Slowdays

I was reading this article sent to me from Mephs. It is great and I think there is a lot of merit to what it says. The author seems to have noticed the same things i do.

http://blog.theurbanrebellion.com/2008/ ... ntury.html

What are your thoughts? I think many things addressed in this forum are addressed therein. I will wait for some replies before giving my own thoughts. <3

I quite strongly agree with the blogger.

1) We are losing our ability to focus on various things. Because quite many of us are quite interested in gaming, the game scene and computers, I use them as an example. Can you look back to the 90s, or 80s? Do you remember what the games were like back then? Do you remember how strongly you had to focus on the games, try them many many times, before getting to the next stage (Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels (2 in Japan), Monkey Island, Police Quest etc.)

Nowadays, try to think how strongly you have focused on such games like Half-Life 2, Crysis and so on. As for me, I have sadly noticed, that my ability to but not only focusing on games that my patience with games has gone low low low! Too low! Nowadays I quit too fast, I lose my concentration, I lose my patience, when before I could try it many many times. Is it because of the games getting more and more "play without any good resistance"? I need to change my additude.... Though this example wasn't much for the point itself.

2) I don't quite agree with that, not from personal experience. Or then I'm myself just some odd exception from the flow. I can be silent many times, but that is not silence which someone could characterize as awkward! Perhaps that is a problem with some others then... Or then it is because I'm an ircer

3) This is quite true. In our culture, we are also manipulated to buy many products as the ads say: "You can' thave fun without this!" We get the hypes on, and when we puchase the product, we feel like we're betrayed. It wasn't as fun as I expected... We have so many things to get ourselves enjoyed with, that we also quickly lose our interest in things. The cycle of this culture. We buy things to get ourselves enjoyed, and happy, and then we get the feeling we're betrayed: "Perhaps we should buy even more things!" It's shit, man! Though games rock as enjoyment, though I don't feel I enjoy them as much as in the past...

4) As a child our innovation, and creationism was the best I'd say! Nowadays, at least my innovation isn't as it used to be. Or perhaps my imagination still works, but I don't get anything just ready. Four-five years ago I made games with my innovation and crationism skills, though they sucked but still! And I was very happy to have made something up. (I still have one big game coming, though I haven't done it for ages.... Sad, it is ) But, one thing that does kill our innovation is also our time with other things. At school, we are taught things that others have invented. At school, we must do this and that. And we don't have time for creationism. (At least I do not have as much time anymore as before...) I should start making my websites I have already planned quite ready... Now that my exam week is over at last.

5) The reason why we're losing art is because everything is called art nowadays. I can paint a totally blue painting, without anything else than blue paint in it, and make something up from my head what it symbolizes. And then I get something shit. Or I can barbecue a sausage to lose almost all of its cover, and send it to Kiasma (The modern art museum of Finland, located in Helsinki), and they place it there. I make up something from my head and I get awards. SHIT IT IS! The old sort of art was awesome. I like drawing, and I appreciate the guys who draw like my internet fellow Lazzuu and Tott, or Julie Dillon - one of my favourite artists.
Though the games and music are one kind of art too. Old Studio Clover did Viewtiful Joes, and Okami, what about Ico and Shadow of the Colossus? Or some of Nintendo's games? The old legends?
What about music, there is still creationism left in this area I'd say. I like Mortis's music, I like many bands (which though aren't quite main stream), and I'm trying to make my own music in present time with two of my friends.

6) Yes we've lost quite much of our innocence. I say this world sucks quite much, but no man can do anything 'bout it. I say our rulers (I do not like Bush Younger at all, and there's many others too) suck a big time. Though I think that our society will fall down in this century, mostly because of the climate change. People are too fcking hungry for things, they are so full of themselves, evil, eager to so many things. I don't say I'm any difference. But that is something we need to live with.. No man can do about it anything anymore. Let us live with it...

But yeah, our innocence is quite fastly gone. I see the youngsters (I'm a youngster, but like 4-12 year old guys) swearing themselves, using the middle-finger, starting to smoke earlier than before. I say this world is coming to its doom, soon, or not so soon. But it definitely is.

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Whoa, this must've been the biggest post here. Well I had time now

vrap always makes nasty fun of me whenever I happen upon this topic, because he's instantly reminded of Steven Wilson... Wilson has been very vocal on the subject and even released a concept album "...that would somehow deal with the issue of the 21st Century and this whole issue of the Information Technology age and how its affects not just young people, but everyone" (Link). That album, released by the band Porcupine Tree, is called Fear of a Blank Planet and addresses these issues ("losses") quite directly:

Anesthetize wrote:I'm watching TV but I find it hard to stay conscious
I'm totally bored but I can't switch off

What I personally like about the album concept is how he perceives art work not as a means of change or action but as a representation/interpretation of the society. He sees himself as "...one of those people who believe that music and art should be a kind of mirror - it shouldn't be something that preaches at you." (Link)

I'm pretty sure vrap can point you to some other topical interviews with Wilson in case you're interested (in the man, or the music, or merely in someone who feels strongly about the topic and is willing to discuss the matter from a personal standpoint and in the public sphere)... in any case, I freely admit to sometimes sharing - wistfully so - this gut reaction and feeling of "lost" childhood, abandoned innocence, naivety gone... then again, we've only really had these things (childhood, leisure, human rights) as we know them for less than two hundred years: Any history book will tell us of child chimney sweeps and child labour... I even happened upon an interesting if short 1936 article from Time magazine that discusses a "bill for raising the minimum school age from 14 to 15 years".

