The Geek Art Movement

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Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 11, 2013 @08:13AM from the 8-bit-abstractions dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Is your work space drab? Do you want art to reflect your geekiness? Then you might like an art movement that has been gaining popularity over the past few decades. This is movement is 'Geek Art' where artists take inspiration from all things tech and geek. The art works range from 'Hello, world!' in 23 programming languages to collages of Old Atari games to more contemporary pieces like modern apps as Famicon software. It's sites like Redbubble and Society 6 which have enabled the independent artist to get their work out there while sites such as 20x200 take a more curated approach. 8bit retro is the new Mona Lisa!"

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Geek art since the 80's by MindPrison · 2013-01-11 08:26 · Score: 5, Interesting

I used to be a demo-coder / gfx artist back in the C-64 & Amiga days, we did both ASCII art, and pixel art.

Geek art is special to us, I'm in my 40's and amongst some of the "geek" artist pieces I do - is with 80's electronics components, I puzzle them together as "working art", meaning...it's like a digital sculpture that can be hung up on the wall, and it can DO stuff ;)

Some of my friends make pixel art with beads & pearls, Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man etc. Very cool stuff. It's a special generation that will be remembered for this art. I can pretty much guarantee you that original artwork from those days will be worth a fortune in the future, pretty much like certain collectible games and retro computers are now.

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1. Re:Geek art since the 80's by Hatta · 2013-01-11 09:16 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This is why the whole "games as art" debate has always confused me. Pixel art is art. FM synthesized music is art. The two together form an aesthetic that never existed before the 80s, and didn't make it past the 2000s. Even what we're seeing today is a revival, none of the retro art I've seen could have existed in 1990. IMO, that makes these games not just art, but quite significant historically.
  
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2. Re:Geek art since the 80's by DerekLyons · 2013-01-11 10:35 · Score: 2
  
  I can pretty much guarantee you that original artwork from those days will be worth a fortune in the future, pretty much like certain collectible games and retro computers are now.
  Certainly - if it's the right original artwork. The other 99.9999999% won't be worth a bucket of warm spit.
  
  And collectibles? They move in waves. Beanie Babies were hot once. So were Magic cards. But anyone who invested in them thinking they'd be rich in the future... they're pretty much screwed now. You can make a ton of money if you're lucky enough to get in on the ground floor and time the wave *just right*, but the odds aren't in your favor.
Re:Famicon by Chris+Mattern · 2013-01-11 08:33 · Score: 2

Heroic NESbots battle the evil Famicons. More than meets the eye!
Princess Peach Pointillism by don_carnage · 2013-01-11 08:44 · Score: 2

I made a 3' x 4' Princess Peach out of 980 painted soda bottle caps: http://www.instructables.com/id/Princess-Peach-Pointillism [Helps if I log in before I post.]

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Hard drives by Quila · 2013-01-11 08:45 · Score: 3, Interesting

Don't forget the hard drive platter mobiles.
Art from old electronics by ftldelay · 2013-01-11 09:13 · Score: 2

I stumbled onto this artist years ago who makes people from old TVs/VCRs etc. I've purchased a few of them over the years. At one point, I mailed him a box of parts that I had un-soldered from some old junk and he sent me some free capacitor guys... http://www.obviousfront.com
Count me in... by Latentius · 2013-01-11 09:14 · Score: 4, Interesting

I'd count myself among those geeks. Not long ago, I bought an interesting etched silicon wafer off ebay (not too expensive, really), and then framed it and hung it on the wall. I think it's beautiful in its own right, and the geekiness just makes it that much better.
Framed Silicon
(On a side note, finding sufficiently large square pictures frames turned out to be much more difficult than I had imagined.)
Re:What? No mention of RTTY art? by OhSoLaMeow · 2013-01-11 09:23 · Score: 2

Wait, RTTY art wants me to enable Java in my browser (Chrome)?

No thanks.

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Re:What? No mention of RTTY art? by Tablizer · 2013-01-11 10:30 · Score: 2

Before slashdot invented the "lameness filter", some fool did Goatse in ASCII art. I had to give them credit for effort, even though they were a grade-A idiot. I wish I could mod them as such:
+5 creativity -9999999 asshat

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Piet? by braindrainbahrain · 2013-01-11 14:15 · Score: 3, Interesting

How come the Piet programming language didn't make the cut? :(