JKDarkside

I unironically think that a lot of the most interesting stuff happening in contemporary art is being done by furries. I'm maybe gonna write about this eventually but a large part of that is that a lot of contemporary figural art is so bogged down in reference and allusion, in this sort of vague postmodern way where nothing necessarily like means much of anything but boy we sure are shuffling these symbols around as furiously as we can. can't swing a dead idiom without hitting an edgy deconstruction of some vague sort of Manet's Olympia or Demoiselles D'avignon or what have you, bonus points if Mickey Mouse is there too. I'm not a big fan of the whole sort of pop art lineage these days, basically, particularly since SO much of that shit immediately became a huge part of the NFT ecosystem.

meanwhile I feel like there's this genuine interest among furry artists, among other people doing cartooning and more "low" art, in making art for the sake of some... external ideal or vision? rather than just an inward looking critique of The Art Canon And Also Pop Culture If We Can Manage It. maybe this is "metamodernism"? people seem to finally be getting Real Into That Term lol. mostly I just think that someone sincerely employing techniques derived from abstract expressionism to draw a furry shows at least some engagement and interest that goes beyond some of the like slapdash Mr Brainwash style "let's slap two things together" stuff. (this is obviously a pretty narrow band of "contemporary art" it just seems to be a pretty popular that I happen to think is pretty boring lol)

I unironically feel similar towards a lot of fetish games these days. It's one of the rare places sincerity is allowed to really exist, so it actually feels like I'm getting something of substance out of it, not in an intellectual way but in a way where it's clear a human was just really into these ideas and went with it in interesting directions.

I do like a lot of meta stuff, particularly the games Remedy Entertainment seems focused on, but it has gotten so suffocating as it has just almost entirely become about what already exists and commenting on it. It actually makes something as simplistic ad shallow as Super Robot Wars feel invigorating because it's just a bunch of nerds playing with their toys and gushing about their dumb super robot themes, not a single drop of irony or self-awareness, at least directed at Trying To Say Something.

I got more narrative fulfillment from a PG-13 bondage fetish game in the past few years then I have from any sort of major piece of media.

I would also say there's interesting stuff going on in the middle market for games, at least in the areas not being choked up by Embracer Group's 8chan affiliated tentacles. Heck, I even find Gollum interesting because it doesn't seem interested in being about Lord of the Rings or using it As A Brand but just telling a story about a fuck up little guy who just happens to be from The Lord of the Rings, which leads us to bizarre places like The Breeding Halls (Now). I would not argue it is good, but at least these are ideas, and they're trying something others aren't.