NO, YOU DON'T GET IT! GOT IT?

i dont get it

this is a bit disconnected, and not proof read, 'cause its 2am, but heres my 2 cents with 19% interest

Abstract art is different from art with no point, though. Also, the conscious mind has always been grounded in the tangible, so I wouldn't say anything has changed over time in that regard.

As far as your reference to pokemon (and more specifically your point against it), the game isn't about imagining what the pokemon do, but imagining what you do. Card battle games are strategy games where your job is to assemble a balanced deck around your tastes, to fight your opponents. Back when I was into Magic The Gathering (6th grade), I had 6 different decks to play 6 totally different ways. Like imagining what a creature might do, imagining what we, ourselves might do, requires just as much creativity, if not more.

30 years ago Dungeons and Dragons was inspiring countless imaginations- some too far even- but even then there were set rules that had to be followed, and listed backgrounds, abilities, and statitistics of all sorts, for every creature one could encounter. I dont think those people turned out any more imaginative than me, and I grew up on videogames- from atari to my xbox360 and wii and pc. The tools have changed but the rules havent.

Take chess for example. Its as complex as games get, and it requires as much thought and creativity as anything in this world, as far as strategic gameplay goes, but if you really boil it down, each piece has a theoretical "card" with its abilities written down. The Knight moves a certain way, its the only piece that can jump, and so on.

What it all comes down to, is there are more people in the world than ever, we communicate with more of those people than ever, and its always been a small percentage that had any real brains to begin with. Technology just allows us to see how far ranging stupidity on this planet is.

i didn't read anything you wrote, steve, but i totally agree.

What it all comes down to, is there are more people in the world than ever, we communicate with more of those people than ever, and its always been a small percentage that had any real brains to begin with. Technology just allows us to see how far ranging stupidity on this planet is.

I'm gonna have to agree word for word on this point.

And whatever snakeman said, i can't bother to read all he wrote.

It also gives more stupid people the tools to make stupid things that enough other stupid people find funny and then everyone else is subjected to it relentlessly which makes me hate stupid people even more.

Not that i'm captain brainiac or something, just above a level where i need more to entertain me than random references and/or horrible people bitch-slapping one another to fight for the love of some equally horrible person on a reality show.

i agree with with steven, it's more our perception of stupidty that has really changed, the masses have always been full of it but now we are more aware

but theres also a point to what youre saying, Poor kids still have imagination 'Cause they have to, sad but true, i think that at least most kids desire for some level of fantasy in their lives, and not necessarily as an escape from reality, many time just to escape the boredom of it, the regularity of it, the static, and they try to achieve that fantasy level the way they best can, but nowadays videogames, movies, series and internet already provide that fantasy to many

but at the same time is a matter of choice, a matter of conformity, a matter of wanting more than whats already given to me, or not necessarily more but something special, something of my own, of wanting not only the fantasy but my fantasy, but it's really hard t see that when youre a kid cause most of the times it's done at a subconscious level

i think in the end it comes to individuality and the truly smart and/or inventive people will always come out like that regardless of their environment


(also sorry that i dint use any periods but when ever i use one my fucking computer only shows the period)

I don't think you can really ever claim that "imagination" is in jeopardy. I will say however that since the 80's our society has realized the value of the children's market.

We had plenty of toys as kids, we had a room in the basement called the "play room" that was stacked with toys... and yet we still went outside and created retarded games. One involved us flipping over our tricycles and spinning the pedals with our hands, which of course makes ice cream that we could hand out to our friends. Others were more commercial such as laying chest down on our swings and when we reached the apex we would "order" various mcdonalds items. Freeze tag and kick the can, throwing water balloons at passing cars and running like the dickens were all great past times.

What I have discussed with many people is this new concept of safety our society has stumbled upon. I remember hearing a story from my father: his brother had a knife and claimed no one could take it from him because he was too fast, well once when they took a stab at this game my father went for the knife and his brother was inadvertently stabbed in the neck... good game huh.
From my own childhood I can tell you countless stories of hockey sticks causing gashes just below the eye, broken collar bones from running on top of the monkey bars, near death experiences from running across a 4 lane road to get to the local convenience store with your 11 yr old brother because he was your babysitter.

All of these things are no longer socially acceptable because we all have to be safe... I took all of my experiences and scars as learning experiences and I am glad I had the chance. I may sound like an old fart but this new ADHD epidemic is purely caused by higher sugar levels and television/computers. Children must be thrown out of the nest, not held inside and protected, sure some will be scarred, disfigured or even killed, but this is the way of life.

