Creators of Intense Art
Encyclopedia
- This article details the artscene group, Cia. For information regarding the warezWarezWarez refers primarily to copyrighted works distributed without fees or royalties, and may be traded, in general violation of copyright law. The term generally refers to unauthorized releases by organized groups, as opposed to file sharing between friends or large groups of people with similar...
group CiA see List of warez groups
Creators of Intense Art, or Cia was an underground computer artscene group that primarily released ANSI
ANSI art
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
, ASCII
ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
, and high resolution
Image resolution
Image resolution is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail....
artwork from 1993 to 2001. Along with iCE
ICE Advertisements
iCE Advertisements is a digital art group formed in 1991. Although the expanded title is rarely ever used, iCE is an acronym for Insane Creators Enterprise...
and ACiD
ACiD Productions
ACiD Productions is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development...
, Cia was one of the most active, and longest lasting groups on the artscene.
History
Creators of Intense Art was founded during the summer of 1993 by a collective of ansi artistsANSI art
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
and demo coders
Demo (computer programming)
A demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling...
. Like other artscene groups at the time, members communicated primarily through the use of dial up bulletin board systems. The senior staff positions constantly changed hands during Cia's eight year run, and it was ansi artist
ANSI art
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
Andrew Bell, under the pseudonym of Napalm, that kept the group on track . Though Napalm drifted in and out of the "president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
" position, he was always recognized as the head of Cia.
Not unlike the rivalry between iCE
ICE Advertisements
iCE Advertisements is a digital art group formed in 1991. Although the expanded title is rarely ever used, iCE is an acronym for Insane Creators Enterprise...
and ACiD
ACiD Productions
ACiD Productions is a digital art group. Founded in 1990, the group originally specialized in ANSI artwork for BBSes. More recently, they have extended their reach into other graphical media and computer software development...
, there was highly visible competition between Cia and the members of artscene group Blade
Blade (Artscene group)
Blade, also referred to as The Blade Nation, was an underground computer artscene group that primarily released ANSI, ASCII, and high resolution artwork from 1994 to 1997, and during a brief time in 1998.- History :...
.
The 21st century was met with declining interest among Cia members, and the underground computer artscene in general. In early 2001, Napalm quietly disbanded Cia and its members pursued other artistic projects.
Releases
Cia members were responsible for works of literature, artwork, music, and software. Content was released monthly in the form of an artpackArtpack
An artpack is an archive of computer artwork which is distributed in a compressed format such as ZIP or RAR.While most artpacks today contain either ANSI and ASCII art or hirez VGA, they may also include a combination of RIPscrip art, tracked or otherwise digital music, poetry and editorials, 3D...
, referred to as a "conspiracy". 77 conspiracies
Artpack
An artpack is an archive of computer artwork which is distributed in a compressed format such as ZIP or RAR.While most artpacks today contain either ANSI and ASCII art or hirez VGA, they may also include a combination of RIPscrip art, tracked or otherwise digital music, poetry and editorials, 3D...
were released by Cia, with 72 currently available for download on the internet. Conspiracies were packaged with zip
ZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
compression and included a monthly memberlist and newsletter.
Beginning with the 73rd release, conspiracies consisted strictly of high resolution artwork, and included html
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
files with the artwork embedded.
ConspiraciesArtpackAn artpack is an archive of computer artwork which is distributed in a compressed format such as ZIP or RAR.While most artpacks today contain either ANSI and ASCII art or hirez VGA, they may also include a combination of RIPscrip art, tracked or otherwise digital music, poetry and editorials, 3D...
- Cia Conspiracy #05 (earliest available online)
- Cia Conspiracy #50 Disk A
- Cia Conspiracy #50 Disk B
- Cia Conspiracy #50 Disk C
- Cia Conspiracy #73 (first release in htmlHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
format) - Cia Conspiracy #77 (final release)
Image viewerImage viewerAn image viewer or image browser is a computer program that can display stored graphical image; it can often handle various graphics file formats...
- Wiretap, a DOSDOSDOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
mode multi format viewer.
Image editor
- Ciadraw, a DOSDOSDOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
mode ANSIANSI artANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
, ASCIIASCII artASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
and ADF editor.
External links
- Dark Domain The ACiD Artpacks Archive on DVD (ISBN 0-9746537-0-5), contains all available Cia Conspiracies.
- The unofficial Creators of Intense Art beanie (Warning: Very mild adult content)