{"id":153,"date":"2007-02-09T23:55:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-10T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=153"},"modified":"2007-02-09T23:55:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-10T03:55:00","slug":"o-be-some-other-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":""O, be some other name!""},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;<\/em>
–William Shakespeare<\/a>, Romeo and Juliet<\/em><\/p>\n

I do like naming images. While it’s true that viewers will stubbornly resist an artist’s prompt and make their own meanings from images, I still enjoy suggesting places to start. Since many fractals are highly abstract, names can sometimes provide viewers with a kind of nudge to the forehead<\/a>. Hopefully, this process is less obnoxious than those Head On<\/a> commercials.<\/p>\n

Names don’t have to be overly prescriptive. Viewers will still see whatever they prefer. Or, of course, they can categorically resist and deep six any title you’ve labored for hours to concoct.<\/p>\n

But names can be like those mannequin torsos<\/a> found in style shops. They at least provide a working semblance to hang up some preliminary but pricy rags of meanings that viewers might eventually buy.<\/p>\n

Names also hint at an image’s “personality”<\/a> — possibly providing a snapshot of its heuristic psyche.<\/p>\n

And that’s where crucial artistic decisions come into play. These critical first impression snapshots often set the ground rules for an image’s tone and mood. Without such delicate pre-viewing preparation, a viewer’s response to your labor of love<\/a> could be nothing more than a mumbled Huh?<\/em> <\/p>\n

Let’s carefully consider a couple of new images fresh off the pixel press<\/a> via a brief multiple choice examination. One of the following titles is the actual name I gave the image. The others are title wannabes and currently undergoing a severe existential crisis. Ready?<\/p>\n

As David Letterman says: Please. No wagering.<\/em> <\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

Who’s my daddy? <\/em><\/p>\n

What is the “correct” name for the image above? Is it:<\/p>\n

(a) _____ Avoid the Fried Mushrooms
(b) _____ Ballooning
(c) _____ 1169995.8846 #7
(d) _____ Freak Out at Captain D’s
(e) _____ NOTA (Your Snappier Title Here)<\/p>\n

Makes a difference, huh? Yes, I suppose it depends on how much one wants to influence a viewer<\/a> and what kind of feeling one hopes the image will project. The title candle sputters at both ends: sublime and ridiculous.<\/p>\n

Since you’re home on a Friday night instead of out carousing on a date<\/a>, let’s try another. You may open your test booklet now.<\/p>\n

\"If <\/p>\n

What’s my purpose? <\/em><\/p>\n

What is the “proper” name for the image above? Survey says: <\/p>\n

(a) _____ A Poor Choice of Plastic Surgeons
(b) _____ Someone Left the Play Dough Out in Rain and I Don’t Think That I Can Take It Cuz It Took So Long to Bake It and I’ll Never Have That Recipe Again OOOH NOOOOO
(c) _____ Bishop with Bad Thoughts
(d) _____ Fried Trannie
(e) _____ NOTA (Your Sappier Title Here)<\/p>\n

Makes you feel sorry for Adam<\/a> having to name those animals — and without even Eve<\/a> being around yet to help. I’m sure all the great masters went through dark nights of the thesaurus wrestling with their inner designators as they suffered<\/a> for (naming) their art.<\/p>\n

Consider this classic case. What should this iconic painting really<\/em> be called? Take a shot:<\/p>\n

\"Clem, <\/p>\n

Are you ready for the country…? <\/em><\/p>\n

(a) _____ The Nebraska Pitchfork Massacre
(b) _____ Proud Parents of an American Goth
(c) _____ Farmers Gone Wild!!!!!<\/em>
(d) _____ Where’s the Children of the Corn When You Need Them?
(e) _____ NOTA (Your Snarkier Title Here)<\/p>\n

See? That just fine tunes the whole aesthetic ambiance. Seems to me that any old picture blah blah blahblahblah no matter how totally pedestrian and campy bloggity narf zort<\/a> bloggity blogblogblog or how completely cartoonish yadda yoda<\/a> yiddish yucky yaddayadda could be used to both illustrate if not elucidate blitherblither bluto<\/a> biclighter blatherblatherblather my puzzling nomenclature crisis hypothesis zzzzzap zzzzzap zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….<\/p>\n

\"Can <\/p>\n

While. Foolish. Blogger. Rambles. On. Insipidly. Zoltar. Will. Just. Quickly. Borrow. This. Small. Item. From. Blogger’s. Home. <\/em><\/p>\n

