In reply to Artifacts:
Old Nick, it's actually the basis of my first short (probably really short) indie film.
I believe that Ideas push / drive people. Not the other way around, that people drive / push ideas. I understand that the - Idea - is to the very core of who we are. How much less so for the type designer?
And in the times pre-digital the Idea(s) primarily were noted / stated / sketched out with the simplest of methods - the pencil. And at the heart/core of the pencil is Graphite. I'm broadly talking across many many disciplines, Architecture, Engineering, Poetry, Music, etcetera etcetera! Ideas all scribbled down via Graphite and Lead.
It is - or at the very least - rebellious to express an Idea. Even true to this very day within some of the most infernal lands. But, none-the-less, Ideas still push people, they still will trouble people to the point of movement!
It is the Idea that drives / pushes people.
Graphite is everywhere and used everywhere, the pencil you wield today is the of the very same as the pencil being used by a muslim cleric. Furthermore, to some people even to pick up a pencil is to have been given the sense of self-empowerment!!! It is to have the ability to express - free from the norm - an act of an Individual!!
Dangerous stuff indeed - leads to all kinds of messy stuff such as democracy.
So ya, it all starts with the Idea and the means to express the Idea - usually via Graphite.
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The digital realm has come about from the non-digital ... safe to say? The digital tries and tries and tries to - usurp (seems to be about the right word, perhaps a little too forceful) the aforementioned freedoms normally - and without much thought - of Graphite, Lead, and Ink (just to mention a few major players).
But, the realm of Silicon technology is at it's very core still a very natural realm. The digital realm is built from/of natural elements including all polymers. They all come from somewhere - and that somewhere is Nature itself!!!
And so too does Graphite.
I don't believe that the digital realm is as neat and tidy - sterile and controlled - as it is made out to be. Even the best mathematical equations can't totally control - an Artifact. And for the processes that try to go on the Vector existence yearns for the textural / seemingly natural characteristics of the Raster community!! And at the very end of the day - it all degrades - it all falls apart and goes back to ... Nature. So communities such as Vector don't rule all that much ... and as I said before Vector society is conceited.
I think Artifacts are pixels of information that have been created (progeny if you will), to be pushed / driven to find some sort of Natural freedom. And that freedom of expression goes right straight back to everyone and anyone who has been driven / pushed by an Idea. Anyone who has taken the chance to be free ... expressed via Graphite and Lead.
And ya, Artifacts are the product of Individuality from within the digital realm. They are Silicon's expression of freedom from within a man made confine! Which is, by-the-way, driven / pushed by the Idea.
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The film's working title is ... Lords Of Graphite.
Here is an out of set model shot from early development showing a Graphite Underlord flanked with two Graphite Minions...
n.