I have become a maker of graphical user interface art.
I believe that the graphical user interface recently has been enriched
not only with true color. Rather the semantic layer has widened: depiction of promises
and utopias, of progress and lifestyle have joined the metaphors (indeed necessary) to machine-interact.
To raise awareness of this issue I will follow these rules.
I herewith solemnly swear:
- When I am drawing I will not use systems like Microsoft Windows 98, Me, 2000 or older,
Apple OS 9 or lower, Gnome and other reduced, non-extremely-colorful graphical user interfaces (because
they might not strongly enough influence my decisions as a painter),
- I will resrict my use of Photoshop (or similar software).
Allowed tools are:
- Filters: all kinds of Blurs, all kinds of Shadows (because contemporary
operating systems do this a lot by themselves),
- Effects: all kinds of tranparency and lightness change (see above),
- Filling color areas with solid color or gradients (because you cannot paint digitally
without such basics).
- Otherwise all graphical elements I will
- copy from a screenshot of the OS to the
canvas I paint on (because this is what everthing is all about),
- import from a directory where the OS keeps its graphical data
(because it will get me to the bottom of things).
- I will not use a total image size above 400 by 300 pixels (because otherwise
I might get vain and forget my idealistic approach).
- I will print my images at least 10 times bigger than they appear on the screen (because
I very want to see my vanished pixels again),
- I will do everything for a block-like printing of the pixels (see above),
- I will do everything to rise the financial costs to print my works on transparent perspex
(to state that the interface should be a transparent one).
I will print this Vow of Chastity, sign it and post it to the wall
behind my place of activity (not to forget my right priorities in life).
January 19th, 2025: __________________________________________
