
Show HN: Art as a Service: F(x) → [Object Art] - SuperPaintMan
https://theblackbox.ca/hn.html
======
archycockroach
I've been mulling on this for a day now. I have some concerns. I am not trying
to be rude by asking this, but I think it bears consideration: Do you think
that exposing an API to your practice is the means by which "technical people"
can access art? Do you think it is the only means?

You make some claims about the "divide" between art and engineering. By
inserting yourself as a mediator between these two fields, do you think you
are reconciling these worlds? Because to me it seems like you are capitalizing
on this difference instead of actually attempting to stitch the rift together.
By manipulating liminal markets, you are closely mimicking the behavior of
tech startups. Is this in the interest of your art, or just your practice?

~~~
SuperPaintMan
This process has been helping me define the project, that's for sure. By being
an API I would say there needs to be a amount of technical competence, or at
least knowledge of how to communicate using it. But communication through an
API lends itself to a differing language and conversation. The context and
nature of the materials is of log files, and that's my prime concern. Nowhere
near the only means of access, there is no divide between technical and non-
technical ceramicists. This is just a weird tool in a toolbox, an access
method of many. I'd actually love to see what a ceramicist would do around a
similar model.

I'm not reconciling any divides, if anything I'm drawing a arbitrary line in
the sand when high tide is approaching. Inflammatory at best. What I do know
is collage using textbooks, Model M keycaps, square bracket forms and
pornography is fun and holds meaning. My engineering colleagues can understand
the underlying language more clearly. Where does that come from? But there is
a different logging mechanism in the world now that just makes the question
`createArt(arg1, arg2) painting` exist, it's an option over doing it yourself
but you're the curator. My friends work with IoT devices and collect some fun
data, now they can pass it off to me pragmatically.

A few years of HN got to me. But it is modelled after other SASS startups, the
model works and I don't have to invent the infrastructure, that's what other
services are for (boxes all the way down). But BlackBox is a service, and
operates as such. I'm undecided on if this a credit to the work, but it damn
well is a property. It's not the first time I've reached for a similar method
of expression though. A few years back I created
[http://projectexas.appspot.com](http://projectexas.appspot.com) (oh god it's
a broken mess) just to showcase/contrast that data. Perhaps this is a
extension of that mindset? Thank you for pointing that out, I had not actively
noticed! But is it viable? That act of capitalization funds the whole show
after all. Operating entirely in the interest of sustaining the practice and
possibly finding a market. That's a comment on startup/capitalist culture if
I've ever seen one. A few projects have had publicly available APIs [1], but
I'm not sure something like this exists.

Seriously though, try asking someone overtly to send you logs/resources, It's
kind of hard. I really just want some newspaper clippings and posters from the
insides of servers. I really want to be called, to be a funnel for curated
data another side effect of a giant mechanism. And if you're reading on Hacker
News, there's a good chance you can understand that desire. And I want to talk
to you via walls.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Feel_Fine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Feel_Fine)

------
MrBra
Can someone explain what is this and what it does?

Non native English speaker here who found the introductory lines on the
website very confusing.

~~~
SuperPaintMan
Sorry MrBra, poetics don't usually translate very well.

I'm trying gauging if there is a market for Artworks from a Engineering
perspective. It's near and dear to me, but the money just doesn't seem there,
support the Arts and all that.

The project is trying to create meaningful Art (paintings) for a technical
minded audience. To do this we expose an API for submissions and have a simple
web flow for submissions. The content of these submissions is arbitrary, I use
them like one would use posters in a collage[1]. As fragments of the whole.

There are no examples of my work, nor will there be. It's up to you to jump
in. For that, we have the docs.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage)
[edit: docs]

~~~
MrBra
The whole website experience is frustrating.

Are those painting being returned as a digital work or are you talking about
actual paintings?

I am trying with Get Started, it is supposed to teach me how to start using
the API, I'm presented with only a choice "Oil Paintings". If I click on it, I
am then presented a form which asks me to input "some text", upload some
images, and type in "some links".

I then go on clicking, thinking that this is just an example of a subset of
the API. Instead I am presented with a price indicator slider. I guess the
sense of it is "tell me how much you want to pay" but I have seen no example
of what the API does and honestly at that point I stopped investigating
because I am not interested anymore. This must not have been the part of the
website I was looking for.

I go back and see "programmable art". I am not sure again. If the works are
being done by a machine using functional programming (where given a parameter
the result is the same) why there can't be no examples???

Then my eyes are caught by "Handcrafted Artisanal Emoji", again it's confusing
if this stuff is man-made or machine-made and it just feels this has been
shoved in the page just as a different fallback product.

Everything really seems unconnected and there is not one clear direction.

Also, you might be the next Victor Hugo, but today you are not that or are not
yet known by that, so simply saying "hey trust me, you will like this" it is
not enough.

