Mr. Holland's Opus, and synesthesia.

[jerichothebard]

What about a (non-evil) telepathic race, whose art is captured dreams? Dreams are so powerful, with such possibility for both beauty and truth, and horror and pain. The artists of their culture would be those that could remember or project their dreams.

There is a great short story in William Gibson's Burning Chrome that is related to this idea - it predicts a future technological development that allows for the capture of dream-state on tape, which can then be edited and replayed...

 

[takyris]

If you have access to a largish library, check out videos of deaf poetry -- they use more expressive motions than they ordinarily would, and many of their motions blur the lines between two different signs, just like plays upon words or metaphors in spoken language. What most interested me when I saw some deaf poetry performed, after taking about two years of ASL, was how utterly out of my element I was. Some people were nodding and others seemed genuinely moved, and I was sitting there going, "Wait, wait, I know that sign! Shoot, okay, now he's doing some weird pecking-bird thing. Is that a sign? Crud."

So beauty is definitely going to be in the eye of the beholder -- and what a randomly wonderful idea that would be: the most beautiful art ever created, but you can't appreciate it unless you have 360-degree vision and the ability to float about thirty feet off the ground...

 

[RangerWickett]

If you have access to a largish library, check out videos of deaf poetry

I saw a def poetry jam once. It was cool.

 

[Vrylakos]

Ooh . . . a species that only exists on internet messageboards. Hmmm......

For a good while, I've been brainstorming a short story about dealing with all the weird spam email people get, the stuff that has a subject line like "Good stuff excffgh"

Where does that stuff come from? Is it some alien race trying to communicate with us via what it sees as the most dominant form of communication, clumsily learning our language through spam, then spamming us some more? Or is it a race evolving here on earth?

Vrylakos

 

[jerichothebard]

For a good while, I've been brainstorming a short story about dealing with all the weird spam email people get, the stuff that has a subject line like "Good stuff excffgh"

Where does that stuff come from? Is it some alien race trying to communicate with us via what it sees as the most dominant form of communication, clumsily learning our language through spam, then spamming us some more? Or is it a race evolving here on earth?

Vrylakos

I think I saw a project recently where people were making poetry out of spam titles... you might try looking it up on google...

 

[The Sigil]

Ooh . . . a species that only exists on internet messageboards. Hmmm......

That would be... Crothain.

--The Sigil

 

[Zappo]

What about a race that has detect evil always active? What kind of art could they invent?

...I'm not sure I want to think about it.

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm glad I stumbled upon this old thread. I think I'm going to use that last idea. It's truly fiendish.

Truly.