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INDEFINITE_DEPTHS

                                               March 17, 2015

Sometime during the 80s
I developed a T-shirt                                      DOOM_CLONE
esthetic...

Typically, I prefer shirts
that are ambiguous, without
definite messages.  I very     I don't do advertising,
rarely wear T-shirts that      not even "ironically";       The "no words" rule
have words on them.            and I don't go for           has some odd
                               simple jokes or political    loopholes though--
That's a reasonably concise    statements-- no bumper       a chinese ideogram
summary of the aesthetic--     sticker messaging.           would be okay,
which is very specific in                                   because it doesn't
it's demands for                                            register on *me* as
non-specificity.                                            a word.



Around the time I was formulating this, I
was thinking about a particular t-shirt:

  A green on black stylized image of
  a circular radar screen with a few
  plane silhouettes scattered around on       Almost the only exception I can
  it.  Consciously, I just liked the          remember: As a young teenager I
  colors, though I think I was already        had a t-shirt for "Fire Island"--
  averse toward advertising-- I can't         a local beach area.
  remember wearing a *single* rock
  band T-shirt, ever.                             (I was informed later that
                                                  this would be intepreted as
    Different people had radically                "I am gay" if worn in NYC).
    different reactions to this shirt,
    with intepretations ranging from                         FIRE_ISLAND
    "yay, video games!"  to "I am
    high-tech cannon fodder".

       Much earlier than this, I was already
       gravitating toward things *like* this.`
       In the late 70s/early 80s I used tie-dye
       (already a stale, retro technique,              I was fixated on the
       associated with hippie art) in a more           center-chest symbol,
       restrained fashion than the early-70s           strongly influenced
       style-- e.g. I had a bright yellow              by the style of
       shirt, with a single bright red-orange          superhero costumes.
       circular tie-dye blot in the center
       of the chest.                                   I remember having picked
                                                       up on this already at
                                                       very early age, around
   There was a period in the 80s when                  5 years old.
   I made my own sometimes, using
   spray-paint stencil techniques.                        BLACK_JET
   I made a shirt with a biohazard
   symbol on it-- influenced by a
   stray detail in a William Gibson
   novel-- which had people giving
   me curious looks "Uh... does
   that *mean* anything?"








                                                           (June 25, 2019)

                                        The astute reader might notice some
                                        hypocrisy here: where *other* artforms
                                        are concerned I often speak in praise of
                                        clear statements and definite messages.

                                        
        In some ways this is a very     
        shallow dodge: make it ambiguous        
        as a way of reaching for depth.        
                                                                 
        But it *does* work to evade much     The use of tribal        
        that's trite, the simple direct      identification,        
        message that wears out, becomes      e.g. team sports.        
        annoying.                                                 
                     


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