~~~
SuperPaintMan
Sorry I didn't make it clearer, I'll try and address all your concerns in this
monster of a comment.

The API docs are at [http://theblackbox.ca/api](http://theblackbox.ca/api) (in
the navbar, and two buttons on the homepage), the _rest of the site_ is a
simple form based method to interact with the project. The API is just the
"ideal" way of using BlackBox, but it is not the main focus.

These are physical oil paintings [Statement: "Blackbox transforms arbitrary
data into physical objects. That's it.", Oil paintings can't be digital,
"Talking via Walls"], that take days of effort to put together and a few weeks
to dry plus shipping time. This is not a API that returns imagery, it's an API
that puzzles over inputs, smokes a bunch of cigarettes and ships a tube with
canvas to your door! The API is only for longer running processes. For
example, you have a pile of code, IRC logs and photographs it would be better
to ZIP them up and upload them through the single-use mechanism. A good use of
the API would be a IRC bot that uploads messages off a trigger ["lol" after a
message or something] and then finalizes the painting on some other trigger
["!paintitblack"]. The API is meant for piece by piece submissions.

As far as identity goes, visual styles are extremely easy to map to an artist,
throwing examples on there is the equivalent of using my real name. I'm not
$NAME, making paintings using the visual imagery that devs can understand,
painting on stripped apart CRTs and looping videos instead of a static
underpainting, trying to move dead Cubism towards continuous methods or trying
to create a work to be puzzled over and interpreted. I'm not $NAME with a body
of work and documentation, a CV and BFA whose process and history can be
understood. I'm a metaphor for/am an opaque mechanism/abstraction with inputs
and outputs.

I'm assuming the identity of a piece of infrastructure, an anonymous
construct, a neutral mask. BlackBox is a performance piece, that satisfies the
Interface for a API, while providing a space (between creator/painter) for
exploration of new space (read: Your servers). Blackbox collects materials for
collage in a space where corporeal beings cannot! If I simply wanted collage
materials, I would wander and collect them. But I want an equivalent in terms
of data fragments (logs, requests, error messages, anything!), captured from
your infrastructure, preferably in transit.

If I am $NAME, this turns into a way to pragmatically commission my works
(although, it currently does satisfy these criterion) and that is just a
little less then this project aims for. Collage is investigation.

Examples were going to be self-documenting via a nice unique hashtag on a card
allowing the viewer to choose if this is private conversation or public status
symbol? A few of these floating around could give you an idea. At the end of
the project the full set of my documentation is released and my name, etc.

Although it doesn't really matter, because no one has taken the first
interaction. So does anyone even want developer orientated Art? The capitalist
answer is No.

------
SuperPaintMan
Creator here, this project stemmed Go Interfaces, #TAKEMEANYWHERE (LaBeouf and
company) and there was no existing tool like BlackBox. I created BlackBox for
the sake of composing, what will you do with these tool in your box?

I feel it's more coherent then jodi.org, but just barely.

[edit: spelling]

~~~
mpnordland
Serious question: What do you define art to be? I've taken some introductory
Art class, but really never got a clear answer of what art is. How does art
differ from kitsch?

~~~
SuperPaintMan
That's a tricky question because of subjectivity and the shift towards a
postmodern lens. The question what is Art becomes entirely dependant on the
viewer/creator.

For me Art is the act of expression. To poets, the reading. To painters,
painting. To hackers, hacking. The object is simply a object left over
documenting the process (although utmost attention is provided to the object
during the act).

Kitsch I would define as engaging that creation mechanism with substandard
intent. Maybe to copy a photograph with paint, or just muck about on a canvas
because there is an hour to kill. When the focus is the documentation, it
becomes programming for programmings sake, and loses the artistic merit.

At least, through my eyes.

------
SuperPaintMan
[edit: we should be back up now, please comment on further errors]

------
vageli
Looks like it got hugged to death :(

~~~
abathur
For the benefit of those who see the article but can't reach the site, I think
one of the interesting parts of the project is the artist's statement about
how the idea was sparked by interacting with friends in technical fields who
don't have any art on their walls and are sort of caught between not wanting
to buy cheap prints or posters and a lack of comfort/vocabulary for obtaining
better art.

So, the artist is making an API where your role as the requester is in
providing data that the artist will use as inspiration to create and send an
oil painting within your budget.