…zzzzzzz zzzooorrrttt zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Go for it:<\/p>\n

(a) _____ [Sung to the Quizno’s Jingle] Ack Ack Ack Ack … Good!
(b) _____ Still Life with Cranium
(c) _____ A Most Unexpected Aubade
(d) _____ Take Me to Your Viagra
(e) _____ NOTA (Your Zippier Title Here)<\/p>\n

Well, that pretty much taps out my so-called thoughts and your endurance for one night. See you next time…unless…like… you know…you happen to actually… see my name under the post…before you start reading…or something… <\/p>\n

[door slams]<\/p>\n

[door opens]<\/p>\n

Hi, Honey. I’m home. Man, what a tough night<\/a> at the blog<\/a>. I’m starv–<\/p>\n

Uh, honey?<\/p>\n

Sweetheart…?<\/p>\n

~\/~<\/p>\n

Key: <\/strong>Image 1: b; Image 2: c; Image 3: e; Image 4: Oh Who Cares.<\/p>\n

Image 1 was made with Vchira. Image 2 was made with QuaSZ. Both were post-processed in various graphics program.<\/p>\n

Terry<\/p>\n

Rooms with a View<\/a>
Blog with a View<\/a><\/p>\n

~\/~<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags:<\/strong> photoblog<\/a>, fractal<\/a>, fractal art<\/a>, digital art<\/a>, computer art<\/a>, art<\/a>, title<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s in a name? that which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet;–William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet I do like naming images. While it’s true that viewers will stubbornly resist an artist’s prompt and make their own meanings from images, I still enjoy suggesting places to start. Since many fractals are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/voltron.jpg?fit=316%2C225","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1814,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=1814","url_meta":{"origin":153,"position":0},"title":"What’s in a Name?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"1 November, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the Halcyon group-hug salad days of Orbit Trap, I put up a post about titling.\u00a0 I used my own images (and several others) to investigate whether titles unfairly nudge viewers to the artist's interpretation or favorably provide additional meaning-making material.\u00a0 I'd like to re-visit the question using some\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"? by russianlad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/titlequiz9_russianlad.jpg?fit=450%2C267&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":395,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=395","url_meta":{"origin":153,"position":1},"title":"Infinite Jest?","author":"cruelanimal","date":"24 July, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Slimazoids Visit Gnarlinspike Badlands by Garth Thornton. Posted to Fractal-World.One of the hardest parts of my job is figuring out what other people will think is funny. You\u2019d think that would be easy, but my own sense of humor is far from the mainstream. I can\u2019t assume others will laugh\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Hurry to Dress by Elenyte","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/hurrytodress.jpg?fit=450%2C450&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":172,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=172","url_meta":{"origin":153,"position":2},"title":"Ways of Seeing — Part One","author":"cruelanimal","date":"23 March, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"After all, every picture is a history of love and hatewhen read from the appropriate angle.--Leopoldo Salas-Nicanor, Espejo de las artes, 1731I've been spending time lately with an interesting book -- drinking in one chapter at a time some nights just before turning in for sleep.Reading Pictures by Alberto Manguel\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 12 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 12 comments","link":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=172#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Flower Girl","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/03\/FlowerGirl_sm.jpg?fit=450%2C600&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":366,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=366","url_meta":{"origin":153,"position":3},"title":"My What a Big Fractal You Have #1","author":"cruelanimal","date":"19 February, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No art, Sherlock... Tim, I really enjoyed your last post. I, too, have been thinking about the desire some fractal artists have to reveal more of their images in ever expansive detail. The methods fractal artists use for doing so seem to vary. Some prefer to draw the viewer into\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2634,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=2634","url_meta":{"origin":153,"position":4},"title":"Lookin’ Sharp","author":"Tim","date":"29 March, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Just when I was beginning to think the 3D fractal scene was plateauing and running out of interesting themes to explore... along comes something sharp.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/The-Center-of-It-All-by-lenord.jpg?fit=500%2C250&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3380,"url":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/?p=3380","url_meta":{"origin":153,"position":5},"title":"Wormhole!","author":"Tim","date":"31 October, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Fresh and only recently uploaded to Fractalforms.com, the Times Square of Fractalville, comes this modestly named image, Stable Wormhole.\u00a0 Created by none other than the author of the famous Mayan-something images, Reallybigname... ~Click on images to view fullsize on original site~ It's part of the ever enduring mystery of art\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/orbittrap.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/2941_30_10_11_1_03_59.jpeg?fit=500%2C500&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orbittrap.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}