Hello There!
I am breaking the entire Artist vs Techie chronicles into multiple posts so it is easier to read. This series of posts aim to cover some topics about art and tech objectively and general conception about the two I have noticed around me.
In this post, I aim to talk about my own story and motivations to nosedive into the rabbit hole of digital art.
My Origin Story
The line between being an artist and being a techie is extremely blurred.
I have been on both sides of the line. I have jumped rope with the line.
I am one with the line.
But before I even met the line, I was neither. Our story begins as many stories do, with a computer geek doing nothing much of significance.
Square 1
I have always been in love with my computer. I would spend all my time on it, scrolling through the internet, watching YouTube, playing video games and what not. Being of Indian descent, I was extremely scrappy, and I would always try to find ways across the restrictions to get what I want. Nothing that touched the light could escape my hustle.
During the time, I picked up a ton of tech literacy. From getting homebrew games on a PSP to emulating things on the PC, I did it all. Setting up cracked android phones and pimping up computers was my jam. I was that guy on the block. Your older brother’s friend, who could get his hands on the preemest stuff on the internet.
However, I never really ventured into the mystical arts of things like Image Manipulation, Video Editing, Animation, Music Production or Coding. In fact, I remember keeping them at an arm’s length.
I considered learning all this to be an unsurmountable task. It just didn’t make sense for an average Joe like me to learn these things without a passion burning hot enough for me to suffer through all the technical boredom.
Not to mention, in the Indian Society, arts were considered a feminine hobby. Even if I looked past that, the society generally did not have much respect for artists. In pop culture, ‘artsy type’ was used to diss artistic people as unproductive and airheaded members of society.
The closest thing to art I occasionaly did was photography. Besides that, I spent my time enjoying life, playing video games and watching TV.
(In hindsight, not the most productive use of time either. At least it was fun.)
Therefore, I never ended up pursuing anything technical or artistic at the time, and they were the last thing on my mind. However, I did fancy myself as the Ideas guy, someone who would spin stories and build contraptions that would leave their mark on society for years to come. Lionizing people like Steve Jobs, I believed even if I could not handle the tech parts myself, perhaps I could come up with the most innovative concepts that would wow people. All these things changed drastically with the push I got in my time at college.
The Push
In my second year of college, my past had caught up with me and threw a cold wake up slap right across my face.
I had worked extremely hard with my friends for our economics project. For my bit, I made an economy simulation on google forms that accepted a respondent’s choice of economic policies and gave them different results based on their decisions. I thought for sure, this was going to be something novel that no one saw coming. It would drop the jaws of everyone who used it and make me the Cats Pajamas of our virtual campus.
I had toiled on this simulation with my group for 3 continuous days, and the end result was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. It comparable to Shrek from the Shrek Cinematic Universe or the feeling you get when your crush likes your new Facebook DP three seconds after you changed it. The professor was extremely impressed with what we were able to accomplish. We were just waiting for the day to show off our work in class.
The day has arrived. I gave too much, I sold my soul, I’m waiting for my pay in full.
We all log into zoom, just preparing to brain fuck the entire class with what had in the bag. We play our video presentation, and before you know it, the crowd goes completely wild. Everyone is going absolutely bonkers for it, and our team’s group chat lit up with dance gifs and techno music. We were sending whatsapp sticker like no tomorrow and basking in the glory as if we had won a war.
Once things calmed down, I noticed that none of my peers had even touched the simulation I made. They were going wild with the Audio Visuals my friend had made for the video presentation (They were absolutely stunning to be fair).
I finally understood how Dr. Doofenshmirtz felt when his magnum opus “Inator” lost to the baking soda volcano. It was a rough blow, as something I had worked really hard on barely got any recognition. So much so that I have decided encapsulate the feels into this meme for you to use if you have a rough day.
I moved on quickly since we did ACE the project. One of the rare occurrences when we were able to assemble an avengers level all-star team for a group project and everybody competently did their parts, and then went beyond plus ultra. However, that day lit up a fuse in me. I realized that the majority doesn’t care about what is under the hood, and I needed to have good Audio/Visuals if I ever wanted what I make to see the light of day.
What followed was rigorous amounts of self-learning and practice I would spend the following years nose deep inside tutorials. I was going to live and breathe documentation for the next two years of my life. The windows XP tutorial with text editor and techno music was about to become my primary form of entertainment.
I had set out on a journey which will change my perspective about art, technology and my own abilities…
The Build Up Continues…
A new challenge has appeared, what will this journey entail? And does Shardul stand a chance of becoming the next super saiyan of the digital audio-visual world? Find out in the next episode of Dragon Ball Z Blurred Lines: Artist or Techie!