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And no, they really didn't take it that seriously , they knew that their sampling and control methods weren't all that strict, and were aware that the resulting music isn't likely to actually generate responses that meet the projected stats. :)

Komar and Melamid also did a "most wanted painting" project, which has the actual survey results and resulting paintings available online.

And no, they really didn't take it that seriously , they knew that their sampling and control methods weren't all that strict, and were aware that the resulting music isn't likely to actually generate responses that meet the projected stats. :)

Komar and Melamid also did a "most wanted painting" project, which has the actual survey results and resulting paintings available online.

Taking your sweeping series at face value, let me point out a few things. DS9 had some real stinker episodes and even some stinker story arcs. Voyager had a few episodes that were among the best in the franchise.

The point is, the thing that really had me rolling my eyes at many of the Voyager and DS9 episodes is how poorly written they were. They were organized around gimmicks which were simply patronizing to the fans of the franchise. To be fair, doing something memorable is going to be a huge challenge in along running franchise like ST. However, I think the ST writers would do well to be suspicious of "concepts" that scream to be summed up on one line ending with an exclamation point, e.g. "Let's have the whole cast play a baseball games against the vulcans!", or " Let's have Janeway fall in love with a hologram (OK, I can buy that) from a cute irish village!" Message to Mr. Berman: desperation is showing.

This has been a bit of a problem in every post TOS series, but it has steadily grown. Enterprise is the worst offender. I often feel like the writers are talking down to me. Or perhaps they aren't trying to talk to me, but to a demographic. You know, the kind that has to have "edginess". It's art by formula, but Komar and Melamid they ain't.

It's not a mystery that the franchise has lost its way since Rodenberry's death. The thing about Rodenberry is that he had a vision. At times it was a cringe-inducingly naive and parochial vision. But it was a vision you could buy into because the show really believed in it.

With Enterprise, the franchise's masters are trying to recapture the sexiness of TOS. But they fail because what they come up with is as artifical as a pair of regulation issue 40DD boobs. Enterprise doesn't believe in sexiness, it just needs a certain amount of it to meet the product specifications they have in mind. Take so much T&A, so much gunplay and battle, sprinkle at least one gimmick, stir and serve lukewarm.

Even when Enterprise raises what could be a provocative issue ("can torture be justified"), it ends up shying away because it doesn't believe anything. Time for another half nude shot of Jolene Blalock! No offense to her; despite her obvious endowments I think she is quite skilled and talented, as is much of the rest of the cast. They just aren't given anything interesting to do. I'd be glad to see a half-nude or even full-nude shots of Jolene Blalock in every episode. Rodenberry would have loved it. Just give the rest of my brain something to keep it occupied.

So, Enerprise just drifts in limbo, having neither the freshness and energy of TOS, or the gravitas and maturity of TNG. What it does have is "edginess", which I suppose is a kind of nervous tick. The fascination of that kind of thing is rather limited.

Sotz artists Komar and Melamid did similar research to create ideal paintings. They broke out their results by country. They did some work with music, as well.

A couple of guys have found the formula for the perfect painting and the perfect music.

They've also found the "most unwanted painting" and "the most unwanted music."

Here's their site. You can even order the CD of America's most wanted and unwanted song -- no piece of music before or since has ever made me laugh out loud so hard.

You can see the paintings on the site. The most wanted music is a 3-minute smooth-jazz love ballad. The most unwanted music is over 22 minutes long, with constant changes in key, tempo, and style, a huge orchestra with bagpipes, percussion and electronics, a screeching soprano talking about physics history and a chorus of kids screaming at you to repent for your sins.

I've often wondered what would happen if this were applied to film. Maybe I'll make "the most unwanted movie" as a joke. But I always realize that every day, thousands of people in Hollywood ARE trying to make "the most wanted movie" -- the next sure thing.

Virtually every movie you will see this summer is the result of someone last summer saying, "Aha! NOW we've found the formula for the perfect movie!" after the box-office numbers came in. And you know what? A lot of them will bomb.

Why? This is like saying the best-written piece of code is the one that has the proportion of semicolons, tabs, and for loops that most closely matches the Linux kernel. It just doesn't compute. You have to look at the why, not the what.

A couple of guys have found the formula for the perfect painting and the perfect music.

They've also found the "most unwanted painting" and "the most unwanted music."

Here's their site. You can even order the CD of America's most wanted and unwanted song -- no piece of music before or since has ever made me laugh out loud so hard.

