I hopefully agree. I saw the new playstation from sony yesterday, and wow!,
if I could get a accelerator card with that chip for the same price...
wheeeeee! VR would suddenly become real.
Brandon:
>>Now, having primed the canvas for a discussion of the _artistic_
>>solutions, would anyone care to conjecture on how to make "good"
>>commercial VR art?
Steven:
>The only way to make good 'commercial' VR art is to drop that stupid notion
>of 'commercial'. Sorry, but i just can't see how 'commercial' art today will
>survive in a new medium like VR. Today's commercial art generally degrades
>the audience it's directed at by advancing the lowest common denominator.
>The audience likewise is captive or passive. In a medium that is interactive
>(and I would argue that VR demands interactivity) who's going to participate
>in a degrading advertisement?
>From my experience, there's shift in commericals happening right now. (I
can only speak for Norwegian advertising, but much of it is of american
origin). It seems that commercials are being separated from product. As
noone believes you if you claim your product to be 'the worlds best'
anyhow, why not get it asociated with something positive? One of the recent
Levi's tv/movie commercials is a good example of this. This is where the
whole thing is a short movie about a boy/girl (two versions) buying condoms
and later on comes around to get the son/daughter of the shop owner. It has
very little to do with product and very much to do with entertainment.
Levi's gives us something interesting/amusing, which in turn is connected
to their product. Now, what am I getting at you ask?
This trend will be a natural for the on-line commerciality. You can't just
glorify a product, you'll have to _give_ the consumer something to attract
his/hers interest. A good example is the on-line cd store (CDNOW.com I
think), which has leased (or something) the all american music guide. This
way you can use it as a music encyclopedia as well as a store.
The other way is hotwired's, similar to magazines.
Market saturation of an image isn't going to
>be possible either- with millions of people going to millions of different
>places in VR or on the net how can it be done? The best commercial
>advertising these days are the most memorable (i.e. how do you stick out and
>repeat it ad infinitum) in VR the best 'commercial' art is going to be most
>alluring or enticing and probably subtle. Also this is going to be a world
>of extremely directed niche advertising- the age of the lowest common
>denominator will have to fade out because it won't be possible unless we
>force commercial breaks during internet sessions (any takers for that kind
>of service?) Throw out all of the old concepts regarding advertising and
>commercial art- it won't translate.
Don't throw them away just yet. Niche-advertising has been with us for a
long time, just look at the ads you find in niche magazines, they're
targeted at _very_ specific groups, or better, the common denominator of
specific groups. Also, as more and more people get on-line, ads will
change. Someone is responding to the ads we see today, so I don't think
we'll get rid of it.
Commercial art is a tricky notion. On one hand you have a lot of extremely
professional craftmanship, on the other you have commercial motivation. I
find ads interesting signs of what's the trend in society, perhaps more
than 'normal' art. I read an article on how commercials are targetet at
different nations. It said that Germans responded best to authority and
knowledge, like scientist telling _why_ the product is superior. In the US,
happiness and nationalpride sells (weak selfesteem with economical
problems?), Japan, violence. Norway and England respons best to ironical
and 'honest' ads, while in France, sex is a real boost. (You'll have to
take this with a pinch of salt, it was printed in a norwegian newpaper, and
naturally, norway comes out good)
-----------------------------------------
Torbjoern Caspersen casper@due.unit.no
http://www.stud.unit.no/~casper/
Student of Architecture
at the Norwegian faculty of technology, NTH, Trondheim.