During the contest, I was tasked with the duties of spreading the word. Beginning, I created an official press release that called for submissions. Next, I was asked to style and fill the official announcement page on OCAL’s main site with content.

Submissions were trickling in, but the floodgates didn’t fully open until a link was placed on the home page of the Library. As the contest drew to a close, we had received over 240 submissions!

After a 2 week judging process, hank0071 was announced as the winner of the contest! The heading graphic of this entry is the winning selection.

Up next for my work at OCAL, I’ll be organizing the new 2.4 Release, in which we’ll be included a Sports-themed clip art collection. Make sure to contribute your sports clipart, and tag it appropriately (sports2010). I’ve been surprised and encouraged by the turnout of this contest, and I’m very much looking forward to future Open Clip Art Library Community Contests!

It’s this feeling that each page is written with the deepest conviction and desire to convey a larger concept and/or belief system to an audience that has enveloped my conscious mind, while greedily plowing through stacks of fictional tomes.

“It’s a long walk back to Eden, dear, so don’t sweat the small stuff.” – Insomnia

This month in Open Clip Art Library events, I’m in charge of organizing the next package release. In previous 2010 releases, the new original works have all dealt with Seasonal themes. For this new batch (to be released on Monday, August 2nd), however, the Community have agreed upon a game-changing Sports theme!

Work within the Community has already begun, so if you’d like to contribute to this new release, please register and upload any original work to OCAL by Sunday, August 1st.

Have a look at our Fabricatorz blog post for more detailed info!

In 2010, I have been actively involved in promoting the expansion and development of The Open Clip Art Library. I believe some key things are being set in place to exponentially increase the potential of this platform. Last month, the Spring 2010 Release set a new precedence, by incorporating a themed clip art package.

This month sees the arrival of The Open Clip Art Library: Version 2.3. This release continues building off of the last release, by including a Summer 2010 Clip Art Package. Version 2.3 also expands on it’s predecessor by adding a fresh Logo Design Contest into the mix.

The inclusion of these new elements are a great start toward really encouraging users of OCAL to register and contribute original works.

To learn more about Open Clip Art Library: Version 2.3, head over to the public wiki to read the latest official announcement.

Roger Ebert, an industry-respected film critic, has shocked the gaming community for the second time in 2010; He’s cried “uncle.”

In a surprising turn of events, Ebert posted a brand new blog entry stating that his position on video games was one of ignorance and bullheadedness.

I should not have written that entry without being more familiar with the actual experience of video games.

By now, most gamers who are able to tear themselves away from the controller are intimately familiar with Roger’s initial claim and subsequent revival that games cannot be art. A position that I felt the need to respond to in a blog entry of my own.

No one could have predicted how gigantic the inevitable backlash would be. As Ebert noted, he received and approved thousands of “mostly well-written” responses to the opposition of his own stance.

It’s more than Anna Karenina, David Copperfield and The Brothers Karamazov.

Roger goes on to speak of the fallout of this solitary entry, and how Sony, paired with Kellee Santiago (whom Ebert’s first 2010 game post was a response to) had offered the critic a chance to test his theory. Given the ok, a Playstation 3 would be provided to Ebert, along with some installed games, including “Flower”.

As of this writing, Ebert has yet to accept the invitation and admits that “I didn’t want to play a video game.”

The article wraps up, and finds Roger addressing many critical concerns by attempting to find his own definition of art. A search that, he also admits, cannot in principle exclude games, as he had initially argued.

As affected gamers everywhere collectively rejoice and begin endless chains of “I told you so”s and “suck it, Ebert!”s, it’s important to note the manner in which Roger has conceded a point. He’s acknowledged that he’s mostly ignorant to the experience of gaming (as I had hypothesized in my previous entry). He’s allowed room for other opinions outside of his own, and, most importantly, he’s listened to his critics.

Well played sir, but you still owe me 30 minutes of Passage.

This song is a part of a larger project, one I’m calling “The Road.” I want to write & record a record that describes the journey we all take, from childhood, through adolescence, and into young adulthood. It’s a walk we all share. Each song in “The Road” will be about a very specific & personal moment in my life that I feel is representative of the journey, as a whole. I’ve got roughly 5 songs sketched out & will be bringing you more updates as they are recorded. Wish me luck. The 2nd half of 2010 will see me working on some very exciting content! Please check back for more updates as I take my walk along The Road.

This month’s package called for Spring flavored clip art, and our Community answered with some dynamic and elegant work that can be downloaded in it’s entirety or individually, using the key term spring2010.

The images found peppering this article are all works created by me, specifically to be included in this awesome set of work. My Open Clip Art Library username is pianoBrad. I’ll be creating around 10 new images each month for these themed releases, so check my OCAL account often, if you like the work, to see what’s new!

As always, The Open Clip Art Library is reaching for higher ground with a new release targeted in one month. Any artists interested in contributing to a summer package release should register and upload their work tagged with “summer2010.” The Librarians send out a special thanks to all involved in this incredible Spring 2010 Release and look forward to the fun and creative new work underway for the next one!

For more information, please have a look at the official press release.

On March 8th, 2010, the web graphics community was pleasantly surprised with the announcement of Open Clip Art Library, Version 2.0. Following the release, OCAL experienced a creative Renaissance, posting some of it’s best numbers ever, including 1300 new registered users and nearly 1000 new clip art submissions!

