Interview with Slothy by iCE Staff
Interview with Slothy by iCE Staff
Interview with Slothy by iCE Staff for iCE PACK 11/2002
Converted to ASCII text by RaD Man of ACiD Productions www.acid.org
HTML version available at http://www.ice.org/interviews.php?interview12
kz
iCE: Tell us a bit about yourself - first name, age, occupation, hobbies,
etc.
slothy: Im Jon, but everyone just calls me Slothy. Im 24, and Im a PC
game programmer. Aside from keeping tiles.ice.org and www.ice.org
happy, I also help Root88 manage the day-to-day operations of
running iCE.
In the non-digital world, I have a cute little car
http://www.slothy.com/sterling10.jpg that I like to work on on
most weekends. Im also obsessive about music, and I occasionally
read those book things - but only books about copyright and patent
law.
iCE: Where are you from? Have you lived anywhere else?
slothy: Im from Sonoma Valley right now - just north of San Francisco. I
just moved out here from Virginia, where I have lived since I was
7. I was working from home in Virginia, but my company tightened
the screws and got me to move out here to work at the office with
the rest of the company. Its quite a big change for me to be out
here. I havent been around as much recently, since Ive been
trying to get out and meet some new people out here. But once I
get off this ghastly 56k at home Im sure Ill be around more -
especially since I get hours where Im not at work now that I
dont work from home.
iCE: Is your cousin really an astronaut?
slothy: She rules. http://www.slothy.com/sts-112/
iCE: If you could live on any other planet, which would it be, and why?
slothy: I think Id like to live in a black hole, because I could keep a
lot of things within reaching distance.
iCE: How long have you been a member of iCE?
slothy: I joined in late 1993 as a member of the horrific iCE Trial program.
I was one of the only ones to make it out of iCE Trial - TooN GooN
being another notable survivor. I was promoted to a full iCE Member
by Shaggy on Christmas Eve when I showed him my Hells Gate ansi
back in the days when youd call someone and have them type ATA
while you typed ATD and then coordinate when youd both pick up and
hang up the modems to talk again :. When he saw that ansi, he
said, Wait, YOU did this? and it was history after that.
iCE: So what was the deal with iCE Trial?
slothy: Essentially, it started as a great idea. You find promising artists
and kind of take them under your wing until they are good enough
to release in the pack. Ideally they could get help from the many
members of iCE to help them hone their skills.
In reality, it failed in almost every aspect. It was decided that
iCE Trial would release their own packs - to reduce the penalty for
joining iCE Trial as opposed to being in a separate second-tier art
group.
Since those packs still were affiliated with iCE, many iCE members
were embarrassed by them. As a result, they treated the Trial guys
as second-class citizens and wouldnt associate with them much. So
the Trial guys got insults from the rest of the scene for being
essentially wannabe-member fanboys who sucked, and in their own
group they were treated like they had some contagious disease. Very
few artists ever graduated from Trial to becoming a full iCE
Member.
Later on, when I was trying to find ways of helping out iCE, Syntax
Error put me in charge of iCE Trial. Within one month, I disbanded
the iCE Trial program completely back in 1994 and put myself out
of a job in the process :
iCE: So youre a programmer? Do you do any art anymore?
slothy: Not really, sadly. I was never very good on paper except with some
abstract sketches I was never good with color, either :. Once the
move to hi-res happened, I wasnt really able to hold my own in iCE.
I am still very proud of the hundred-or-so ansis I released with
iCE. I do think that I was pretty good, but I think my Senior Staff
role has understandably overshadowed my artist role and not many
people remember my ansi anymore.
That being said, it was a conscious decision. When I was getting
ready to start at Virginia Tech, I was decided whether to be an art
major, computer science major, or psychology major. Given that I
wanted to have a job after college, I chose computer science. I
figured I could always do art as a hobby, and it would probably
continue to be enjoyable. Its always kind of sad when you realize
you dread doing something you love once youre getting paid to do it
and have deadlines and other people influencing your work. To me,
its a bit more tragic for that to happen with art than with code -
I always loved doing art.
iCE: So tell us about your job then, Mr. Game Programmer.
slothy: Im essentially a Linux coder who got a sweet job thanks to iCE.