So in summation no imagination is not at risk, but the very nature of survival of the fittest is. Threadless was never meant to cater to art or artists, its here for the children of this sad generation who spend more time in the house than in the wilderness fighting off rabid squirrels and feral muts that roam the disease ridden sewers.

....these comments have too many words. I'm not in the mood to read them, but I am in the mood for some of ellsswhere's tricycle ice cream.

Do you really think "art with no point" exists or is even possible, steven?

kids are really stupid. and if they have stupid parents, who don't know how to develop a character then the cycle repeats.

i don't think technology has much to do with it, technology is a thing, like a thought is a thing. it's the parental guidance or lack thereof that allows young minds to try and grasp things they're simply not ready for.

Threadless was never meant to cater to art or artists, its here for the children of this sad generation

which hole did this come out of?

I blame the fluoride in the water

And the hormones in the cow's milk.

I like art.

I personally blame a two generations of bad post-war parenting and the liberal media.

It's when women gained their independence... take the women out of the nest and let TV and the corporations raise your kids

Yeah, fucking cunts with their voting and careers.

tesco on Mar 28 '08 at 10:46am
I blame the fluoride in the water


u kid, but....

yeah, now toys do everything for you. you don't have to make gun noises or car noises or any of that.

I don't think it's so much that imagination is dying, more like it's atrophying. I think a lot of it goes back to what a lot of you were saying about having everything spelled out step by step and function by function. Laziness has become the new opiate of the masses...why consider the deeper meanings or artistic merit of a t-shirt? It's a lot easier to say "I don't get it" and leave the thinking to the other folks...and we all know thinking is hard.

Also, it's all part of our evil underground republican plan to rule the world.

My ex gf's family had a telly but her older brother watched it non stop when he was a toddler so they ditched it before her or her older brother were born. Consequently the family are all super good at creative stuff: music, art, writing etc. That speaks volumes for me.

I am secretly judging some of you and you don't even know it!

There's arguments for both sides of the issue. I read a book called "Everything Bad is Good for You" and it has a pretty compelling argument that entertainment is getting more and more complex. It's easy to write off video games because it looks like the person is staring off into space but it's more deeply engaging than even a book as there's layers of decision making and, depending on the complexity of the game, a child may have to simultaneously juggle short term and long term goals. Television shows are getting more intelligent as they have threads that can run from episode to episode and even season to season requiring better attention and memory. The plots in many shows are also getting more layered and complex than many shows of yore. The argument was even made that reality shows, to an extent, engage the mind...not so much in the academic way but in the propensity for people to want to read people's body language and sort out social structures. I'm not so sure about the reality shows, haha, but I do think that it's something to consider.

teeeeveeee... besides the actual content, the rate it flickers at sedates you and makes your brain releases endorphins... factor in all the neuro linguistic programming and propaganda and you have quite a drug

Thought & imagination go hand in hand, though, lhizz.

But ya'll are very right about laziness.

Mezo, doodles are art with no point. By no point, I mean no point for the viewer, not the artist. To just draw something with no intended meaning is, to me, art with no point, while splattering paint on a canvas with no discernible methodology is abstract.

There needs to be something tangible to spark imagination, if you can imagine a great city of the future on fire from invasion, because of a paint splatter, you can do so without it.

I was getting to another point...but I have to go to work.

Isn't it the designers that need imagination to create designs?

If the voters "don't get it" does that mean they lack imagination, or are they just idiots?

Like I don't need imagination to "get" Communist Party but I need to recognise people and symbols from history and those red plastic frat-house cups.

so the majority of art that i like is usually abstract or weird, but sometimes i'll look at a submission and think, "i don't get it", for one reason or another. like, it doesn't have the immediate aesthetic appeal that other weirdo art has, yet has elements implying that it probably DOES mean something, but the artist still says there's no meaning to it. it's those things that throw me for a loop and wonder if this is how the other voters feel all the time. i wish i had an example to show off-hand.

mezo on Mar 28 '08 at 11:12am
Thought & imagination go hand in hand, though, lhizz.

where do I disagree with this statement?

When an artist says there is no meaning in what they create- I disagree (even though I am the first to admit most of the time my stuff doesn't mean anything).

I think artists oftentimes delve into their self-conscious when they make something visual. Even what may appear to be a pointless doodle, could turn out being a very poignant piece. There has to be some emotion or thought occuring in the first place to make you decide to put the pencil to the paper.

i agree with this statement

You didn't, liz, but you implied imagination is still there but people get tired of thinking. Maybe I misread. I tend to do that a lot because I am unsmart.