Building off of the success of the new format, The Open Clip Art Librarians have quickly followed up with The Announcement of The Open Clip Art Library, Version 2.1!

The increased user base and a community focus on bug reporting has helped the next iteration make necessary improvements. Open Clip Art Library 2.1 increases usability and functionality in a few key ways.

The ability for users to delete existing work allows artists to improve on their existing work without creating duplicates as the image iterates. Password recovery options now exist for those who’ve forgotten how to access their user accounts. Multiple simultaneous uploads are now possible with OCAL’s new Multi-Upload feature. Also worth noting, a Remix button has been added to the details page of all submitted work that creates a convenient gateway for users to build off of existing work!

As a member of Fabricatorz, I was able to work with the Librarians directly, while contributing to the growing library of images; a collection that boasts over 30,000 clip arts! I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved in this project, including the awesome OCAL artists and supporters. Head over to the Open Clip Art Wiki to read the official press release.

Recently, Chicago-based critic Roger Ebert has revived his now-infamous claim regarding the state of video games in our artistic landscape. As a gamer who also values Ebert’s critical opinion, I feel the need to respond.

After reading Roger’s most recent support for his claims, I went back to have a look at a post from 2007, where he first defended himself. It’s clear, upon reading, that Ebert needs some serious time behind a controller before he can fully understand the argument he’s presenting to the world. How can anyone propose to judge a medium they don’t actively experience?

In the 2010 blog, Ebert cites a TED video in which Kellee Santiago (of thatgamecompany fame) attempts to sway Ebert-based opinions on games.

Here, Kellee does a great job of putting the evolution of various mediums now considered “artistic” into perspective. She is trying to tell us that, as a culture, we can learn from our mistakes and oversights. The biggest problem Roger Ebert has in critiquing this talk becomes apparent when he tries to create a separation between art and games:

One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome.

He fails to understand that video games are what players make of them, as in any form of artistic expression. It’s true that games CAN BE designed to include all of the elements and functions he has described above, yet none of them are necessary! What is necessary is the INTERACTION of the user. This is the central theme of a video game, and this is why games have endless potential as an artistic medium. They present something that no other medium directly presents. In a Web 2.0 culture, where communication & collective interaction have brought knowledge & understanding to our fingertips, video games can allow us to literally step into another person’s shoes. Ebert tries to understand what a game is through a wikipedia entry:

Wikipedia believes “Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas…Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction.”

It’s obvious Ebert has a clear idea of what he believes “high art” to be, but when presenting his case against video games as art, he relies on someone else’s outdated written representation. This would be akin to myself reading a review of something like “The Fall” on Roger’s page and giving the movie two thumbs down based on his words. This is also why Kellee Santiago’s synopsis of games in a presentation will never succeed in winning over critics who don’t have controllers in their hands.

We must understand how new and limitless this medium is. Only when this happens, can one begin to see why games have the potential to become vehicles for human development.

I present 2 videos to support my argument:

In the first, we see a demo of experimental gaming technology that Lionhead Studios is working on in which games can CREATE AND RESPOND to our emotions!

Here, a visualization artist demonstrates head-tracking on a home tv using the nintendo wii’s built-in technology!

On top of this, video games are beginning to extend their reach into physical therapy, as tools for stroke victims.

A challenge to Ebert. Take 30 minutes, play through and understand a game like Passage, as I have watched countless movies with your reviews in mind, and then maybe an actual debate can begin.

I never expected a few innocent comments Elton John made, during an interview, could make me reevaluate what my thoughts on the state of our modern world are, but that very thing has happened.

A few weeks ago, Elton John was quoted in an interview giving his thoughts on Christianity:

I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.

I remember reading the headlines spawning from this and wondering, “This landed on Yahoo’s front page?” I’ve since been glad it did, as it’s spawned some interesting reactions from fanatics, via the following Yahoo news blog:

A Georgia man who posted a video of himself on the Internet holding a sign that said “Elton John must die” has been arrested for making terroristic threats.

After speaking with fellow Elton fans, I started seeing trends in the way people were reacting to Elton’s initial religious comments.

I, myself, think Elton firmly believes in his ability to influence popular culture through his statements. He’s proven this in the past, through his “coming out” Rollingstone interview in the mid 70s, and even through his more recent admissions of transgressions (drug addiction, eating disorders, promiscuity, etc.). There’s no doubt Elton’s openness has had an immeasurable impact on gay culture, and it’s assimilation into our modern world. I admire Elton for saying what he feels and using his reach to try and “stir the pot,” as I think, especially in American society, it needs stirring.

It seems my view is a minority, even among Elton fans. Some will say he lacks self control or that my optimism doesn’t make sense in a “real world” where there are people out there who will react to you. One went as far as to say, “Unfortunately, when it come to certain topics, your opinion could get you killed.”

Among these detractors, many are above 50 years old & are located in America. From here, some began to describe how they’d learned a certain way of thinking wasn’t an appropriate worldview to have, and still others said they had given up voicing their opinions altogether.

All of this brings me to my current struggle..Can a person’s worldview extend beyond their age/location/upbringing or am I looking at my future worldview, as I’m defending my current stance?