Drew's List of stuff he wants.

We're lucky Drew loves writing lists.

Comics (Graphic Novel format only please!)

One Year Later (DC)

Across The Universe : The DC Stories of Alan Moore (DC)

Batman : The Killing Joke (DC)

JSA : Thy Kingdom Come (DC)

Reign of the Supermen (DC)

World Without Superman (DC)

Joker (Grant Morrison) (DC)

Batman : The Long Halloween (DC)

JLA vol. 13 : Trial By Fire (DC)

Batman : No Man's Land vol. 1-5 (DC)

Green Lantern : Tales of the Sinestro Corps (DC)

Superman/Batman (except Public Enemies, Absolute Power & Vengeance) (DC)

Bruce Wayne : Murderer/Fugitive vol. 1-4 (DC)

Batman : Arkham Asylum (DC)

Green Lantern : Secret Origin (DC)

Green Lantern : Rage Of The Red Lanterns (DC)

Blackest Night (DC)

Final Crisis (DC)

Ex Machina vol. 1 -> (Vertigo)

Sandman Mystery Theatre (Vertigo)

We3 (Vertigo)

Saga of the Swamp Thing vol. 2 -> (Vertigo)

Sandman vol. 11 : Endless Nights (Vertigo)

Death : The High Cost Of Living (Vertigo)

The Books of Magic (Vertigo)

The Books of Magick : Life During Wartime (Vertigo)

The Maxx vol. 2 -> (WildStorm)

Kurt Busiek's Astro-City vol. 1 -> (Homage/WildStorm)

V For Vendetta (Vertigo)

The Amazing Spider-Man : Civil War (Marvel)

Marvel 1602 (Marvel) Spider-Man : Brand New Day vol. 3 (Marvel)

Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 2 -> (Marvel)

The Infinity Crusade vol. 1-2 (Marvel)

The Infinity War vol. 1-2 (Marvel)

X-Men : The Phoenix Saga (Marvel)

X-Men : The Dark Phoenix Saga (Marvel)

Spider-Man : The Birth Of Venom (Marvel)

Road To Civil War (Marvel)

Wolverine : Origins & Endings vol. 2 -> (Marvel)

Captain America : The Death Of Captain America vol. 3 -> (Marvel)

Kick-Ass vol. 1 (Icon)

Wolverine : Origin (Marvel)

Secret War (Marvel)

Daredevil : Guardian Devil (Marvel)

Brian Michael Bendis' Daredevil (Marvel)

Angel : After The Fall vol. 1-4 (IDW)

Hellboy (except Seed of Destruction and The Right Hand Of Doom) (Dark Horse)

Serenity : Those Left Behind (Dark Horse)

300 (Dark Horse)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind vol. 1-7 (Viz)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage Studios)

The Arrival (Shaun Tan) (Scholastic)

Spawn vol. 2 -> (Image)

The Maxx vol. 2 -> (Image)

Battle Pope (Image)

Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (Slave Labor)

Promethea vol. 1-5 (America's Best)

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (America's Best)

CD's

Beck - Mutations

Alexisonfire - Crisis (US version)

Thornley - Tiny Pictures

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel

Silversun Pickups - Pikul EP

The Catherine Wheel - Happy Days

The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics

Maids Of Gravity - Maids Of Gravity

Elbow - Asleep In The Back

Iron & Wine - The Sea & The Rhythm

The Illuminati - On Borrowed Time

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Worlds Apart

Pink Floyd - Animals

Pink Floyd - Meddle

Ben Harper - The Will To Live

The John Butler Trio - Three

Nick Drake - Way To Blue

Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Simon & Garfunkel - The Definitive Simon & Garfunkel

Tori Amos - American Doll Posse

Deftones - B-Sides & Rarities

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

The Shins - Wincing The Night Away

The Shins - Oh, Inverted World

My Morning Jacket - Z

Sloan - A-Sides Win

King Cobb Steelie - Mayday

Mogwai - Come On Die Young

Silverchair - Young Modern

The Dissociatives - The Dissociatives

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

Buck 65 - Talkin' Honky Blues

Immortal Technique - Revolutionary vol. 2

Big Wreck - In Loving Memory Of...

