English version of an old Spanish post published in June 2010. It was left as a draft and it looked interesting to me 🙂
Is Ascii Art a thing? Yeah, It is. And it was before Google. And it was before the typewriter.
What is ASCII art? From those still easy to find[2] ‘typrewiter-made drawings’[1], using real ascii chars[3] or extended[4], coloured[5], with reverse backgrounds or with the unforgettable green phosphor look… according to wikipedia ascii art consists on build images by using ascii chars, that is, letters and symbols instead of brush strokes. (Ascii emojis also are ASCII art? I mean ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ or 凸ಠ益ಠ)凸)
Ascii chars usage to create visual artworks started as a mean to transfer images in those environments not allowing to represent other than text (VT100, fax or even the typewriter). Experimental application of this technique left us very interesting proposals as those from Arambilet in the 70’s or, later, Vuk Cosic.
“Typography and issues of general graphic design are inseparable from the ambition to convey meaning with text. At the level of a single sign, writing IS a painting, a very well thought-of graphic leaning on millenia of work. This has to be respected.” http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/ascii/vuk_eng.htm
I’m however reluctant to admit that a good part of so-called Ascii Art is really Art. I’d say 99% of self-denominated Ascii Art simply use gif 2 text converters and –in the best case- colour the result.
Ok. And then, why do I speak about Ascii Art if I do not strictly consider it Art? Firstly because Ascii Art is using IT proposals and constraints and even not being interactive, genuine or conceptually new they could be. Second because at least, the first trials –those from Arambilet- and several newer and more sophisticated[6][7] are eminently new and explore IT means. Last but not least, meritorious and worthy suggestions are thrown. I mean, beautiful artworks are made. And this, even without being necessary to be Art, sometimes is unnecessarily forgotten.
[1] Typewriter ascii art collection http://www.afn.org/%7Eafn39695/collect.htm
[2] Webart rings: http://artcontext.org/ascii/list.php , http://artcontext.org/ascii/list.php , http://www.angelfire.com/me2/jro/aawring.html#top
[3] http://www.chris.com/ascii/index.html
[4] Jap Ascii Art http://256arts.blogspot.com/
[5] Typewritter coloured Ascii art http://www.arkworld.com/ascii/
[6] Vuk Cosic and his Ascii picture machine. http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/ascii/camera.htm
[7] Not exactly ascii art but related and very interesting… http://www.vinylvideo.com/
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