10/27/2018 - [VOTE] Politics and War Pumpkin Carving Contest

[Alex]

Hey everyone,

Per the pumpkin-carving contest:

We have received our entries and I am setting up this thread to vote for your favorites! You can vote for as many of them as you want, and in the end I'll take the top 3 pumpkin carvings by votes and award the following prizes:

Prizes

The first place winner will receive 30 Credits for their nation (~$121 USD value.)

The second placer winner will receive 10 Credits for their nation (~$43 USD value.)

The third place winner will receive 1 year of free VIP subscription for their nation (~$27 USD value.)

All winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd places) will additionally receive an in-game award for their nation.

---

Here are the pumpkins:

@Arch  

Diego II @wilczkor '

@Samwise

@GoldyHammer 

@Robert Taber 

@Clarke 

To vote, just use the poll functionality in this thread. If you have any questions, let me know! The voting will close in ~ 3 days and I'll announce the winners on Halloween (October 31st.)

[Clarke]

Is it possible to add my submission, I thought it was at the end of the day it closes.

[Alex]

1 minute ago, Clarke said:

Is it possible to add my submission, I thought it was at the end of the day it closes.

If you have it ready I can add it now.

[Clarke]

Just now, Alex said:

If you have it ready I can add it now.

I sent it in a pm to you earlier, here it is. 

[Alex]

Just now, Clarke said:

I sent it in a pm to you earlier, here it is. 

Got it added!

[Dumb]

Politics and snore for the win

[Charlie Traveler]

Is that a Buor-o-lantern I see?

[Godwinson]

Definitely Samwise's pumpkin. How do I vote?

[Clarke]

My sister promises to give out favors of a certain type in exchange for votes ??

[Sephiroth]

Sammy did it best!

that's some carving skill right there

[Aksel]

Obviously @Robert Taber

[Skittles]

I vote Diego II (wilczkor) only cause his is 'pretty lit'

[Micchan]

11 minutes ago, Clarke said:

My sister promises to give out favors of a certain type in exchange for votes ??

I have a sister, I don't need yours

 

Anyway

1. Sam

2. Goldy

3. Clarke

[Valkorion Baratheon]

The most iconic pieces of art tend to stem from periods of growth and even human despair. da Vinci and the Mona Lisa (growth). van Gogh, who suffered from chronic depression, and The Starry Night (despair). One such pumpkin truly embodies the second requirement for great art. Arch's pumpkin. His is a piece of art born of the despair that comes from eons of darkness by a regime of pure oppression. And thus, I present to you, "TKR Sucks." 

Join the cause. Vote for Arch's pumpkin today. May Khorne wish you luck on the battlefield for this is an extension of The Great War

Edited October 28, 2018 by Valkorion Baratheon

[Samwise]

Why Sheepy?!

[Arch]

Vote Arch. May chaos consume your enemies and may Khorne favor your battles.

[Edwardidk]

52 minutes ago, Valkorion Baratheon said:

The most iconic pieces of art tend to stem from periods of growth and even human despair. da Vinci and the Mona Lisa (growth). van Gogh, who suffered from chronic depression, and The Starry Night (despair). One such pumpkin truly embodies the second requirement for great art. Arch's pumpkin. His is a piece of art born of the despair that comes from eons of darkness by a regime of pure oppression. And thus, I present to you, "TKR Sucks." 

Join the cause. Vote for Arch's pumpkin today. May Khorne wish you luck on the battlefield for this is an extension of The Great War

You may be onto something here. Memes used to be simple. Relatable. Worth a chuckle. Then they evolved. New formats, new tag lines, new content that was then turned into a new meme. Then memes became increasingly meta and self reflective. They parodied themselves and the users who both made them and consumed them. They built off of one another. They grew. They morphed into something entirely novel. This progressed to the point where even that wasn't enough. They had to become something more than themselves. They became surreal. They became deep fried and nuked. Each flavor building off of the last and transforming into a nearly intangible, unknown entity.

Art progressed in a similar fashion. Started off simple, I'm talking cave drawing simple. Then some pottery and some small abstract sculptures. Subjects everyone could relate to and understand. Then, as technology allowed for the creation of cultures and societies, art began to reflect that change and it evolved along with it. By the Ancient Greeks and Romans, art had become a more advanced version of the Stone and Bronze Age arts. Better drawings, paintings, and the addition of mosaics. Sculptures eventually shifted from stylistic expression to naturalistic representation. Still accessible to everyone, yet more nuanced and complex.

After the fall of Rome art stagnated and didn't change very much for nearly a millennium. Early Christian art dominated for the most part, consisting of murals and frescos and simple statues. All of which were based on the Ancient styles. Romanesque and Gothic art also built upon these precedents. This all changed when the Renaissance attacked.