Tenacious D - The Pick Of Destiny

Nightwish - Oceanborn

Nightwish - Wishmaster

Green Day - Dookie

The Cranberries - No Need To Argue

The Arcade Fire - Funeral

Minus The Bear - Menos El Oso

Sarah Harmer - All Of Our Names

Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing

New Order - Get Ready

Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Soundtrack

The Beatles - Rubber Soul

USS - Questamation

Stone Temple Pilots - Thank You

Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow

Boa - Tall Snake EP

Gregorian Chant compilation

Medieval Experience box set

Billy Joel - Glass Houses

Billy Joel - Piano Man

Disturbed - Indestructible

The Eagles - Greatest Hits

Blind Melon - Nico

Collective Soul - Collective Soul

The Charlatans - The Best Of The Charlatans

David Bowie - Heathen

Coldplay - Parachutes

Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head

Alice In Chains - Facelift

Dinosaur Jr. - Farm

Green Day - International Superhits

The Offspring - Conspiracy Of One

David Usher - Morning Orbit

No Doubt - The Singles

Jakalope - Born 4

Flyleaf - Flyleaf

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - The Ultimate Experience

America - Greatest Hits

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Led Zeppelin - In Through The Out Door

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

Peter Murphy - Wild Birds : The Best of Peter Murphy

The Birthday Massacre - Nothing & Nowhere

The Lost Children Of Babylon - The 9/11 Conspiracy

Madonna - Bedtime Stories

Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You

Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music...

Meat Loaf - Hits Out Of Hell

The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks

Metallica - Ride The Lightning

Metallica - Master Of Puppets

Portishead - Third

Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze

Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles

Rammstein - Herzeleid

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk

The Who - Who's Greatest Hits

The Police - The Very Best Of Sting & The Police

Xavier Rudd - Food In The Belly

Xavier Rudd - To Let

Jesus Christ Superstar original soundtrack

The Verve - Forth

54-40 - Radio Love Songs

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

Michael Jackson - HIStory

Michael Jackson - Blood On The Dance Floor

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Books

Zecharia Sitchin - The End Of Days

Arthur Conan Doyle - The Collected Works of Sherlock Holmes

2012 : The Return of Quetzelcoatl

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein (1818)

The Collected Works of Jules Verne

The Collected Works of H.G. Wells

DVD's

Chuck seasons 1-2

Firefly

Justice League seasons 1-5

Star Trek seasons 1-3

Star Trek : The Next Generation seasons 1-7

Star Trek : Deep Space Nine seasons 1-7

Babylon 5 seasons 2-5

Avatar : The Last Airbender seasons 1-3

Batman : The Animated Series seasons 1-4

X-Men : The Animated Series seasons 1-5

Batman Beyond seasons 1-3

Futurama seasons 1-4

Stargate Atlantis seasons 1-5

Tin Man

Spawn (animated series)

The Maxx (animated series)

Heroes season 1

The Lost Room

Star Trek : The Movies 1-11

Babylon 5 : The Movies 1-6

Star Wars 1-6

Alien 1-4

Harry Potter 1-2, 5 ->

Princess Mononoke

Dark City

Iron Man

The Dark Knight

The Boondock Saints

Terminator trilogy

Event Horizon

300

Jurassic Park 1-2

Strange Days

Sin City

Jesus Christ Superstar

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Dune

Hellboy 1,2

Planet Of The Apes (original)

Fight Club

The Sixth Sense

The Butterfly Effect

Unbreakable

Lady In The Water

Akira

Howl's Moving Castle

Independence Day

Men In Black

Batteries Not Included

E.T. : The Extra-Terrestrial

The Day After Tomorrow

The Island

The Mists Of Avalon

Merlin

The Ring

The Shining

The Devil's Advocate

Titus

Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy

Spider-Man trilogy

Batman : Mask Of The Phantasm

Superman : Doomsday

Green Lantern : First Flight

Wonder Woman

Dr. Strange : Sorcerer Supreme

Ultimate Avengers 1,2

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Superman Returns

Chariots Of The Gods

The X-Files : I Want To Believe

Serenity

Resident Evil

Stargate : The Ark Of Truth

Stargate : Continuum

Mission Impossible 1,3

The Bourne trilogy

Die Hard 1-4

Mad Max 2-3

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

The Fifth Element

The Point

Fantastic Planet

...Drew likes sci fi and alternative rock.

