This text animation (ASCII) predates my thesis project by over 40 years. Did I kill myself on hearing the news or keep on living? Read on to find out… AFTER THIS!

Make sure to view in HQ …

From YT:
avatarlemon — April 07, 2007 — Soviet computer animation was made in 1968. A group of russian physicists and mathematicians with N.Konstantinov in the head of it created mathematic model of the cat and its moving and realized this model in the program for the computer “BESM-4″. Computer printed hundreds of frames on the paper using alphabet symbols and then they were converted to the cinefilm.

Советский мультфильм 1968 года, сделанный с использованием ЭВМ (БЭСМ-4). Подробнее на русском – http://www.etudes.ru/ru/mov/kittie/

I like to think my thesis project Soft Text is a logical and meaningful contribution to a long line of users / contributors who recognized the inherent links between text and image. There seems to be some sort of nerdy penchant for connecting text to image, but maybe that’s because text is the scientist’s vernacular. It’s like hearing a word repeated over and over. Eventually, the word breaks down into a collection of increasingly disconnected syllables. The artist Steve Reich did some work in this territory — It’s Gon Rain (sp?) comes immediately to mind.

This post details what is believed to be one of the first transmitted pieces of ASCII art in existence. It was made in 1938 by a telegraph operator, stricken with a nerdy, nerdy love. Transmission seems to be a key quality in ascii art; not necessarily that the work even exists, but it’s being SENT seems to be important. Perhaps it’s because communications systems are naturally first structured around written language, followed soon thereafter by sound and image, not necessarily in that order. What does this say about how modern society understands and prioritizes communication standards?

It seems to me that the whole ASCII scene is based around the notion that the new pioneers of our age come from an understanding of reality based in 1) linguistics and 2) prodedural generation & pattern exploitation (i.e. computer programmers, telegraph operators). That pirate ship too is an element that has survived into our time as a symbol of proud outsider-ness.

☠

Tags: animation, art, ascii, telegraph, text, thesis