A cultural explosion changed the art world forever; arguably starting with the Italian artist, Giotto. He began using techniques like foreshortening and linear perspective so that the material world could be represented as it appeared to us. A callback to the naturalistic stylings of the Greeks. Almost like a reference to the days of yore. A celebration of how art used to be, but with the explosion of new techniques and technologies, the art grew increasingly diverse. New and improved frescoes, meticulously crafted sculptures, architectural marvels and the inclusion of new materials in these works. Instead of tempera, oil was introduced along with new styles of depicting light and shadow through sfumato and chiaroscuro. These techniques and stylistic changes, while impressive, were simply an advancement of pre established art. The Renaissance paved the way for the explosion and diversification of dozens of art movements that followed.

From prehistoric art to the end of the Renaissance, art was mostly about the same subjects and used similar techniques to accomplish the goal of producing a work of art. Yes, the technical proficiency exponentially improved but considering the centuries in between, few true advancements were made.

Compare this to memes. They were so simple at first and really were nothing more. Then they got better. More technical. More circumstantial. More media to create them with. But memes could last years or many months before dying off. As time went on, the longevity of a meme shortened. This is paralleled in the art world.

After the Renaissance the Baroque period started. Then the Neo-Classicism, Romantic, Realism, and Impressionism movements not long after. Still utilizing the same technical process but the reasoning behind the movements changed. No longer was it about simply depicting the world around us, it was about prompting the viewer to consider new thoughts and ideas. Urging them to look past the image and think deeper about meaning and context. Pushing the boundaries of what art could be. The Baroque to Impressionism era spanned roughly 300 years. Compare that to the thousands of years between archaic art and the Renaissance. It was a huge explosion of self expression. Finally, in the mid to late 19th century starting with Post-Impressionism, Modern art emerged. This movement focused on self-consciousness, self-reference, introspection, existentialism, and even nihilism. I'm talking Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Abstract Expressionism, and Surrealism to name the most well known.

These styles changed what art could be. They were no longer about depicting life as is, or layering a painting with hidden motifs for only the privileged to understand, they were in and of themselves absurd. Abstract shapes, aggressive lines and colors, nonsensical dreamscapes. But it didn't stop there.

Post-modernism. Pushing art to the limit of its potential. Pop art, Conceptual art, Minimalism, Fluxus, Installation art, Lowbrow art, Performance art, Digital art, Earth art. These movements are about skepticism, irony, rejecting grand narratives and reason and instead embracing the idea that knowledge and truth are the result of social, historical, and political discourse and subsequently are a subjective, social construct. It's irreverent and self-referential. It's avant-garde pushed to 11. But what's next? Post-postmodernism? Metamodernism? Hypermodernity? Who knows? Only time will tell. This is where memes are headed. They started off slow but have picked up so much momentum they're evolving at an exponential pace. They used to hang around for a couple years at most. Then it turned to months. Then maybe only one month. Suddenly it was a week tops. While some particularly great memes do still stick around much like the masterpieces of art in the past, new memes are created every day, every few hours. New movements of memes are being created all the time. Anti-memes. Dank memes. Abstract memes. Wholesome memes. Surreal memes. Deep fried memes. Nuked memes. Even black hole memes, time travel, and dimensional memes are now a reality. What's going to happen next? A return to the classics? A new format so brilliant it steals all our hearts and then starts a whole new movement? I'm excited for the future of memes.

And then, comes this. Words cannot describe the beauty of this art form. The sharp edges in the design, the intricate orangeness of the pumpkin blends together which each letter to invoke emotion deep into our hearts. So staggeringly striking, so full of emotion, that the carving ingrains itself into your mind all day and enters your dreams, each angle striking fear and chaos into the soul.

TL;DR tkr sux

[Guest Epi]

Gotta by Sam Wise or Goldyhammer. Those were great

[saeton]

10 hours ago, Clarke said:

My sister promises to give out favors of a certain type in exchange for votes ??

Dibs. 

[Verlion]

The fact that Samwise doesn't have a mile long lead is just silly, a $hitty 'TKR sucks' gets almost as many votes? Come on, guys. Vote for quality!

[Arch]

3 minutes ago, Verlion said:

The fact that Samwise doesn't have a mile long lead is just silly, a $hitty 'TKR sucks' gets almost as many votes? Come on, guys. Vote for quality!

Its Quality vs a message that people agree with. TKR does indeed suck. 

[Samwise]

Snorlax got you down? Tired of being interrupted at server turn? Wish you could do something about it? Well now you can! If I take first, that bastard Snorlax will finally get what’s coming to him and I’ll record it and post up his demise! 

[Aesir]

1 hour ago, Samwise said:

Snorlax got you down? Tired of being interrupted at server turn? Wish you could do something about it? Well now you can! If I take first, that bastard Snorlax will finally get what’s coming to him and I’ll record it and post up his demise! 

If you take first you compete with me in number of credits!

 

If you don't already have around 40

Edited October 30, 2018 by Aesir

[Godwinson]

Can't believe the first one even has a vote

[Goldie]

Sammy all the way