The Kitschiker's Guide to the Galaxy

two years on

2007-05-09T22:25:00.001+08:00

This blog is retired! Why are you reading this?
Anyway, if you need to know, we got gold for our category in the Research Congress finals. (:

You wouldn't believe me if I kicked you

2005-09-21T22:39:00.000+08:00

And that's because we're in RE Congress Finals. Are you serious? Daniel Peck describes us as "the most endearing group of the lot with the most character". Sweet. I guess we'll try to wow whoever we're trying to wow as much as possible. Ah well, see you in the finals.

Generic Titles for Generic Days

2005-09-20T00:33:00.000+08:00

Thanks Bensen for giving the impression that this blog is active. Anyway, after a long time, I post again. Oh, and the definition Bensen posted on Wikipedia is off! Well... Read talk page plese. Oh nevermind.
Anyway, we had our RE Congress semifinals presentation yesterday, and it went rather okay. By my standards anyway. We went horribly overtime, but apparently the teacher's enjoyed it or something. They were, in the least, amused. I hope they weren't thinking "how did this group get into the SF" or something like that.
Anyway, we had really weird questions. Mr Court: "Should gnomes be illegal?". Haha yeah, I don't expect you'll see us in the finals, but yeah.

a Stroke of Luck and a Rock

2005-09-16T19:46:00.000+08:00

rock solid definition that is!

although our concrete definition of kitsch has been finished for more than a month now, we are only going to put it up NOW. why is this? you ask. now that our definition has been previewed by certain members of the intelligentsia, and there has been no scathing remarks made against our work and no troublesome flaws that are immediately noticeable, we believe that it is now ready to be shown to an impressionable (and mostly ignorant) public!

Behold!
The Definition of Kitsch

The criteria of kitsch are as such. Firstly, it has to be done in bad taste. Now, even as the definition just begins, we are faced with a perplexing dilemma. Who decides what ‘bad taste’ is and how? If it were to be based on the opinions of individuals, the concept of kitsch would remain as fluid and indistinguishable as ever, thus removing the value of our definition.

The second characteristic of kitsch is that it has to be an imitation. It is unoriginal, and lacks creativity or imagination. It is reproduced in mass numbers shamelessly. This criteria is easily understood and completely objective. The third and final aspect that something must have to qualify as kitsch is that it has to have been fashionable once before. Emphasis is on the word ‘before’. While eons ago, the majority of the people may have enjoyed such a form of art or culture or concept, that time is now past. In this sense, kitsch is very much unlike cheese (although they are rather similar phonetically), it does not get better with age. Kitsch is more like milk gone bad.

The majority that has to decide what is ‘bad taste’ and what is ‘fashionable’ is the educated public or intelligentsia. Kitsch, as an intangible part of culture, should definitely be defined by the majority in a society. The problem here is that kitsch cannot be kitsch unless there is a group of people who like it to the extent that they imitate and reproduce them. How then, can we decide the majority? The answer is to value the opinion of the educated masses more. These people are more enlightened and thus more capable of recognizing bad taste.

Still this definition does not exactly fix kitsch completely. It is still rather fluid in the sense that the opinion of the educated majority can change over time, and it is completely possible that something that was once kitsch can become fashionable again, but at any one time in society, kitsch will always have just one individual definition.

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Still, this blog is not as famous and well-hit as we should wish. Thus, to spread our love for wisdom further, we have even ventured to put our definition up on an acclaimed online encyclopedia for the inspection of the world at large! it has now been 10 minutes and our work has not been booted off the encyclopedia, and thus do we wait here, with the greatest of all treasures that is hope squatting in our hearts, niggling at our ambitions and flattering our egos.

check it out here! : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch
It is the section entitled

Extensive Definition of Kitsch and What it Entails

hopefully, it is still there when you read this, and hopefully, it will be there always. haha.
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I have yet to explain what the stroke of luck is! well, it is actually TWO strokes of luck.

First: Our RE group has advanced into the semi finals of RE Congress.

Second: We have had the opportunity to work on our Kitsch Film. it has progressed fairly well, which is much more than we had expected. Hooray! Kudos to our film editing professionals Kang wei and Kinkit!
We have been inspired to name our film 99% Love.
This has alot to do with the subject matter of the film, and the basic meaning of this is the irony that one immediately sees when we attach a numerical value to an abstract concept like Love. However, more importantly, the Title is rather Kitschy and there are other titles like that out there. Take for example the japanese mangga Strawberry 100%. haha.