At the risk of exposing myself to utter derision from the community,

Hairwolves.

I don't get it.

....these comments have too many words. I'm not in the mood to read them

u_u i'll abstain from making long comments

I think artists oftentimes delve into their self-conscious when they make something visual. Even what may appear to be a pointless doodle, could turn out being a very poignant piece. There has to be some emotion or thought occuring in the first place to make you decide to put the pencil to the paper.

and i fully agree with that

It's hairy warewolves that are snuggly and precious and dainty who will protect you from evils and the title is a play on the word warewolves, squat.

squatterjohn on Mar 28 '08 at 11:33am At the risk of exposing myself to utter derision from the community,

Hairwolves.

I don't get it.

------------------

I didn't get it for a while, although I liked it. But I kinda think "Hairwolves" rhymes with "Werewolves" and that's part of the joke? Mebbe?

mezo on Mar 28 '08 at 11:31am
You didn't, liz, but you implied imagination is still there but people get tired of thinking. Maybe I misread. I tend to do that a lot because I am unsmart.

ah, I see what you were saying...it's not the unsmarts, not at all. I think both are still present, but both are debased. maybe I'm unsmart at explainerations.

It's cool, liz, because we can blame Alabama for erasing our smarteries.



....OH! I want Smarties now!

i enjoy things that i dont understand and/or have no meaning and no point. its calming to have somethings truly mean nothing when so many things have to mean something.

But werewolves are supposed to be hairy. So, it's a pun, but it's a tautology at the same time.

I mean, that's all it is? The two words rhyme? That can't be all it is, the way people go on about it, I must be missing something.

I will solve the hairwolves mystery one day, but for now, don't get it.

i think sometimes "not getting it" involves differences of taste. like, if someone doesn't care for the style that, say, "hairwolves" is drawn in, they'll try to justify it as a design by trying to find meaning in it.

i don't think hairwolves was supposed to be a rhyming pun... i just like the design

like, it could be called "untitled" and it would still be the same design to me

mezo on Mar 28 '08 at 11:38am
It's cool, liz, because we can blame Alabama for erasing our smarteries.



....OH! I want Smarties now!

YAY!

I didn't even know this kind existed!

No, not a pun. I think the title Hairwolves was a happy accident. Ross even said once, he titles his pieces after they are complete....and a lot of times the title ends up working perfectly (like Lochness Imposter).

Squattejohn, you're putting too much emphasis on the title and not enough on the visuals. Titles, to be blunt, don't mean shit.

I guess it comes down to there being a difference between "joke" Threadless designs and "cool image" Threadless designs.

With or without the pun title, there's something to get in Lochness Imposter. If someone says "I don't get it" you tell them the octopus is pretending to be the monster.

But if someone say "I don't get it" to last week's select, Graphic Endeavours, it's more because they're just not "feeling" the response they're getting from the image. To some people, the relationships of the colours and shapes will look cool and to others it doesn't.

In a way there's nothing to get in a design like that. Maybe a lot of teenage voters prefer the jokey designs and so they're looking for the joke and if they can't find it, they comment "I don't get it."

You know, I think age isn't a proper reflection of why someone may or may not get a design. I think worldly knowledge is probably where it really lies... I mean, lack of knowledge outside of the realm of school and entertainment kind of correlates a lot around younger people. But, I mean, you can be any age and still be an idiotic tool.

I grew up in the generation you're currently suggesting lacks imagination, and I'd like to say, for the most part, I can look at a piece of work and see more than just the images being sent to my brain through my eyes.

I might be going off on a tangent a little bit here, so bear with me. We live in an age where, videogames cause seizures, and kids spending thousands of dollars on merchandise that dulls out their imagination. At the same time, we're at the point in human advancement where you have the access to anything, simply through the internet. We can exchange thoughs, opinions, stories, and learn about essentially anything with a few keystrokes.

What I'm getting at is, you might see a lot of "I don't get it" comments, and some people may not even take the time to read any other comments, but I'm pretty sure there's a handful of kids that post "I don't get it" and see that a few comments later, someone says something regarding what the design might be referencing, or what it might be trying to express. Said kid of not getting-itness might go out and do a quick search on wikipedia, or google, or whatever to look up the terms that they are unfamiliar with. Sure, they already voted, but it's highly logical that for every person that has voted and didn't get the design, there could also be people who, before they voted on a design, took the time to delve deeper into what they're looking at.

Sure, most of the stuff I just said is from personal experience. But, I'm a lazy bum. I'm like the trademark product of Generation Y.