played for the backloggd discord's game of the week may 9 - may 15, 2023
on the internet, there's no such thing as being truly alone. that niche video game review on youtube will often have a handful of views from others who played it and are looking to connect over it, that soundcloud mix a few listens, that fanfiction some views. that piece of artwork, some likes.
i've drawn digital art and posted it online for upwards to 11 years. i've never cultivated much of a persisting viewerbase outside of very close friends, i don't follow trends (outside of QRTing the stray engagement farm tweet or my friends' art trains), and i often don't draw fanworks for popular or recent media. as i've grown older, i've become less focused on my popularity and reach and more on my own self improvement, long apathetic to tagging systems and algorithms and americentric "when to post" infographs. i'm here now despite it all for earnest self expression and projecting my vision outward, which i feel Bird Museum reflected in me.
in 2020, over 1000 participants produced their individual perspectives of birds and were compiled into an interactive, meditative experience; a feat only made feasible by the bonds we share online. some are derived from preestablished media, others are naturalist sketches not too distant from an educational illustrative book, even more are simply playful, but all are transparent with a want to be seen. a familiar sentiment.
while artist credits can be found below every piece, the exact context in which they were created is unspecified. what drove this artist to produce an image of your common bird this way? how did they come to pick these colours, these shapes? did they have a particular bird in mind? what software do they prefer, or maybe what paper? what pencil...?
there are more artists just online right now than i can ever hope to explore, and largely online artistic collaboration like this project and the ever increasing mainstream appeal for collaborative zines and fanbooks comforts me whilst living in an isolated rural community starved of art.
this is Bird Museum, a game for artists like me.
this review degenerated into a personal word salad of waxing poetic on what it means for me to create in the digital age, and i'm only a lil sorry ^_~
on the internet, there's no such thing as being truly alone. that niche video game review on youtube will often have a handful of views from others who played it and are looking to connect over it, that soundcloud mix a few listens, that fanfiction some views. that piece of artwork, some likes.
i've drawn digital art and posted it online for upwards to 11 years. i've never cultivated much of a persisting viewerbase outside of very close friends, i don't follow trends (outside of QRTing the stray engagement farm tweet or my friends' art trains), and i often don't draw fanworks for popular or recent media. as i've grown older, i've become less focused on my popularity and reach and more on my own self improvement, long apathetic to tagging systems and algorithms and americentric "when to post" infographs. i'm here now despite it all for earnest self expression and projecting my vision outward, which i feel Bird Museum reflected in me.
in 2020, over 1000 participants produced their individual perspectives of birds and were compiled into an interactive, meditative experience; a feat only made feasible by the bonds we share online. some are derived from preestablished media, others are naturalist sketches not too distant from an educational illustrative book, even more are simply playful, but all are transparent with a want to be seen. a familiar sentiment.
while artist credits can be found below every piece, the exact context in which they were created is unspecified. what drove this artist to produce an image of your common bird this way? how did they come to pick these colours, these shapes? did they have a particular bird in mind? what software do they prefer, or maybe what paper? what pencil...?
there are more artists just online right now than i can ever hope to explore, and largely online artistic collaboration like this project and the ever increasing mainstream appeal for collaborative zines and fanbooks comforts me whilst living in an isolated rural community starved of art.
this is Bird Museum, a game for artists like me.
this review degenerated into a personal word salad of waxing poetic on what it means for me to create in the digital age, and i'm only a lil sorry ^_~