You can see the paintings on the site. The most wanted music is a 3-minute smooth-jazz love ballad. The most unwanted music is over 22 minutes long, with constant changes in key, tempo, and style, a huge orchestra with bagpipes, percussion and electronics, a screeching soprano talking about physics history and a chorus of kids screaming at you to repent for your sins.

I've often wondered what would happen if this were applied to film. Maybe I'll make "the most unwanted movie" as a joke. But I always realize that every day, thousands of people in Hollywood ARE trying to make "the most wanted movie" -- the next sure thing.

Virtually every movie you will see this summer is the result of someone last summer saying, "Aha! NOW we've found the formula for the perfect movie!" after the box-office numbers came in. And you know what? A lot of them will bomb.

Why? This is like saying the best-written piece of code is the one that has the proportion of semicolons, tabs, and for loops that most closely matches the Linux kernel. It just doesn't compute. You have to look at the why, not the what.

They surved style, tempo, length, voice and content for the song, for example.

They also made the "least popular" works using similar techniques.

You can find the results of thier work at:
http://www.diacenter.org/km/index.html
and
http://www.diacenter.org/km/musiccd.html

- Serge Wroclawski

They surved style, tempo, length, voice and content for the song, for example.

They also made the "least popular" works using similar techniques.

You can find the results of thier work at:
http://www.diacenter.org/km/index.html
and
http://www.diacenter.org/km/musiccd.html

- Serge Wroclawski

Notice the aforementioned "survey results?" Look at the last four questions. They make me think the art was slanted towards semi-realistic pieces to begin with. I mean, how do you answer those if you prefer abstract art?

One more thing: the least favorite for Italy is golden. It has it all: Elvis, a Power Ranger, and male nekkidness. Not only that, but violence (or maybe the arrows are a form of self-expression for the man?) Now if only it was the Pink Ranger that was filled full of arrows...

-Smitty

Notice the aforementioned "survey results?" Look at the last four questions. They make me think the art was slanted towards semi-realistic pieces to begin with. I mean, how do you answer those if you prefer abstract art?

One more thing: the least favorite for Italy is golden. It has it all: Elvis, a Power Ranger, and male nekkidness. Not only that, but violence (or maybe the arrows are a form of self-expression for the man?) Now if only it was the Pink Ranger that was filled full of arrows...

-Smitty

Is here. Vernon Reid plays guitar on the most wanted song. Didn't he used to be with a group called Living Color? Pretty demented pseudo-shredder, if I recall. ;)

Contrary to what some readers seem to think, the paintings were not done beforehand and then the people asked to choose between them. Rather, the artists made the paintings based on the answers to a survey.

The decision to put the mountain at the left and the tree at the right was made by the artists, not drawn from the results of the poll. I do agree that it borders on mania, but then, insofar as the countries did not express differences on these subjects, why change?

The People's Choice Music project is described at http://www.diacenter.org/km/musiccd.html. I bought the CD, and wow, the most undesired song is really undesirable! It's funny for the first few minutes, with the alternating cowboy-solo, soprano, and children's choruses going on about holidays ("Veteran's Day! What's there to say? Do all your shopping at Wal-Mart!") and special interest groups ("Sugar! Beef! Bananas! Pork bellies!"). But one facet of unpopular songs is length, and I could only stand it for about 5 of its 25 minutes.

From the site's description: "The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and "elevator" music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commericals and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance--someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example--fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece."

Well, waddaya know. It's the same survey. Holland least favourite painting really is the most awful dog ever to smear the canvas.
-----

...The Worst Artists!

Art is by no means a tool to make the majority happy, content or pleased, it's sole purpose is to reflect upon us the mind and soul of it's creator, thus giving us a different prespective to our own.
If the day that art quality will be valued upon it's popularity will came, we should all be worried for the sake of our society...

Suprisingly enough - the only decent art piece chosen as most popular was the web one ... and possibly Holland's as well

...The Worst Artists!

Art is by no means a tool to make the majority happy, content or pleased, it's sole purpose is to reflect upon us the mind and soul of it's creator, thus giving us a different prespective to our own.
If the day that art quality will be valued upon it's popularity will came, we should all be worried for the sake of our society...

Suprisingly enough - the only decent art piece chosen as most popular was the web one ... and possibly Holland's as well

Holland really surprised me! :)

What about Dali with his weird distorted objects? What about some indoor scene? What about a sunset?

There isn't much detail on how this "study" was done, but it appears to me to not have been particularly well done--unless there are details I'm not aware of.

See the paintings here.

Check out this painting project by K&M: http://www.diacenter.org/km/