An art project called Screenshots

October 13, 2000 7:03 AM

An art project called Screenshots has some very interesting pieces. A series of drawings from an isometric perspective, in the style of a computer game, are the new body of work by Tempe-based artist Jon Haddock. You can check out the full gallery here. See how many you can identify without reading the the img tag's "alt" text.
posted by pnevares (15 comments total)

And yes, this is my first topic. Let me know if I jacked it up somehow. :)
posted by pnevares at 7:03 AM on October 13, 2000

They look like screen captures from The Sims. :)
posted by highindustrial at 7:37 AM on October 13, 2000

The Sims: Vietnamese Police Action, available December 2001.
posted by snarkout at 7:46 AM on October 13, 2000

Very interesting and subtle take on the confluence between art and technology!
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 8:49 AM on October 13, 2000

oh, that is really great. i LOVE it.
posted by palegirl at 9:59 AM on October 13, 2000

Also worth checking out is the Internet Sex Photographs exhibition from the same people. "Internet pornography, digitally edited to remove the figures." It's mostly a flagrant abuse of the Clone tool, but a neat idea. And here is the same idea, applied to historical photographs.
posted by waxpancake at 10:12 AM on October 13, 2000

The Elian one, in particular, is Sims-like. I think they're fantastic.
posted by hijinx at 10:20 AM on October 13, 2000

my favorites: MLK's assassination, ron goldman & nicole brown's murder, tienniman square, and princess di's death.

i think the best is columbine, the reason though is because i sat there for a second after it loaded wondering why the cafeteria in the picture was empty, until i looked closer at the two figures at the bottom
posted by pnevares at 10:30 AM on October 13, 2000

Very nice concept. Good execution too. It makes everything a little unreal, which actually makes it easier to look at since it breaks up the "iconography" that tends to develop in mass-media-news coverage of an event.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:45 AM on October 13, 2000

Peterme or qJason noted a while back that the elian screenshot is missing the photographer, and if you add it, it could change the mood and dynamic of it significantly.

Why did they omit that key figure?
posted by mathowie at 11:57 AM on October 13, 2000

Peterme or qJason noted a while back[...]
oops, did someone post this already?
suck :(
posted by pnevares at 12:31 PM on October 13, 2000

Its cute, but I've always thought the Sims type perspective was terrible. Its useful in gameplay but as art its even more annoying. I prefer to see computer art that looks photo-realistic, not to opposite.

I really like this rendition of the murder of Lee Oswald.
posted by skallas at 2:02 PM on October 13, 2000

But the photographer is omitted in all of the shots (granted not all of them were photographed at the time, and not all of them had photographers in the same frame given the chosen perspective), but for the two Vietnam pictures (naked girl with napalm and gun to the head) they would have made a lot of difference as well.

Skallas: aside for the technical prowess evident in the drawings, the *point* (as I take it) of this art necessarily involves riffing off the isometric (Sims-type) perspective. Since most of them are based on photographs, photo realistic takes would have been pretty mundance.

I think it is brilliant work. (And yes pnevares, the link went around a few months ago, but it was never on MF and you can tell that several people appreciated it — don't worry.)
posted by sylloge at 2:52 PM on October 13, 2000

If you enjoyed these paintings you might also like Ron English. Yay for juxtaposition.
posted by kidsplateusa at 7:34 PM on October 13, 2000

Anyone else notice that on the "dallas" image there are paths drawn out for Ruby, Oswald, and where they were standing when the shot was fired?

http://www.whitelead.com/jrh/screenshots/dallas.JPG
posted by pnevares at 8:01 PM on October 13, 2000