Artists working with ASCII

Seems like there are a LOT of graphic designers and advertising gurus working with ASCII imagery, but not all that many artists. Here's what I've found so far:

Contemporary ASCII Art
This site is neat, includes folks who built an ASCII photobooth.

VVork.com
Not sure if I call this Art, but someone encoded the entire FIFA world cup of 2006 into ASCII, frame-by-frame.

ASCII Curtains
Dutch designer Nienke Sybrandy designed some neat-o curtains that have a weight-based ASCII image of a tree on them!

Jo-Anne Green
This lovely artist uses computational imagery all the time - including a series of ASCII portraits of the two president Bush's.
(She also did portraits using the knit-o-matic)

Vuk Cosic
Cosic has dealt with ASCII many times in his artwork, notably an instant ASCII camera.

Talking with the internet
Not quite ASCII, but interesting and text-based nonetheless. Talking with the internet, not another person ON the internet.

carpet/?s
Neat! Carpets you can order that are custom ASCII text based on when you ordered it!

Eat my binary.
Chocolate binary. Yup, chocolate.


I also intend to develop some elecrtonic garments for my thesis, so I'm keeping an eye on these constatnly updating news sources:
Our Cyborg Future
Fashionable Technology
Fashion for the 21st Century
XS Labs

that's all I have for now :P

Consistently falling behind in something.

So I had planned to keep a blog about my progress from the beginning of the semester... but I ended up spending so much time working on everything, I didn't really blog at all. When it comes to my shifting emotional and mental states, that all got logged into facebook and my livejournal, but my thesis progress... fell through the documentary cracks.

I began the semester feeling really pumped - I'd spent all summer researching and thinking about my thesis. Then I hit a brick wall - it was all concept. I didn't have any idea what I was physically going to MAKE - just that it would involve text-based imagery. My materialization project was a cute rendition of a home sweet home sign rendered in embroidered line-based ASCII on a plush computer monitor. I liked it, but it wasn't REALLY what I was trying to say.

After hitting my head against that brick wall a couple times, I came up with the idea of dealing with the Avatar again, which was something I had tried to do in Eva's context in textiles class, and I hadn't felt that I'd accomplished what I had set out to.

As soon as I figured out that I would do a series of Avatar-replicating portraits of my online friends, it didn't take long to come up with how. Colour-based ASCII was the most ideal way to deal with it - then I could use a screenprint of the same text for every portrait. Binary code immediately came to mind because I've been trying very hard to make sure that even the non-nerd who knows nothing about computers knows that my work is about online living.

The Binary code I went with translates to "This is not who I really am. This is who I really am. Who am I really?" and repeats a couple times (do keep in mind that every letter, space and punctuation mark are represented by a string of 8 0's and 1's, a small statement is a very long string of binary code!).

At first I tried discharging dye from black cotton and repainting over each individual 0 and 1 with a colour to recreate VERY pixellated images. THIS TOOK FOREVER! I'd spend hours on just one... and after all that rigeur, I still haven't found a paint that will stay without fading on the discharge (details that I painstakingly painted in all but disappeared within 5 hours of drying).

Then I moved on to printing burn-out paste on silk/sating combinations as well as straight cotton. The Silk/Cotton Satin I used was what I expected to like most, but the burn-out was the most difficult to manage and the least transparent when all was said and done - these actually became my LEAST favourite portraits. I also worked with a rough chinese cotton, in which the burnout worked beautifully - creating a very lacy effect from the thick fabric. Last but not least I tried working with a very thin silk/cotton chiffon - which was already virtually transparent, but after the burnout was positively ready to fall apart.

I took the burned out fabrics and layed them over highly pixellated images I produced through paintshop pro manipulation, printing on thermoplastic polymer sheets (the forerunner for iron-on t-shirt transfers), and heatpressed them onto cotton. These layered images I then stretched onto 10"x10" frames.

I went with the square because the majority of online forums use that as the standard Avatar dimensions, as well as a couple other network sites like Livejournal and Facebook (the thumbnail versions of your profile pic are square).

I really loved the overall effect when I completed the first 9, but I feel I need to have a whole bunch more, to create a 'wall' of friends, like on those networking sites.