When old skool is modern again :)
The last few months, I observe more and more ASCII art, especially on social media like FaceBook, Twitter, etc.
The most recent was this one from our neighbours – thanks guys – (it doesn’t do very good justice to the original, as it needs less linespacing, and works best with an Arial font):
. °.˛*.˛.°★。˛°.★*. * Fijne Kerstdagen en *★* *˛.
. ˛ °_██_*。*./ ♥ \ .˛* .˛. *.★ een geweldig 2012**★ 。
. ˛. (´• ̮•)*˛°*/.♫.♫\*˛.* ˛_Π_____. * * * ★ toegewenst 。
. .°( . • . ) ˛°./• ‘♫ ‘ •\.˛*./______/~＼.˛* .。˛ * *★* Someone &
. *(…’•’.. ) *˛╬╬╬╬╬˛°.｜田田 ｜門｜╬╬╬╬╬*★★*★ ★ Someone
. ¯˜”*°••°*”˜¯`´¯˜”*°••°*”˜¯ ` ´¯˜”*°´¯˜”*°••°*”˜¯`´¯˜” *
Since many characters are not ASCII at all, maybe Typewriter Art fits better.
Anyway: I like the new revival of these kinds of arts.
They remind being a lot younger and playing around with characters to see what graphical information I could put in a limited space. You can use this to present information too, as [W/A] this progress bar shows how busy the public traffic is.
They also remind me how much real artists can do in little space. Given the limited space especially on Twitter and Mobile Systems, and the common feature among those is still text, ASCII art makes a lot of sense again :)
Some references to give you an idea how bad I was at it, and how good others :)
Check out [Wayback/Archive] http://cd.textfiles.com/hackchronii/VIRUSL4/VIRUSL4.46 and search for “Pluimers” (sitenote: I was nicknamed by the chinese cook in the restaurant kitchen I worked a few years before that, though the cook pronounced “Charlie” as “Cha-li”, and I nicked it to Charly to avoid conflicts).
A bit later I condensed it a bit (look for “rulfc1” at [Wayback/Archive] http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/msdos/Info/info-ibmpc). [Wayback/Archive] Others were way better at Email Art and [not archived] Signature Art than I was.
Those were days where you would mostly communicate with text. And even that wasn’t a long time ago when you imagine that the oldest known form of Typewriter Art is from 1898!
--jeroen
Many people mentioned the April 1st prank by Google: 8-bit maps, and a NES Google Maps cartridge (quote at 0:55: blow on the cartridge to fix bugs ROFL!)
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 