My Obsession with Signatures
Introduction
For a few years, I have been obsessed with something I can only refer as "signatures". Perphaps the right term is "platonic form" as someone once suggested to me on Agora Road, but I am still going to refer to this concept as signatures.
So I am not sure how to describe what exactly a signature is. I can show you the following example:
Both image depicts what I refer as the "bog standard medieval knight helmet". They unquestionably depict the same subject. I am obsessed with that sort of thing.
First Encounter
I believe that my first real encounter with the concept of signatures was when I first started playing RuneScape as a kid. In the years following me trying that game, I was constantly trying to replicate the signatures I observed into my own game. I was in particular obsessed with signatures related to mining and smithing.
To this day, RuneScape and its signatures still lives rent-free in my head. RuneScape just scream "generic RPG" to me and I absolutely adore that. This game feels like it was the first RPG ever made and that everything else is based on it - though it is obviously not the case.
Documentation Desire
I have an extreme longing to document what I call "generic signatures". While most things can be argued to be a signature, I am most interested in repeating pattern. For reasons I can't explain, those signatures feel more "pure" than the others - more "honest". It's like they are part of the same "cultural narrative" a sort of manifestation of collective unconscious of various artists.
Although most things should contain signatures, the following subjects seem to have an extremely large selection of signatures:
- RuneScape
- Club Penguin
- LEGO sets
- Smurfs toys
Truth to be told, I am not sure what those things have in common. I assume it has something to do with them being an idea that is constantly built upon or something.
I have tried cataloging signatures in the past. As one might expect, documenting what is essentially a list of concepts used in visual arts is no easy task. My efforts never went anywhere. Even if I were to produce a master list of signatures, I m not sure what I would do with this information.
Current Plans
I recently noticed that simply thinking about signatures give me an extreme feeling of euphoria. It feels like someone just injected me with something. I believe this what people refer as "seratonin" - the chemical that happens in your brain when you fall in love. As to why it happens to me while thinking about abstract art concept, I have no idea. I am not a very religious person, but the mere thoughts of signatures feel like something divine calling to me.
After some introspection, I discovered that I had an intense longing to share my thoughts on signatures specifically. I was historically under the assumption that I needed to communicate through a large project (i.e a game), but I think that simply writing blog entries will do.
I am fully aware that I am likely the only person on this planet who as this hyper-specific exception. I do expect people to even understand this very blog entry. But that's fine, because I don't care. The very process of writing about signature is the means by which I intent to maintain my sanity and that's the only thing that matters.
Written by manpaint on 11 March 2025.