this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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By "unconventional" I mean something other than classical visual or audio arts like painting, sculpture, music, etc.

I've never been a very "artistic" person. But when I took my first programming class, I worked on my code like it was a sculpture. I found beauty in making my code clean, efficient, easy to read, and user-friendly. It still seems weird and affectatious to say, and I wasn't really expecting that kind of experience from that class! It was one of the only times I ever felt "artistic."

But why not? Any medium can be artful.

What's your non-traditional art?

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[–] HatchetHaro@pawb.social 1 points 8 hours ago

blueprint work in unreal engine.

i simultaneously love making a big fuckin mess of the nodes like it's a wall of modular synths and cleaning it up into neat blocks.

[–] JPSound@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

I build cables and it's truly an art for me. My custom cables are used on many of the biggest movies in the world on the production sound carts the sound mixer uses to record everything. I've also wired full professional camera rigs. I've wired many full cart builds from scratch, meaning every power, RF, timecode, video and analog and digital audio cable in the entire cart was built by my hands. If it connects 2 points, i built it.

I'm going to admit to tooting my own horn here because I've not seen cleaner builds by anyone else. When I begin a build, I plan and visualize the entire setsup and it's organization. It's like a puzzle from the order of operations to the configuration I use based on input from the mixer and gear used. I love it and I approach it as an artist because it truly is. Ive spent many many years learning how to build every single cable you'd ever find on a film set and build them extremely well.

[–] vantablack@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 18 hours ago

DIY fashion design

i get really creative with it

like this

or this

[–] callyral@pawb.social 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
  • Minecraft builds (making houses that would be impossible to build in real life is so wacky)
  • Drawing over photos I took
  • Customizing my Linux system (it's so beautiful)
  • Conlanging (it's been a long time since i've done it, though)
  • Writing random formulas in Desmos Graphing Calculator and trying to make cool stuff with it
[–] meekah@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Ricing is now an art form?

Don't tell that to the FOSS bros

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

I like cooking, and don't use recipes. Drinks, too. I like creating foods and drinks that people love because it's like a gift but they don't have to keep it. I guess it's a traditional art in a way but not always expressed artistically.

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

Lol, my art form is all about the unconventional. I'm a sideshow (and fire) performer. I entertain by fire eating, drilling into my head, cutting my tongue, and more. I especially love oddities shows and sideshow festivals.

[–] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

drilling into my head, cutting my tongue

But like...an illusion, right? 😦

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Nope. It's knowledge of anatomy combined with theatrics and skill. The drill bit goes through my sinus all the way to the back, and I have a forked tongue (just add fake blood)

[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 3 points 22 hours ago

Memes.
And I'm not even ironic, I truly believe that is one of the purest form of arts of our time

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Each Sunday for the last year I've prepared a two hour block of programming accompanied with a fancy breakfast. Basically I'm recreating the Saturday morning cartoons experience for my kid. I have a spreadsheet with over 50 different shows to track where we're at in each one, along with when they were last played so nothing falls out of rotation by accident. I edit them all together next to indie animations (e.g. Bluehilda and Big Top Burger), music videos, those super short animations like RudeJackArt does, random old stuff like school house rock etc.

Sometimes if there's a commercial break built into the cartoon, I'll put something fun in there. I once hid "a Gaudi muaß sein" that video with the tongue flicking choir right in the middle of an episode of the Ruby Spears Mega Man cartoon. Have also used this format to show off certain things like a video game he's getting for his birthday.

All of it rendered locally with openshot from the stuff on my media server. It's one of the best hobbies I've ever had because not only have I been purposely discovering and preserving a lot of great indie art, I'm spending time with my kid, sharing laughs and bits of culture, making the most of the one day of the week we're all off work, and avoiding the time waster streaming outlets where you just watch whatever CGI talking animal shit for all of eternity.

I've never heard of anyone else doing this, and I sometimes wish there was a legally viable and inexpensive way to share it with the world. I've tried sending it to family via sync thing, but they all have trouble with it. Boo.

[–] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Wow, that's really cool! We've been talking about doing something similar with movie clips, making them into a cool flowing playlist.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago

I do wish I was better at it, or at least that I had fancier editing software. Openshot is okay I guess, but the transitions and effects are a little rudimentary. Might just be a skill issue, I'll admit.

[–] Berttheduck@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This sounds like an amazing project and a great way to spend time with your kid. Good for you.

It's been good. It's making for much more focussed, curated, and varied media consumption since its the bulk of all TV we catch during the week. He sees a lot more art and a lot more quality cartoons (not to mention in order) than other kids who just watch whatever the streaming platforms put in front of kids.

