Essay Question: In no less than 10,000 words please discuss the impact that Art Curren would have on today's hobby considering the advancements made in the past 15 years, including but not limited to, modular kits, scale windows, computer software, digital photography, laser cutting and 3D printing.
I can't say I'm up for 10,000 words, but I thought about it a bit - yes, I know the question's meant in jest, but I've had too much egg nog over the last few days so my humour interpretation circuits aren't working that well :-)
I think that might be the wrong question. I'd suggest that Mr. Curren practiced a type of found art. What he found were kits in hobby stores - ok, someone had to pay for them, so that's why I say it's a 'type' of found art - and mingled them to make other buildings. He didn't appear to have a tools-and-technology-first orientation, but a kit orientation. I'd also suggest that the kit parts themselves helped define what was possible to build. There wasn't an infinite range of possibilities, but there were many. The items listed in the question seem more for scratchbuilding, even the modular kits, although with those we're are entering a grey area, and the dynamics and limits of scratchbuilding are different than kitmingling.
I think an alternative question from the 21st century might be, what could Mr. Curren mingle from all the kits that are available today, both new and the huge stash for sale on ebay and elsewhere online? Also, his articles had a calm and good-natured vibe to them along with all the instructions. I'd hope he'd still have that, and wouldn't succumb to the just-the-facts-ma'am, technocratic vibe we have today.
I think there might be other aspects to the question like freelancing and feeling versus prototypes and conformance, consumerism versus personal creativity, and other things, but right now, I'm feeling the coffee kick in, so maybe I'll leave it at that and go put a record on.
He saw a sameness on each layout and he put a twist on it. He set a new standard that everything we build should have some personal modification to identify it as our own. Much more satisfying that way and less boring to our friends.
ReplyDeleteYes. I like your thoughts on encouraging us to put our own personal modifications on projects.
DeleteI think you're on to something. I'm not sure Art would utilize new tech (laser-cutting, 3D printing, etc) in and of itself, but would likely use kits and parts of kits that were produced using those techniques if they interested him. When I read Curren I see him assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a kit's components and kitmingling accordingly, mentioning useful details or elements of a part that had some particular utility or interest.
ReplyDeleteOne reason I think he'd stick with the art form as he'd developed it, is that I've yet to see anyone leverage new technology in the field of kitbashing in the past 20 years. Jason Jensen seems to have a knack for mingling laser cut kits but he particularly likes working in wood vs plastic, though he does both. MR did a kitbash contest of sorts recently with their State Line series, but I didn't see anyone really pushing the envelope beyond the typical modeling practices of Curren's era.
Could it be the nature of kitbashing that somehow self-limits the practice or is it a question of imagination and utilizing the tech in service of the art?
Thanks for the thoughtful comments! I need to look up Jason Jensen's work and have a look at MR's state line series.
DeleteI sometimes think Art Curren's style of kitbashing may have hit the end of the line for awhile regarding the things that can be done. There might be two styles of kitbashing - maybe 3 as I think and type at the same time :-). The first type is Curren-style: the buildings are imaginative, but plausible and usable - the term freelance might be applied. The second type, which I'll speculate, is more prevalent in our era, are kitbashes in the service of attaining a replica of a prototype - less freelance ala Curren and more reality oriented. The third type is Adams-style: wild kitbashes like those created by artist Kim Adams that range from the plausible right through to highly improbable, but amusing.
One type of Curren-style kitbash that seems to have some traction in Voie Libre International are for railcars. I remember Curren did a rail bus kitbash in MR that I once bought some parts for, but haven't gotten around to building. In VLI they seem to have presented several of these types of projects over the last few years.
I think you'll find the State Line series (videos available on YouTube) more in line with your second style, kitbashing in service of matching an existing structure.
ReplyDeleteThe Kim Adams style is way out there beyond even Malcolm Furlow for most modelers, I'd imagine. But akin to that wild and crazy, funky but fun style is the work many do in On30 rolling stock and locomotives. More fanciful than practical, sometimes, perhaps in-between styles.
There's a group of modelers, of which Jensen is a proponent, for whom the artistic pursuit is more important than realism. As long as it looks cool, see Rule #1. This frustrates me and might also bother Curren, I'd suspect, but perhaps he'd be too polite to point out such things.
Yes, the Adams-style is likely not a model railroading style, but who knows, maybe there is an awesome layout out there that is heavily into Adams-style. I'm definitely going to have to look into Jensen's work so I can give it some thought.
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