Some of you may wonder why I didn't make a post about the last AFAID like I did with the Toy's Fair a few months ago. Well, first of all, for you Indonesian readers, I'm sure your own Facebook wall has been filled with your friends' posts about it, so I figured that I won't add anymore hype in it - especially if you didn't go there but was really looking forward to, then I would be just adding more salt to the wound.
Besides, the whole thing was really awesome that I just have no idea how to describe the entire thing in words, and any attempt that I do would reduce the impact so much that I won't be able to convey the fun I had back there. Although to be honest, I had a hard time trying to make it into a not normal diary, so I became a little bit lazy to do it. Let's just say that I was really happy and satisfied.
Instead, I'm going to share the experience and the thoughts I had related to the event, since you've probably heard about everything else by now. The first thing was about the creators who opened their booths for the exhibitions. They are actually nice and not exclusive to their own kind, contrary to the popular belief. Especially the guys from the Squash Alternative Works, the circle that one of my best buddies joined up. I even made a new friend there, one of their artists whose art style I have been fond of for a while.
Simply by hanging around their booth, I managed to learn about appreciation for the work of others; The stuffs that I was looking forward to buy were sold out, just as I had feared (you guys owe me a Hibiki pin, goddammit). And there were several people who got their merchandises (posters and artbooks) signed by the artists around the booth, one of them even actually went and asked them personally, and boy do they look so happy about it.
We rarely see appreciations in visual arts in everyday life, people tend to look down on the visual artists, some even go as far as ridiculing their profession. Sure enough, their line of work won't earn as much as, say, an engineer working for an oil & gas company. Their stress level regarding work deadlines might even be more or less the same. But I've never seen people who look so happy in their line of work as much as these guys do.
There's also the case where a lot of people would steal their work and claim it for themselves with no credits whatsoever, like some certain multiple booths during the event. Yet there's rarely a case where the artist would push the matter to the culprits and demand some royalties, they would only go for credits mentioning or some mere notification at best.
And it's not just visual arts, when was the last time we actually appreciate what other people have done for us? Not the kind of 'thank you for doing your job' kind of appreciation, I mean the 'thank you for helping me out, I mean it' kind. Without us realizing it, sometimes our gratitude towards others were just for formality, like it's simply their job doing those favors for us.
The second thing I learned was about greed, the lust of simply buying everything available as far as my eyes could see was very strong. Thankfully, I have my guardian angel called 'monetary deficit' to remind me that I don't need most of the stuffs displayed, and that I am an idiot for thinking otherwise.
There's also the gambling booth where you have to pay a certain amount of money for a chance to win a figure which is at least 5 times more expensive than what you spend, I saw people actually trying their luck more than once there. I didn't bother trying though, I never believe my own luck whenever I try to do those kind of lucky draw thing.
And then there are actually people who would just buy a lot of things that it would go for millions of IDR (hundreds of dollars to you bules) in total on a single day. Some of them are just rich kids whose parents have no idea whatever the hell they were doing around that place.
Yet if I have the same amount of money, I would still hold off from doing so. I mean really, if you have so much money that you wouldn't have any problems spending that amount for merchandises, I bet you would use them for other more useful things instead, amirite?
In any case, greed is never a good thing, I don't care no matter what Gordon Gekko told you before. Most of the times, it will cause you more harm than good. Greed for money/materialistics is the easiest case to take an example from, since there's a lot of those already. And then there's the greed for religious devotion, which would lead people to leave their own family behind to pursue their overzealous faith. There's also the greed of knowledge, where people would stop at nothing to learn everything they can about the world, even though some things are better left unknown, like why would two girls use one cup.
Oh, there was also the annoying experience about a certain stranger who was retarded enough to have bought the ticket for the Anisong concert and yet decided to spent the whole goddamn time during the show playing with his smartphone, but I'll just leave it at that because I can't explain things that I don't understand at all.
That being said, I learned a lot from the event, and I do look forward to become a volunteer for the next year.
Pictured above: Really happy and satisfied
Instead, I'm going to share the experience and the thoughts I had related to the event, since you've probably heard about everything else by now. The first thing was about the creators who opened their booths for the exhibitions. They are actually nice and not exclusive to their own kind, contrary to the popular belief. Especially the guys from the Squash Alternative Works, the circle that one of my best buddies joined up. I even made a new friend there, one of their artists whose art style I have been fond of for a while.
Simply by hanging around their booth, I managed to learn about appreciation for the work of others; The stuffs that I was looking forward to buy were sold out, just as I had feared (you guys owe me a Hibiki pin, goddammit). And there were several people who got their merchandises (posters and artbooks) signed by the artists around the booth, one of them even actually went and asked them personally, and boy do they look so happy about it.
At which point I jokingly point out, and sincerely hope, that those autographs would sell for millions later on
We rarely see appreciations in visual arts in everyday life, people tend to look down on the visual artists, some even go as far as ridiculing their profession. Sure enough, their line of work won't earn as much as, say, an engineer working for an oil & gas company. Their stress level regarding work deadlines might even be more or less the same. But I've never seen people who look so happy in their line of work as much as these guys do.
There's also the case where a lot of people would steal their work and claim it for themselves with no credits whatsoever, like some certain multiple booths during the event. Yet there's rarely a case where the artist would push the matter to the culprits and demand some royalties, they would only go for credits mentioning or some mere notification at best.
While others might ask whether they look like a bitch or not
And it's not just visual arts, when was the last time we actually appreciate what other people have done for us? Not the kind of 'thank you for doing your job' kind of appreciation, I mean the 'thank you for helping me out, I mean it' kind. Without us realizing it, sometimes our gratitude towards others were just for formality, like it's simply their job doing those favors for us.
The second thing I learned was about greed, the lust of simply buying everything available as far as my eyes could see was very strong. Thankfully, I have my guardian angel called 'monetary deficit' to remind me that I don't need most of the stuffs displayed, and that I am an idiot for thinking otherwise.
Don't want to risk disagreeing with him
There's also the gambling booth where you have to pay a certain amount of money for a chance to win a figure which is at least 5 times more expensive than what you spend, I saw people actually trying their luck more than once there. I didn't bother trying though, I never believe my own luck whenever I try to do those kind of lucky draw thing.
And then there are actually people who would just buy a lot of things that it would go for millions of IDR (hundreds of dollars to you bules) in total on a single day. Some of them are just rich kids whose parents have no idea whatever the hell they were doing around that place.
Yet if I have the same amount of money, I would still hold off from doing so. I mean really, if you have so much money that you wouldn't have any problems spending that amount for merchandises, I bet you would use them for other more useful things instead, amirite?
I said 'useful things', you dumbass
In any case, greed is never a good thing, I don't care no matter what Gordon Gekko told you before. Most of the times, it will cause you more harm than good. Greed for money/materialistics is the easiest case to take an example from, since there's a lot of those already. And then there's the greed for religious devotion, which would lead people to leave their own family behind to pursue their overzealous faith. There's also the greed of knowledge, where people would stop at nothing to learn everything they can about the world, even though some things are better left unknown, like why would two girls use one cup.
"I never should have googled that"
Oh, there was also the annoying experience about a certain stranger who was retarded enough to have bought the ticket for the Anisong concert and yet decided to spent the whole goddamn time during the show playing with his smartphone, but I'll just leave it at that because I can't explain things that I don't understand at all.
That being said, I learned a lot from the event, and I do look forward to become a volunteer for the next year.
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