Ever since he was very little we've wanted to be thoughtful about what we show him. I really like to mix in old crash course serie as well, and I'm really wanting to hit the media literacy one soon. He already is beginning to understand the problem with ads and in-app purchases in mobile gaming. It's important work to inoculate against all these media vectors so they don't grow up assuming the way things are with modern media is normal or acceptable.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

they all have trouble with it.

Then the next step is to make this user-friendly!

tbh it already is, they're just not into it enough to put in the effort. And that's fine, it's easier to enjoy it as a hobby with an audience of two. But if it was possible to throw it up for everyone without getting sent to a DMCA gulag, I would be happy to do so.

[–] Oberyn@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago
[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Finding nice places to just be. In the city, in nature, where ever but magical places.

The art is already there, but I just find it and let myself be surrounded by it for a while.

[–] pugsnroses77@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

i live in a city now where places like are truly rare. never take it for granted!

[–] Contemporarium@lemm.ee 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Cities have beauty to them too :)

[–] pugsnroses77@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

not mine. its very car dependent and most old walkable neighborhoods were left for dead. its making a comeback but it is a US city that was ruined with urban "renewal"

[–] Contemporarium@lemm.ee 1 points 7 hours ago

Yeah I’ve lived in a few and will say when I lived in Houston I was super disappointed. However I live near Pittsburgh now which is rated as one of the most walkable but I just find it beautiful. Love the architecture/housing of the whole area. I’m originally from the west coast and everything is concrete and beige and uniform which I always found to be super ugly. There’s still a lot of big Victorian houses out here that are super pretty

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Cinematography. The composition of a moving frame.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 10 points 1 day ago

I do not shitpost comments on Lemmy.

I create art.

[–] liverbe@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

I'm a former dancer with no outlet. My PowerPoint presentations are on point! And don't get me started on a good graph! 🤣

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If interior decorators are artists, then so is posing things like parts for photos. Like real world exploded views of things. It's just part of my job to catalogue these things, but might as well make each one pleasing (to myself at least).

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wait

So your job is to disassemble things and take well lit pictures of their parts ?

Where do I apply

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tl:Dr; small business; pictures of shipment components from the lease pool.

I run a very small scientific equipment company where our primary income stream is the lease pool. A lot of the equipment is modular, so before sending the equipment to the customer, we have to assemble and test in whatever configuration is appropriate for their study. We take photos and send them notes on how to use the device as configured. Then we disassemble and take a picture of all the components we're sending, then finally package for safe shipping. This picture is one of the steps in the process of making sure that we get all the components back when we get the equipment back.

Because of the modulatity, it would take a lot of time to individually itemize each shipment, so the picture saves a lot of work. But only if the picture is actually useful and you can see and recognize every component. So there is an art to laying it all out. It feels like laying out Lego components, trying to optimize the view.

I just set a subset of the photo above as my LinkedIn banner because it looks cool (to me). Thus, "art".

We are very small. Aside from myself, I've got a business manager and an electronics technician. As we grow, more will be needed. But I suspect ~10 people is the max we can grow to before our market is saturated and we will always be a small business.

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

That's very interesting

[–] FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is that a ground penetrating radar wheelbarrow?!

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Very cool toys, hadn't seen a one wheeler before

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

It's actually just an odometer wheel that drags behind the unit. You need the antennas to be in contact with the ground for best data. So the instrument isn't exactly balanced on the wheel. But close enough to a wheel barrow for illustrative effect :)

I build high end CB radio setups for people I know, and it's always so satisfying

[–] experbia@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

been a programmer for nearly 25 years now.. i understand what you mean. i find a lot of joy in not just making a program "go", but building it elegantly and efficiently. there are a lot of design guidelines and patterns that make that easier and more predictable, but i always feel there is a lot of value in trusting your sense of aesthetic and building stuff by way of discovery and refinement, sculpting.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I like drawing on chalkboards and have been doing it for an ice cream shop for a while now. It's kind of conventional but the medium isn't so I often find little resources on how to do it when I have to get inventive because they like me drawing their food.

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Our existance is an expression of art. Each of us is an individual being whos experiences in totalitt act as threads weaving together the tapestry of life. Every emotion expressed is paint, every action and consequence the brush.

The universe and everything born from it are machinations of creative whimsy and play. Being alive and choosing to continue your complicated existance is one of the highest forms of divine art.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

CAD for sure. I can pretty-up any substation drawing you throw at me.

[–] GoOnASteamTrain@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I love making editor UI for developer tools at work - way too much care goes into trying to make things pretty and maybe even help us save time if we're lucky! 😅