Talk:H. R. Giger

Copyright problem removed

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The book summary that appears here http://www.abebooks.com/HR-Giger-Arh-H.R-Hans-Ruedi/1266738116/bd and elsewhere may be taken from the article, but it looks like it may predate it, in which case the article has plagiarized from that too. Including the quirky punctuation. Google Books will not show me the book so I can't check. I have found some other sources, pruned back some specifics taht I could not find sources for, and sourced what was left to the book, but if it is from the summary rather than the summary from the article, it needs more rewriting and very much preferably for someone to source it properly to the book. Yngvadottir (talk) 17:57, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

External link cruft

GRuban: I had the opportunity to check most of the external links that keep reappearing, and most are of little value. I didn't remove them, but I couldn't find a reason to add any of them back into the article. Could you pick the one most defensible link that was removed and explain it's utility? - JeffJonez (talk) 15:54, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, one is the official site of his publisher dedicated to his work. It's not full of information about him, but gives examples of his work from the official source. Surely for an article about an artist that's valuable. Another is an interview with him personally, showing his personality, and describing his process creating his work in his own words, in a way that anyone else's words loses. If we had twenty interviews, we could pick and choose, but this is the only one linked. Or, if you want rules chapter and verse, those are things we should keep per WP:ELYES. --GRuban (talk) 18:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm the editor who initially reduced the links to only his official website. I believe that's more than sufficient for this article. Wikipedia guidelines do seem to allow for the inclusion of the others, although I've stated on my talk page, that I think they would better serve as references for new material for the article.TheRingess (talk) 20:09, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

With that said, I've gone ahead and added the imdb template to the EL section. That link seems pretty typical for an article about someone in the entertainment industry.TheRingess (talk) 20:33, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Cloudbuster

Occasionally someone adds the information that Giger designed the "Cloudbuster" from Kate Bush's music video Cloudbusting. However, this is not correct. In this video Kate Bush says "we worked with some designers who worked on the Alien". This is probably where the misinformation originated, since someone apparently thought that HR Giger is meant here. The Cloudbuster was built by Ken Hill though. In an article from the Daily Mail, it says "The machine was based on a description in Peter Reich's book and Kate Bush herself is credited with the design. She was aided in the design and construction by Ken Hill, a member of the design team from the film Alien. The creatures in Alien were based on designs by the Swiss artist HR Giger, whose influence on the Cloudbuster is quite evident." So Giger did not have an active role in designing or building the Cloudbuster. --Darkday (talk) 23:30, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

Fair enough... thanks! - JeffJonez (talk) 01:37, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Other works

This section lists Giger as directing "Alien", this wrong, Ridley Scott directed Alien, Giger did production design and concept work for the movie. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.114.236.27 (talk) 03:53, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

No, the article says that Giger directed Giger's Alien, and that is correct. Giger's Alien is a documentary, see here. --Darkday (talk) 19:28, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

Is that a reference to this? http://cinearchive.org/post/80307100127/h-r-gigers-necronomicon-and-the-making-of If so I believe that the attribution isn't quite correct; listing both the Necronomicon and Alien as separate films. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.156.6.25 (talk) 20:44, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

Giger's Necronomicon and Giger's Alien are two separate films. The article you mentioned has it wrong. --Darkday (talk) 22:17, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

The video game, Ecco The Dolphin features aliens that are clearly inspired by Giger's work. You do not fully notice until the later part of the game (and its a tough game), but the inspiration is their.

Photo

This is the scariest photo I've ever seen, really. --abubious —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abubious (talk • contribs) 22:42, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Incorrect Information

Regarding the controversy over Giger's work in the Dead Kennedys album: Boucher faced criminal trials, not a lawsuit; and the Giger work was licensed to the band, not a work created for the album.76.118.229.114 (talk) 01:34, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Prometheus

Giger isn't listed on IMDB for this movie. 76.14.67.159 (talk) 18:36, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Separation Ambiguity

The current article seems ambiguous with the following:

"Giger had a relationship with Swiss actress Li Tobler until she committed suicide in 1975; they separated a year and a half later."

I know that this is Giger we are talking about - but does it really mean to say that they separated a year and a half after her suicide? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Awarua (talk • contribs) 18:12, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Biomechanical movement

I believe 'biomechanical' should be listed as a movement in the infobox. It has its own page (Biomechanical_art) and Giger arguably started this movement. Chockyegg (talk) 16:54, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

SFF Hall of Fame

Giger has been named to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame (whose original name has been restored online).[1]

That notice implies five members to be named daily Mon-Fri. Perhaps there will be some comprehensive press release Friday or next week. --P64 (talk) 19:22, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Three months later there has been no more comprehensive coverage by the museum or by outside sources that seemed likely to me. Revising this article hours ago, I added the bare fact of 2013 hall-of-famerdom ;–) with official ref. —in the lead, beside the Academy Award to his group, because there is no other prose coverage of recognition

--P64 (talk) 23:42, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Hansruedi Giger

The authorities including US (LCCN) and the German (GND) national libraries name him Hansruedi Giger rather than Hans Rudolf primarily.

