finale — stopping point: the temporal end; the concluding time;
This month it will be exactly 6 years since I started making installments; monthly themed collections of five. With this 72nd installment I will have made a total of 360 different illustrations since the beginning. Coincidentally, that's a full circle. This is my time to stop. My little project feels complete.
Finale is a very personal and retrospective celebration of 6 years of work. It is a compilation of the elements from the period that made me proud; the elements I want to remember this little Noscope project for. Saturated landscapes, surrealistic trees and pseudo-random elements. It is also a pledge to uproot and fly to other interesting places.
Change is good. While this is the last installment for me, it is not the end. Noscope will remain in it's current form. There won't be any more installments, but that doesn't mean I'll stop doodling. Formats will change; new projects, new ideas. It feels good to move on. I can't wait to get doodling again.
360 illustrations in a book—would it sell? Either way it'd be a book. That means my parents would finally understand what I was doing. Hmm. I also used to befriend a huge turtle. I wonder if he wants to be friends with me again. We'll see.
This will also be a sad goodbye. The welcome routine of these monthly sessions, it was a valve that ventilated my brain from otherwise corporate nightmares. There were those special nights when everything fell into place and felt right. There were the tough ones, the ones that only felt right after I had finally gotten it out of my system. I will miss those sessions.
Thanks to all of you for following my little—rather introspective project—for so long. I've gained many friends from it, I hope to keep you still. Special thanks to reinsamba of the Freesound Project for the ambience.
23 responses to “May ’07 Installment: Finale”
Six years and nine days… That accidentally gives the number of 2200 days. In the 22nd century there will be 239 lunar eclipses. The sideways sum of the lunar eclipses give the number 14. 14 happens to be the third discrete biprime. When Swedes tries to pronounce ‘three’ it sounds like ‘tree’, AND it happens to be that a certain Arthur C. Clarke wrote a space trilogy. That explains why the trees are being abducted.
Your circle certainly is complete. I am content
That has to be the best comment ever. And it’s from my sister. Thanks so much sis, you’ve earned yourself an ice cream.
That said, the trees aren’t being abducted. They’re simply flying away. Or so I think.
The trees are being shot off…..somewhere.
Very nice. Very potent, balanced and quite perfect.
[…] Noscope | May 2007 Installment: Finale # […]
where will your journeys take you now?
i agree, a spectacular comment by your sister, pretty funny.
Flying away trees…interesting. Could they come back multiplied as daleks?
Great installment.
Six years well spent, Joen. And ended spectacularly.
What’s next?
Thanks for all the kind comments.
I had to look that up. Well, I don’t watch Dr. Who, but sure, why not? 🙂
Mainly I want to finish a few projects I’ve started and had on the boiler for far too long, including my Fauna theme.
I also want to, down the road, see if I can book up Noscope. I’m thinking some sort of cafepress coffe-table book that’s well-layouted with all the illustrations plus commentary and possibly some sourcefiles.
I want to further develop my “Von Neumann” generative engine and give it a place outside the installment frames, add in new features I couldn’t add there.
I’ve also got a few other graphic ideas, but nothing that’s too fleshed out.
Bottomline: many new and interesting things — just not in monthly batches of five 🙂
Congratulations on the full circle, Joen! It’s quite an achievement. Now do that book goddammit! It’s been a pleasure to follow your efforts and I have a feeling that it will continue…
I can well see this in book form. 365 high quality images (one from each instalment) with the same brief descriptive text would make a great conversational piece for the coffee table.
To me, the instalments always had a slight Rorschach feel to them.. each person taking away a a slightly different impression of each piece. I still think they are one of those rare ideas that have come along but once, in a medium where duplication and copying are king.
Well actually 360 is the total amount of illustrations I’ve made (6×12×5), so I could very well include them all. That said, I’m imagining an editorial layout where some images are larger than others. For one reason, not all of them are print resolution (I only started to do hi-res artwork a few years ago). Another reason would be that some installments are god awful, and while I won’t censor myself and omit them — they certainly don’t deserve too much space. Finally, some installments are pseudo-random / generative, so I’m thinking it might make sense to include several configurations.
To hear this makes me extremely happy. Thanks so much for those kind words.
A book is an excellent idea. Put me down for a copy 🙂
Wee!
A book! In bright colors? Then put me down for one. Will place it on my coffee table anytime, and would love looking it through. Then I can also brag about knowing this brilliant artist when family and friends (yourself included) visits 🙂
What did I hear, are you putting focus on the turtle?
Oh you can brag any time you want 😀
No timeline, mind you, but I have to get that out of my system too don’t I?
In a way it’s sad and joyful to hear the installments are coming to and end. They have been varied and many times wonderful. This final installment embodies the things that I have loved most about them. The surreality, the trees, the saturation. All wonderful.
As I’ve commented before I’m unsure about the interactive aspects. However, each page of the installment functions well as a piece of art even when ignoring the interactivity, so I am content.
I cannot say for sure that I would buy a book, but I would most definitely consider it very thoroughly.
Looking forward to seeing new stuff from you hand.
Thanks a lot.
Content is good 🙂
As for the interactive elements, they are mainly there to add some “fun-value” and just a tiny bit of diversity.
Monetary gain would not be my purpose in such a book project, so no-one should feel pressured to buy one just to “help out”. Trust me, this is not where I get my bread on the table 🙂
Me too 😉
Dude, you get that fekking book published and I am SOOO there. Mainly because I’m a book whore and mainly because I love what you’ve been doing all these years on such an amazing consistent basis. Seriously, it’ll take you a weekend to put it together and then 5 minutes on lulu. Hell it’ll be great just for you as a personal item at the very least (but I’m there).
Thanks, appreciate that buddy.
I might question you with regards to Lulu publishing eventually, hope you don’t mind 🙂
Joen?
I want a book.
Glad to hear it!
[…] Joen published his final creative installment. […]
Any time Joen, any time.