Not that history is necessary meaningful in terms of the topic at hand, but I do feel it's very easy to perceive the past as "idyllic" or more "ideal". It's easy to think of our ancestors as "purer", "more natural", "at ease" or "at peace". Post-post-modern blame for these feelings can be attributed to various things, of course, including 18th century Romanticism and the 1960s hippie movement, both of which have a large influence on our psychological make-up - whether we want it or not. I think the author of the article, which is admittedly one big exaggeration through and through, is somewhat enthralled by both these concepts - and more.

There's nothing wrong with that per se, I just personally find it awfully hard to argue for or against when the writer is obviously taking a big stance. I don't know nearly enough about life to really have a say... for instance, Darkelth's example of games from the 80s is accurate, of course, but what if it only truly depicts the phenomenal ascension of gaming from a frowned-upon, dirty teen subculture into a multi-billion mass medium (a process that was largely parallel with movies)?

Or perhaps there's a chance that we get swiftly irritated by old games because they're harsh, unforgiving and less fun to play compared to their newer, more burgerized counterparts? Perhaps modern games are simply better? Maybe humanity on the whole finds it easier to tune in to a certain form of entertainment - and if so, (how) does this relate to art? What is the purpose of art, exactly, and should all art have that purpose?

Mortis wrote:Not that history is necessary meaningful in terms of the topic at hand, but I do feel it's very easy to perceive the past as "idyllic" or more "ideal". It's easy to think of our ancestors as "purer", "more natural", "at ease" or "at peace". Post-post-modern blame for these feelings can be attributed to various things, of course, including 18th century Romanticism and the 1960s hippie movement, both of which have a large influence on our psychological make-up - whether we want it or not. I think the author of the article, which is admittedly one big exaggeration through and through, is somewhat enthralled by both these concepts - and more.

I feel quite discordant. I have, sometimes pierhaps too strong opinions about things like this. At the same time I do not like the way this modern culture is, especially here in the West, very materialistic, which is somehow connected to the issue we're having here. Purer, more natural.. But at the same time at least I do not have enough courage to break out of the treadmill, which keeps going faster and faster. I feel we have too much things to get our hands into. I can give an example from my own life, as I spoke with vrap yesterday evening/night. I have too much games I need to play, and I get frustrated. We have too much things we want to achieve, which makes us more distracted from the very idea and happiness of our lives, which I think is the connection, the societies. Like the KAKA, like some friend connections.. Especially here in the west, and in Finland, we get a signal of independence into our heads. We cannot be dependent on anything, or more likely, we cannot be dependent on other people, or at least we "shouldn't". That makes us to get our needs from other sources, and I'd like to think materialism is one of the sources.

And in the end, I do at least myself have the most fun and happiness in societies, like KAKA, friends, and others. Being with someone, and being a bit dependent on others. Though of course, I do need my privacy too.. Sometimes I can be quite a big anchorite-type. And on the other hand... I feel like my text doesn't make any sense even for myself.. And how this is connected to the quote, I do not know. This is pure shit, man

Mortis wrote:There's nothing wrong with that per se, I just personally find it awfully hard to argue for or against when the writer is obviously taking a big stance. I don't know nearly enough about life to really have a say... for instance, Darkelth's example of games from the 80s is accurate, of course, but what if it only truly depicts the phenomenal ascension of gaming from a frowned-upon, dirty teen subculture into a multi-billion mass medium (a process that was largely parallel with movies)?

Or perhaps there's a chance that we get swiftly irritated by old games because they're harsh, unforgiving and less fun to play compared to their newer, more burgerized counterparts? Perhaps modern games are simply better? Maybe humanity on the whole finds it easier to tune in to a certain form of entertainment - and if so, (how) does this relate to art? What is the purpose of art, exactly, and should all art have that purpose?

[/quote]

That process is somehow connected with every aspect of the western life. Yet I feel I'm not part of the modern "spend for fast food" and such burger generation. Our lives get easier and easier, not just in gaming, but in making food, and such. We have everything ready, and sometimes I feel like it's not the best way the life is. That way I feel we lose our enjoyment for having made something. As an example the same example of games, and I'd like to add cooking in it too.

How we get our food ready just putting them in a microwave oven. (Okey, sometimes I'm quite the same ) But when I cook myself, I get the enjoyment: "Hey! I made it all myself, except not the ingredients of course. (Which my brother is actually trying to get himself into.. Making all, starting from clothes to the food ingredients and such.) And the home-made food is better too. I feel sorry for the kids in the market, that are with their parents, and because they are so work-orientated, they fill their carts with Saarioinen's pizzas and Duke's microwave burgers.. And when the school food especially in compulsory school isn't the best one, with even an appetite like mine, can't just be eaten sometimes, it's not a good thing I say!

About modern game then, well eh. They are easier, but I just simply don't get the enjoyment from so many games as from the older generations of gaming. One big game I played recently that I got quite a big enjoyment from was Portal.. That was actually something, hugely different from the games of this era. When the older games had more difficulty, they made us feel we really did something. Though I feel like burgerized, because I do not have the capacity to stand the hardness anymore. Though I still have some games I do like to play every while and then, one of them Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels, which was at first too hard for the western players, and was published at least here in Europe just with the All-Stars set.

Somehow I feel lost. This text is pure madness from my subconscious...
Not thinking much of what I say.. That, my friend, is common from me