /> <br />
Edited
doreen
Member
Congrats Mr & Mrs Bugzly... =) <br /> <br />and as for what Trav says that´s true also cuz some ppl really get into the competition thing and that is what pushes "them" to be better, but I wonder how much enjoyment they get out of making their art when they are only doing it for the sake of struggling to be the best or struggling to make a buck out of it, then again not everything in life is meant for fun?
bugzlady
Member
i also agree... some people work better under pressure... when it comes to art, i´m not one of those people, so what i said earlier is how i feel about my works... but hey, if competition is what motivates you, great.. just as long as you feel good about what you create.
xenu
Member
hmm, I want to say here something as well. <br /> <br />If somebody from you know counterstrike or any other online computer game (warcraft, halflife, rtcw and so on) you probably have seen the competition around there.. Its incredible. <br />most of the servers which are out there have their own "stats" who is the best and who can shoot with 100% the head.. <br /> <br />I think, whoever is doing his artwork on skinbase is much mor valuable than people trying to reach the "best shot" :) <br /> <br />I´ve been in there for about a year, and I must say, I enjoy making wallpapers now muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch more. <br />
batoruco
Member
Art is obviously NOT a way of competition, being popular, is that for sure. Skin sites promote popularity because it´s a great value in modern society, specially in teen society, because a teenager doesn´t have many things to know about his/her own value other than popularity, and skin sites are overpopulated by teens, or people that were teens recently and grew up in this pop society. Downloads, views, popularity (a parameter used here in SB) , featuring, webmaster selection, are measures of popularity or individual tastes (frequently defined by fashion and trends). There is no way of objectively and prejudice free measuring the actual quality of a piece of art, except for our own delight. In the end we say it doesn´t matter, but artists need to live and have the right to high quality life, just as anyone else, but their proffession is one amongst the most difficult proffesions to get an equilibrium between good income and good work!!! :(