In fact, every job Ive ever had was a result of this awesome art
group no lie. Rogue Leader hooked me up with this tiny company
called S2 Games back in March of 2001. They were working on a 3d
RTS back then, and I joined as the second programmer. Now its
changed a bit, and were working on the multiplayer-only PC game
Savage http://www.s2games.com/. Ill keep the plug to a minimum
here, so thats all Ill say about Savage. But Im just a C coder
who has always been into graphics guess why! who got a sweet job
from knowing someone.
iCE: Speaking of work, what is your alcohol or substance of choice?
slothy: Crown Royal. mmmm....
iCE: What would you be doing if computers didnt exist?
slothy: Man, thats really a horrifying idea. Im really one of the
biggest geeks around, from my keyboard
http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/images/evolchair2.jpg to my
linux-powered car stereo. Life without technology would be so much
less interesting for me. I guess Id probably be doing art or
psychology, or just hanging out at bars :
iCE: What would happen if you let two linux geeks procreate?
slothy: Hrm, theyd probably be a super Luddite. They would get into
sports and hate computers. And I wouldnt have much to talk about
with them :
iCE: Can we ask you a stupid question?
slothy: I believe you already have.
Point taken
iCE: What do you like and dislike about the digital art scene?
slothy: Boy, I could write a manifesto on that one I know, this interview
is long enough already. Ive written lots of articles about the
scene way back in the ansi days... nowadays Im pretty unsatisfied
with the scene.
One nice thing we had awhile back was a general agreement on what
art styles were acceptable. As a result, there was a solid
hierarchy of groups from the best to the local aka crappy
groups. Artists would work hard to join the best ones and work
their way up the ladder.
Nowadays there are a few really talented groups like iCE, Noir,
Raster, Breed, and Equate, but there isnt a solid base of groups
below them.
So its a jumbled mass of artists that doesnt get any prep before
they join a major art group. There arent any community norms
that are established as part of our online society. This is both
good and bad, since sometimes those norms can limit artists, but
its definitely more chaotic. We have no universal rules on what
is acceptable and what isnt, and what role the group plays for the
artists.
iCE: There used to be a huge rivalry between ice and other groups, namely
ACiD. There was so much trash talk that it seemed comical at times.
Could you explain this a bit for those of use that just dont get it?
slothy: Heh, it was an odd development of an us vs. them attitude. In most
other scenes there was a friendly competition, but in the ansi scene
it was just this crazy rivalry. There are a couple possible
explanations as to why: first off, there was some ugly politics in
1992 when the iCE staff tried to merge the group into ACiD. That
failed when a portion of iCE refused to rebuilt iCE with new
leadership. In addition, I think most other scenes had more of a
battle over who was best, with new demo groups showing up and such.
But in the art scene, there really was just iCE and ACiD and the
occasional short-lived split-off group. So there was a lot of time
that helped carve out the absurd rivalry. Honestly, everyone wanted
their group to have a better pack every month. Because of this, I
released something in every pack for the first 30 packs after I
joined, because I didnt want to let down the group.
iCE: I heard that you hosted an Icecon. Whats that?
slothy: On a few occasions now, groups of ice members have gotten together
to meet and party. Ive been to a few now - one in Atlanta in 1998,
one in California where we actually met up with ACiD folks, and
then I hosted one at my house last summer. The last one was really
a lot of fun, since everyone was living together in my house. I
even managed to injure myself during our pathetic basketball game.
Good times...
iCE: Do you have any words of advice for artists or programmers that would
like to join iCE?
slothy: Do it! I couldnt possibly be more indebted to this group. Ive
met some really great friends in the group, Ive obviously had a
lot of doors open for me, and I have some really fun memories of
partying with my friends.
Better yet, join the group not just for you, but bring us some
enthusiasm to make the group better. Not everyone has to be that
way, but its certainly a gem of a member that is willing to do the
dirty work to make it a better place thanks to all you guys and
gals who help us out every month.