# The aims of furryness! ^.^



## Anamenti (Jan 9, 2008)

I wasent sure what other place to post this and saw some similuar discussions going on in here...

    I'm studying fine art and am trying to incoperate a bit of Furry into it. to do this I need to contextualise it, asides from being drawing of things with fur it needs to have a little bit of the aims and goals.
    I've explained a bit in my project about how I seen in the furry community as a whole it being a lot about acceptance of people and also the ability to express yourself through a fursona, but I'd be interested to know what any of you feel is the most imporant aspects of being a furry or if your not one yourself at least what makes you appriciate the community?
    I've probably not explained what I mean quite clearly enough, my fingers are freezing to the keyboard >.<!


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## ShaoShao (Jan 9, 2008)

The only reasonable idea I have for fine art bordering or entering furry would be if you called the project 'an exploration of the relationship between humans and animals', and then do anatomical studies comparing mammals and swapping their limbs about, or things with a theme relating to... what people do with animals or around animals.

What sort of fine art course are you doing though? If you need to write about the aims or goals of your project then I'm guessing you need a conclusion by the end, so something that would give a conclusion is a good start. Asking questions is an easy way of getting through (oh, that's another, 'are people like animals?'), but in my experience of an art course you had to find examples in existing art of what you wanted to do and write why they're similar in some way. If that's the case you might want to consider links before fully deciding on the subject. It might be hard to find fine art relating to furry already so a lot of people will probably tell you it's a bad idea.

Hmmm... another idea would be looking at connotations of animals, they tend to be anthropomorphic. For example, foxes are sly, cunning, clever, mischievious, etc. But you'd have to find a way to show that visually.


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## Anamenti (Jan 9, 2008)

At the moment it is pretty free form, my course is based more on personal exploration with a little of contemporary reference injected in, the fact that it's more obscure and hard to reference is part of why I'm interested in doing it, I know of a few already, even tenuous links like Gigers sexualaliens where the boundries of humanity become blurred I can already use as reference, and not quite so contemporary Louis Wain, right back to historical anthro creatures, egyptian and the like... Luckily i'm at a uni that embraces the likes of Grafitti, comics and other stuff that sometimes sits uncomfortably with the fine art world.

Also thats why I'm interested to hear other peoples thoughts on why the furry mindset is important to thier lives, fine art is essentialy about people and who they are and how they are, and communicating this to audiances who might not be aware of people or things that exist around them, as soon as you make it about the people and not just about the drawings themselves, you can find all kinds of context and reasons to do it ^.^.
Last year I did a peice about multiple personality disorder, so at some point I'll probably be looking closer at roleplay specificaly as well (What with me knowing first hand how wound up in a roleplay one can become.)

Sorry I'm waffling XD 

I like the idea of swapping limbs about, taking the anthromorphosism to another level as it were... oooh that gave me some ideas for a couple of mini projects... AAAH CREATIVE RUSH...


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## WolfeByte (Jan 10, 2008)

A few ideas you can go look up and apply as necessary:  

Identity theory - the ways in which people define themselves, to be simplistic about it.  Lot's of that in furry, and it's definitely a valid approach to things.  The idea of degrees of separation between reality (who you really are) and fantasy/fiction (who you appear to be) are definitely part of it, as for many folks the furry persona allows them to be (just an idle example, of course) the slutty, irresponsible critters they really wish they could be (if it wasn't for things like reality - and real STDs - getting in the way).

Cyborg theory - Pretty much involves any sort of hybrid of living and/or non-living things, breaking down 'traditional' boundaries and dualities, from the sci-fi cyborgs, gender-indifference, animal-humans, etc.  Pretty much anything that tries to blur the lines between this and that, and which partains to people, can be addressed under the theory.  

And there's always the historical archetype approach - Humans have been doing the half-man, half-animal thing for pretty much most of our modern evolution (the first lion-headed human figurine dating back something like 50 000 years BCE?).  Ties into shamanism, sympathetic magic, etc, etc. can all be played up from this perspective, and the whole anthropomorphic animal (or zoomorphic human?) crops up again and again.  As much as it pisses some people off, 'furry' as it is today can be seen as the most recent incarnation of a idea that's been in the collective mind of humanity since day one (albeit it's a  shallow, base, and often trivial incarnation, but that only matters to the whiners of today.  Historians of tomorrow are going to lump us all into the same half-human stew, good or bad or ugly...).


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## ShaoShao (Jan 10, 2008)

(I wrote this reply out last night before my internet cut out and before WolfeByte's post, it may or may not be helpful)

Ah, sorry if I sounded so pessimistic. I sat through GCSE art at a school who taught to the exams and couldn't get trained staff for art. It's nice to hear a definition of fine art that doesn't hold it as something sacred and strictly specific. It's also nice to be pulled out of the idea that everyone taking art thinks they're already wonderful or just doing it because they haven't anything else (trust me, that classroom was gloomy when you put the 'lolidontcare' aside).


Waffles aside and back on topic! Day dreaming. Fantasy. A lot of people are drawn to the furry fandom for the escapism, whether it's to show themselves for what they feel they are or want to be or to act out something far from their every-day life, many use it to lighten their day.

Back to anthropomorphics, you could explore what is visually pleasing about it. What isn't even. At what point does a stylised animal face or a thing with human characteristics become disturbing to the audience?

I hope you're not indecisive.


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## Anamenti (Jan 12, 2008)

thankyou both very much! *purrs* It's helpfull to have outside thoughts on this incase it becomes to internal, and I do want it to be more about how it is with other people, and both of your ideas are going to help with this a lot... *Grin* In fact I don't know where to start, thankyou it's allways better to have more ideas than too few (Well not idea's so much but the expansion of them, extra direction from my initial thought - As an art teacher at my last collage said, in an art school finding ideas is not the hard bit, but finding the direction to make those ideas into something usefull is!).
Once my project is more underway maybe I'll submit some of it up onto FA!

>Note to self, must learn not to waffle, it's not good on forums and it ain't good in essays!


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## WolfeByte (Jan 15, 2008)

Anamenti said:
			
		

> It's helpfull to have outside thoughts on this incase it becomes to internal, and I do want it to be more about how it is with other people, and both of your ideas are going to help with this a lot...



If you're developing a sort of 'artists statement' to allow you to incorporate furry themes into your work, then you really want to keep most of it personal, and merely use the rest of it that doesn't apply to you as context to relate your work to the rest of humanity/the world.  Having too much of an external slant to your ideas is generally taken as meaning you're not being open about things, or working for the wrong reasons, or otherwise producing work that's not as authentically an expression of yourself as it could/should be.  At least in the fine art setting.  If your doing mostly illustrational stuff or whatnot, then you're all good.  It's generally a fore drawn conclusion that illustrators will create work for others, rather than for self-expression.


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