If you see us at the semifinals, you will be able to watch a portion of this film. if not, too bad. Unless we actually make it to the finals itself! haha. but we have our fingers crossed.

at the moment, we are hard at work with our powerpoint presentation... it is rather boring working on it. we have an aversion to ppt. but we dont really have a choice. we have to squeeze our 30 minute presentation into 8 minutes. take away the 1.30min clip we intend to screen, we have slightly more than 6 minutes to cover 30 minutes of material. looks like we are going to have to cut out some stuff. which is always difficult. what to cut and what not to cut? hahaha.

we require tempus magis....

a little nothing goes a long way

2005-08-23T21:02:00.000+08:00

Shawn: When shall we three meet again? In Thunder, Lightning or in Rain?

Bensen: There are four of us!

ZY: When the RE report is done, when the presentations lost and won

Shawn, Zy, Ryan: Foul is fair, and Fair is Foul

Shawn: Sleep shall neither night nor day, Hang upon this pent-house lid. Till the report's done and presentation's heed

Ryan: A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep

ZY: What! Can the devil speak true?

Bensen: Come what come may, time and hour runs through the roughest day

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As you can see, about 7 months of dabbling in kitschcraft has made us all really witchy -- i mean kitschy. There are many things to be done tonight, so let us keep focus and not lose sight!

First before else, we must apologise for the immense lack of attention that we paid to this blog over the course of our study of kitsch. Alas, things more intriguing had taken our attention captive! left at the mercies of our passions, we couldst not help but leave this blog in the dust, forgotten.

But not for long! For came back we did! Late, though our realisation comes, it is never too late to live and learn, as my gaffer used to proclaim. Now that we have returneth to this fondest of places, we shall learn double fast and use it to its utmost potential. Here, we have our cyber herald. and two announcements to go with it as well!

ANNOUNCEMENT ONE
Our (the said 'our' being of reference to a Research Education Group in Raffles Institution comprising Shawn Chua, Zhuoyi, Ryan David Lim and Bensen Koh) Report ( the said 'report' being a term used in the social circles of Raffles Institution to describe the Final Product of an RE group in the physical form of a written or typed scientific or artistic journal, within which is detailed everything that occured throughout the course of the project) is Done! (The word 'done' here used to refer to the state of being in which perfection has been attained and no further edition is required)
be happy for us!

ANNOUNCEMENT TWO
Due to unforeseen delays involving certain complications regarding issues of time, excess of which was absorbed by other groups, thus leaving us in great want of it, has resulted in our presentation being rescheduled to a later date. (This friday)

watch this space for more updates! all ye who wish to become enlightened in the faculties of kitsch. patience is a virtue.

Dead.

2005-03-13T22:42:00.000+08:00

Our RE blog is now officially dead. We've postpone Goth Night and I do believe we are not on schedule.

A Man Named Knight

2005-02-24T00:03:00.000+08:00

There once was a man naméd "Knight"
Who fell once a day every night
He enduréd the angst
But alas he but canst
T'was the last of the man we called "Knight"

There once was a poet unrivaled
In poems he wrote named "Untitled"
He peppered his "dark"s
And drew acrid remarks
For his poems on love unrequited.

Hold your horses!

2005-02-23T23:11:00.000+08:00

Someday I'll fly away!!!
Ah, it's good to be online after three days of absence from the net. Anyway, Bensen, why are we three the only ones posting on this blog? Nevermind.
I think you mean "hardest to translate" don't you? That was what I got from the article (or maybe I'm dazed now, kindly direct me to your source[s]).
Is kitsch art? Then again, philosophically speaking, what is art? That aside, can we consider kitsch art? Or is it mere degredation of art - derivatives, maybe?
Also, I think that kitsch arises from subculture phenomenon - that's where all the goth, fangirls/boys, fanfics come from, and that's how all these subcultures become kitsch - or at least, things associated with them are viewed as kitschy. What say you?
Then again, as Ms Johnson has pointed out, that kitsch, most of the time, is anachronistic. I have inclinations to think that it may not have to have been fashionable... Or does it necessarily?

