Reality changes everything
posted by Keith at 12:25 PMI was introduced to the online community through the Ultrafractal mailing list. I made a lot of friends from that list. Then I started posting things on Renderosity and made more friends. Even after interacting with these people for years, they were still strangers. I really didn't know them.
A few years ago I had the chance to met some of these people face to face. It was weird. The people weren't weird (well, maybe a little ;-)), but it was weird because they were different from my online perception of them. I realized then that these people had lives - that they had families, jobs, struggles in life and interests that were beyond fractal art.
It was an enriching experience to meet these people. In every case I was left with more respect and affection for them. I highly recommend meeting other fractal artists. We are a unique bunch and it is so cool to talk to someone who actually understands the same language that you do. The Internet is so cold and impersonal. There is nothing like reality.
Displaying your art in the real world is also enlightening. Places like Renderosity and DeviantArt can cause one to be a little self inflated, but when you are watching a real person looking at your art, reality sets in in a hurry.
While I appreciate the positive reinforcement that I get online and the friends that I have here, I value reality more.
-Keith
7 Comments:
I must say I've never met any fractal artists in person. Came close - i had a message on my answering machine - but never actually got to meet.
If you ever get the chance to come to Vancouver, BC let me know :)
Michael Faber
Nothing beats reality.
I've been able to meet quite a few fractal artists in person. There's always a difference between what someone is like online and what they're like in person. I think there's even a country song to that effect...
Nearly twenty years ago, when I first started using BBSs and connecting to people locally, every once in a while the BBS owner would host a party and let folks meet in person. And I have to say that, if anything, the experience of meeting in person someone I've only known online has actually become less of a shock over the years as the general online population has encompassed the diversity of humanity (rather than the "geek" set).
Despite that progress, there will always, always be surprises. Based on someone's writing tone, their language, and their general behavior, we naturally form a mental picture of who they are and what their socioeconomic status is. Sometimes we're right... and sometimes we're hilariously wrong.
--Damien
I haven't been fractalling long enough to have had the opportunity of meeting others in real life but I do have other experiences. One small group of people in my home town became friends for a couple of years but eventually that fizzled out as people dispersed and our mutual interest waned. More recently I have met dozens of ladies who share my interest in embroidery, our get togethers attracting members from as far away as Australia and Norway (I'm in England). All of them have proved to be much much more likeable and fun in person, and a couple of them, who live locally, have become close friends of mine.
All in all I've found it great fun to meet people for real and chat about a mutual interest/obsession, knowing that they will appreciate and understand where I'm coming from. :o)
Chris Martin
One of the things I've learned over 10 years of being involved in usenet, mailing lists and forums etc is that some people are daft enough to assume that because you and they share an interest in X, then you're going to get along generally which is, frequently, not the case.
But there can also be lots of very pleasant surprises :)
I've only met one other fractal artist in person and she & I both agree that the other was exactly as expected. However we'd spent a lot of time emailing and chatting on the phone before the opportunity to meet arose (me being in the UK and her in the USA.
I've had the extreme good fortune of having met - and in most cases actually spent "quality time" with almost all of them - 12 well known and respected fractal artists. 13 if you count my wife. (She's maybe not so well known but she DOES have 3 artshow ribbons - 2 for fractal art - to my zilch - lol) And I have to say that I've had a great time with every one of them. If y'all EVER get the chance to meet some of the folks you've heard of or "known" on the 'net thru fractals - JUMP AT IT at all costs!
Rick
I am an eighty year old fractal artist who produces unique images please look at my website and reply
www.wirefree.net.au/~lawrence
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