--P64 (talk) 00:20, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

In all varieties of German, Hans is short for Johannes, the equivalent of John in English. Ruedi is short for standard German Rudolf, the equivalent of Rudy in American English, but only in Swiss German. In standard German, the short form would be Rudi. The compounds Hans-Ruedi and Hans-Rudolf are fairly common throughout German-speaking Switzerland (e.g. Hans-Rudolf Merz) but they rarely ever appear without the hyphen. In addition, and contrary to what the article's lead suggests, Ruedi is not generally felt to be short for Hans-Ruedi at all. The correct form of the name would therefore be either 'Hans-Ruedi Giger' or 'Hans-Rudolf Giger'. I don't have sources for any of the above, but I'm sure every other native speaker of Swiss German would bear me out. Judging from Giger's work, I'd expect that he would have preferred the more distant, less folksy 'Hans-Rudolf', but that's mere conjecture. ARK (talk) 00:05, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Okay, here's a Swiss newspaper stating explicitly (in German) that Giger's passport read 'Hans Rudolf' (no hyphen). ARK (talk) 00:35, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Surrealist?

The article's lead calls Giger a surrealist; yet in the infobox, 'surrealism' does not appear in the list headed 'Movement':

Science fiction, fantasy, occult, macabre

Normally, I'd go right ahead (as per WP:BOLD) and simply add it there. However, I'm not convinced the label applies, for the following reasons:

1. Nothing about those of his works I remember seeing actually remind me of the fluidity and plasticity that I – rightly or wrongly, largely conditioned by Salvador Dali's works – expect in a surrealist work; and
2. The article's assertion that "His main influences were painters Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dali" is poorly sourced, I believe. Does the cited source support it? I can't tell, since (a) the reference occurs only at the end of a paragraph containing many distinct statements – all of which need sourcing – and (b) I don't have a copy of the Taschen reference to hand.
   
   To answer the question: Is Hansruedi Giger a surrealist? definitively, the article needs a reference to a secondary source. —yoyo (talk) 10:11, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

Death

The article claims "[...] and fell down some stairs", however, the cited source doesn't mention stairs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.50.99.116 (talk) 09:21, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Primary sources

If a primary source is given, it is policy to accept it so long as the work itself mentions the subject without need of interpretation, see WP:PRIMARY. If a Primary source or the article it links to doesn't mention Giger the source can be challenged as unverified. Otherwise AGF, a link or ref to a primary source is sufficient, read WP:PRIMARY: "Policy: Unless restricted by another policy, primary sources that have been reliably published may be used in Wikipedia; but only with care, because it is easy to misuse them. Any interpretation of primary source material requires a reliable secondary source for that interpretation. A primary source may only be used on Wikipedia to make straightforward, descriptive statements of facts that can be verified by any educated person with access to the primary source but without further, specialized knowledge." μηδείς (talk) 04:25, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

H.R. Giger's Sanctuary

I have removed all references to this short non-notable "documentary". It's nothing more then an interview with Giger and a short tour of his museum. There is really nothing notable about and nothing that sets it apart from any other documentary about Giger. Not sure how this remained and was moved around the article being tacked into various sections where it made no sense for 6 years. 67.8.42.4 (talk) 00:26, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

Better Images?

This is a request, if it is possible, to please have a better representative sample of Giger's work. The images of statues are fairly average. He has so many world-famous iconic pieces. Surely a reproduction from a newspaper or something like that could accurately show why he is famous in a visual way. 49.183.48.133 (talk) 09:57, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

Do you have a specific piece that you have in mind? Have you personally taken any photos of his work that you can share with us? Centerone (talk) 02:26, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Art therapy

Giger studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich... and made his first paintings as a means of art therapy.

What does this mean? Was he needing the therapy himself? Valetude (talk) 13:26, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Cause of death in infobox

The infobox states his cause of death as 'falling.' While he did die from injures from the fall, it seems awkward to say that he died of falling in and of itself. Am I just being pedantic? Bigmoe797 (talk) 16:15, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

It seems like a legitimate problem to highlight. Any ideas on what else we'd put there? I guess "complications from falling" would be more appropriate, but it's also a bit verbose. Or I guess we could just remove the parameter. NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 23:11, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

I think "complications from falling" works and isn't too verbose, in my opinion. And I think we should keep it, considering the sudden/noteworthy nature of his death, people will probably want to see that somewhere easily noticeable. Bigmoe797 (talk) 00:18, 17 December 2016 (UTC)

it's been a while and nobody else has made any suggestions, so I guess we can just go with "complications from falling". NinjaRobotPirate (talk) 09:25, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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Joel Vandroogenbroeck Biomechanoïd

Joel Vandroogenbroeck's 1980 album of library music 'Biomechanoïd' has artwork by Giger. See https://www.discogs.com/Joel-Vandroogenbroeck-Biomechanoïd/release/1312621 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C4:3D84:D900:919C:3DE9:D1DD:452 (talk) 19:26, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Tormentum and Scorn

I don't think it's very responsible to list the Tormentum games and Scorn alongside works that Giger himself actually worked on, though I do think that they should be mentioned somewhere on the page. Perhaps there should be a "Legacy" section for listing works that he influenced. As a phenomenally popular artist with a striking and iconic style, there will only be more such works as time goes on, and it doesn't seem like a good idea to just keep sneaking them onto the list of his works, with a description explaining that he had nothing to do with the project / it was made entirely after his death. 2605:1100:3E11:0:85AE:7ED6:8508:3184 (talk) 03:42, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

 Done; I've removed both. If the article listed every artist who was influenced by Giger, it'd be a (figurative) mile long. Omphalographer (talk) 04:59, 25 October 2023 (UTC)