Kitsch Definition

2005-02-21T22:30:00.000+08:00

Ok, we have been working on defining Kitsch. It is difficult. This is what we have so far. One day, it will develop into a wonderful essay.

Why kitsch? But before we can answer that question, another one presents itself. What is kitsch? This seldom-encountered word with its simple one-syllable structure and too-many-consonants. Just like its namesake, kitsch is something that most people do not exactly understand, and yet also something that we have all encountered deep in our subconscious. An innate feeling that we recognize easily, but have difficulty expressing. It has been defined as “the absolute denial of shit”. This definition is very concise, but does not give us any deeper understanding. Indeed, 'kitsch' is a word that is very difficult to describe in words. It has been voted as one of the 'hardest words to define'. But let us strive to define it anyway, or at least die in the attempt.
The first criteria of kitsch is that it has to be done in bad taste. The second would be that it has to be an imitation of something that was once fashionable. So what can we consider as kitsch? Design, poetry, prose, fashion, culture, etc. can all be kitsch. But what about other things that are not art-based? For example, can a concept be kitsch?

Damn you, Sweden!

2005-02-19T12:48:00.000+08:00

Kitsch is usually era-based, so something like this might classify as kitsch.

Also people who try to be cute are usually kitsch also. (Last link contains implied pornography, but all the pornography is fake.) And who could refuse some extra oomph?

Ciaozz~

P.S. Goth Night howw??? Good job Bensen.

GOTH KNIGHT

2005-02-13T23:23:00.000+08:00

GOTH NIGHT!
POETRY 101!
ACHTUNG BABY!

UPDATE!

2005-02-13T00:30:00.000+08:00

SHAWN CHUA! PLEASE BLOG AND UPDATE US ABOUT THE MEETING ON FRIDAY!

So many links,

2005-02-13T00:22:00.000+08:00

So little time.

Sample Blog Titles

2005-02-12T11:27:00.000+08:00

We have been assigned the task to do l33t blogsurfing! First area to investigate - blog URLs and blog titles! I have uncovered the following. Apologies to anyone I offend, Bensen/Cheng/Shawn/Ryan may be less liberal in doling out apologies though.

Revelations. / goodbye / everyday should be like this / winds of change / random thoughts / Iron Sharpeneth Iron / Thoughts on life... / stop pretending nothing is wrong / my ramblings / exquisitee (sic) phenomenon / Bohemian Garden / ~Welcome to my world~ / The Lost Memories / For A While... / Consciously Dreaming / Welcome To My Life / one last / pages / vague/rant / An (sic) Secret Place / The Ambiguity in Me / Taste The Rainbow / inside my mind

Okay, I've had enough, I'm feeling nauseous.

Obvious Emasculations.

2005-02-12T11:10:00.000+08:00

Lo childs.
Our first assignment of the year is thus to:

1. Write some miasmic poetry. Please try and insert some sort of general idea into your poems, such that it is actually dramatis-able.
2. Go blogsurfing and identify all the bloggers who write miasmic poetry. For those who don't know what miasmic poetry is, try this. If you can, try and adapt their poetry, or, better yet, invite them to our Goth Night, which is to be held very very soon.

Could we have a night of sheer communist propaganda too? Another look at communist merchandise. Lovely people at wellcoolstuff. My favourite:

At least we tried.

2005-02-12T00:52:00.000+08:00

Today (fine, yesterday) we had our first and only unofficial RE meeting one! All hail! Anyway, we were trying to come up with definitions for kitsch, and raised some issues.
Anyway, our initial definitions included
- "[T]he absolute denial of shit" as said by Milan Kundera and
- Art produced and reproduced (relentlessly?) in bad taste
We tried to challenge this, to no avail because we were distracted, though we came up with two questions?
- Does cliche not equal kitsch?
- Does tradition not equal kitsch?
Comments?

powerdei

2005-02-10T22:05:00.000+08:00

Hey all, i noticed that zy hasnt given u guys the powerdei link. hahaha. the truth shall set u free! See it for yourself!

http://www.gluck.net/jesus/

Indeed. Be amazed. Be surprised. Be shocked. Be indignant.
Or Be a-little-indifferent-and-a-little-uninterested-but-mostly-bored.

on a side note, i have submitted the koskterclub website to losers.org We hope to secure a place on their wonderful website. Wish us luck!

Then again.

2005-02-10T21:50:00.000+08:00

I'm retracting what I said about 5 minutes ago of how Hippies Wav tops the chart for most kitsch webpage today. If you'd get your browser to load Mew's Webpage (I found this on Losers.org) you'd realise that words do not describe just how awfully horrible this page is.

Cyberkitsch - it's a start

2005-02-10T21:27:00.000+08:00

Bensen has been doing research on cyberkitsch, but is too lazy to blog, so I'm helping him blog.
As we all know, our journey of cyberkitsch started at our discovery of this page at Walled City expounding on the grotesqueries of cyberkitsch, which brought up the all too familiar cursed sites (see the page for details) by pre-1998 netizens.
Bensen's first find was something religiously unnerving, practically blasphemous, and totally scary, I shall not post it here. Ask him for the link to see the (I quote him) "wonders of american faith".
design. rants about the bad, the worse and the ugly of web-design. Though not awfully pleasing to the eye, the site's a good read, so take a look.
Next he uncovered this site on (surprise, surprise) kangraoos. Kitschy, indeed - the standard websafe, gaudy colours adorn the page, but this one mercifully scrimps on the animated GIFs.
Next was Monkey Kung Fu, the name enough to make you shiver. Two fonts on the page was bad enough, colours in 16-bit, and an awful marquee. Enough said, I didn't scroll through half the page before I left for my bath.
When I returned to the conversation, Bensen discovered that we were not the first to explore this - though I figured that a while ago - and neither would we be the last! Losers.org - Losers on the Internet, has this section on design. Nicely done, they rate 'em losers on a scale of 1L to 5L, though the site is a bit liberal in it's dosage of capitals. Find some really bad web-design here, they have other sections for other groups of losers - groupies, goths, wannabes and so on.
This page topped the charts today. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Anyway, that's all for now, until I/we can be bothered to search some more, you'll have to survive, or at least try to, with what I leave with you now.

Boring Admin Stuff

2005-02-08T23:58:00.000+08:00

Hi All.
1) I'm gonna change the blog layout soon, and it's going to be orange. If anyone has violent disagreements with orange, please tell me and I'll change it to blue instead.
2) I'm thinking of licensing this blog under Creative Commons, specifically, under this licence. So far, Shawn, Ryan and Chengyi have agreed. I need Bensen's agreement so tell me on MSN.
3) And I think we need to meet up soon (Friday?) to actually get our project started proper. How thinks?
4) Do we need a tagboard?
Oh of course, a happy Lunar New Year to all.

Non-update.

2005-02-08T22:10:00.000+08:00

This Monday's RE was eventful - about as eventful as a balloon filled with helium. First up, Bensen was at Farrer Park, at some tennis match (at least they won), and Ryan was sick (bless him). So only Shawn and I were left during RE, though Ms. Johnson was strangely absent. ^^

No way d00ds

2005-02-07T19:32:00.000+08:00

d00ds, d!$ l4y0U+ iZ soOo n0+ K!+ScH. liK3, iT n33ds sUm+h!nG uB3R l33tz. f0R X4mPL3, leets sp34kz oR www.koksterclub.blogspot.com

Agenda.

2005-02-07T00:29:00.000+08:00

1. Organise Dark Evening of Miasmic Poetry.
a) Write Miasmic Poetry
b) Get Costumes
c) Send Invitations
e) Let's have it very soon.
2. Get some proof of Chinese New Kitsch.
a) ph3wlzz. We have 1 day to do this, if we're doing this at all.
3. Use this blog as an RE log too. Rampant Liaison Cheng. Hmmmm.

Hello World!

2005-02-07T00:13:00.000+08:00

Filth ridden dreams haunt my tormented mind.
Tears of blood stream down the restless ravages of my soul.
In your sweet, sweet embrace.

Okay, Goth and bad Blogger layouts aside, welcome to our brand-spanking new RE blog! Kitsch, as you might not have known, is the art of making art so bad that people actually think it's good. More suitably phrased, it, in the words of Milan Kundera, "is the absolute denial of shit".