after another semi-hectic but productive weekend of writing, designing, editing, refining, thinking, reflecting, analyzing, fermenting — just about doing everything but sleeping — i am almost there, nearly done with my thesis for defense at Dynamic Media Institute at Massachusetts College of Art and Design

its been an amazing 3 and a half years — and looking over the book i'm astounded at how much work i got done in the program

and what's funny, too, is the fact that i only now seem to fully understand the kind of games i play in my the majority of my design and creative processes

i'll present the material from my book — aptly titled confounded — future fetish design performance for human advocacy — but i feel that only in the last 2 weeks have i truly whittled away all the extra conceptual baggage i've collected over the last few years to really pull it down to its solid core

anyhow, i will probably be back to blogging in some capacity now that i'm approaching the end

and i will probably write more about this core design principle that resides at the heart of my personal processes

i think this is gonna be fun :]

on my way into teach at the SMFA this morning — 3 little birds flew down + looked in at me from the vantage of my hood + windshield wipers

i felt a bit like Saint Francis of Assisi or something, just sitting in his Honda Accord, watching my little flightful friends of nature, their shiny eyes filled with reflections of the surrounding city — the memories + daydreams of a life where the sky swims between buildings in the urban landscape spinning in the highlights of their eyes — hollow bones, feathers of dusty earthtones + greys — their little oval heads crooking this way + that — they seemed so innocent + happy, like bandits running through a decrepit mall caught on fire

this was the highlight of my day

i need to run into MassArt early today — got to station myself for a day of Design for a client while also splintering myself off to accomplish a variety of important tasks that add up to some part + portion of my near-future life

don't have a ton of time to put this 'out there', but besides my client work i am mostly focused on putting together 2 shows right now

the first — fauxShow — goes down on Saturday, April 23rd { yep, that's the veryNight before Easter, purposely planned as the perfectly symbollic inBetween day in certain Biblical terms, right? the day that Jesus Christ Himself, according to the legend, was a little MIA — somewhere between a moved rock + a hard place — somewhere between death by crucifixion + resurrection — and this is why, in less ambitious terms at that, that i picked this date for the fauxShow — that + it coincided with the veryBeginnings of this year's amazing Boston Cyberarts Festival } — i've enlisted the artists + artwork + now its just a matter of putting on a good show { which seems to come quite naturally, thank you }

the second — forensicEvidence — goes down on Tuesday, May 17th at The Bakalar Gallery at MassArt — this is basically my little thesis show — a show within a show, sort of parasitic in many ways, right? { although i'm not quite sure yet, perhaps its symbiotic, but it just doesn't feel that way num, num } — i'll blog more on that later, i'm sure ... but for now let the record state that Carol has been helping me with the bottles for my pre-mythology-building + now quite conceptually infamous excerpt from what i am now rebranding as 'a scene from laugh institute' { website to come, domain already registered, thank you } — a collection of bottles, bottles of contained laughter, laughter that the viewer-participant helps release + pseudoScientifically analyze — and this is just one of several 'exhibits' on the list of collected evidence at my microCurated contribution to MFA Thesis Show 2011 { Show III } — i hope to see you there ;]

Okay ... I hate to say it, but I originally wanted to post this to LinkedIn Answers, but I've already asked my quota for the month — so I tried posting this to Quora, but they requested me to format my 'question' 4 different times in a spam-like fashion ... so, uhm ... here it is in blogFormat ... my 'question' called:

 

The evolution
of an idea

Okay, not sure if its just me or something, but I cannot resist running along with the evolution of an idea ... wordjam talking up some amazing concept with 2, 3 or more people and just watching where it goes ... no ideas too wild to consider or include in the cybernetic talkStream of subConsciousness ... a session over coffee, a meal or drinks ... a talk in the hall ... seemingly innocent social scenarios seem to turn into these wonderfully intense idea-related conversations that cut and cross and sway and grab until one idea turns to the next and builds up into another ... each little additional contribution to the conversation opening up new possibilities, improving the initial dregs of a concept through instant iterative excitement ... its just amazing and I love being part of this big picture development session

Even later, far beyond the original brainstorms have subsided and opened to clear skies and rainbows on an open calm sea of a well-thought out, newly orchestrated gameplan for idea implementation ... little conversations along the way seem to continually open up new possibilities, new potentials to push the idea to an even higher place

How many other people 'out there' have these experiences? Do you orchestrate these sessions in some way? Sort of reign them in, lock them down? Or can you somehow manage to keep that energy and excitement going throughout the duration of a project? If you participate in cardsorting, strategic planning or brainstorm sessions like these, how do you take the clutter and aftertaste of such a wonderful event and begin to organize, plan and move forward into the second, third, fourth and other stages beyond that exciting inceptional beginningPoint?

 

 

 

 

Chris Brogan recently posted his reflections on the Snow Day ... he says on his blog:

As kids, this became the best treat in the world. You know what was at play? We’d discovered unaccounted for time. Somehow, we never realized the absolute value of time from this simplest of transactions. Years later, after the fog of adulthood set in, we forget the value of time, especially “found” time.

He then goes on to more talk about time and the value of time and the fog of adulthood ... read up here if you want ... but I think he might be missing the point. Kids don't give a sh!t about time and have an entirely different notion of time and what to do with time than we do as adults ( most of us, that is ;] ). They have entirely different roles and responsibilities than adults, and with that ... an entirely different relationship with time. I think kids see a snow day as an amazing excuse to ... guess what? ... go outside and play in the snow. Yep, it might be that simple. To run, slide, slip, sled, throw, taste ... to feel how cold it is outside ( and typically keep playing despite the 'record low temperatures' ).

Here is my Disqus comment and response to Chris' 'Snow Day' post ... see what you think:

okay ... i'm not trying to diss you or anything here ... in fact, i'm probably one of your biggest fans ... but the value of the snow day is that you get the amazing excuse to stop and play ... and the value of doing your own laundry is that, well, besides the clean clothes part, you also get to let your mind stop and play ...

here's where i'm coming from

our minds, no matter how 'busy' and amazing we are, need time to just gestate and let things sink in ... especially for anyone in a creative field, that down time is critical ... in fact, Disney Stuidos were notorious for factoring in that old fashioned notion of 'the smoke break' into the workaday existence of their animation team ( of course, it wasn't called 'the smoke break', but it was that time that an animator or creative had to sit in the hall and vedge out for a while, to let their brain relax and maybe come up with some less-forced, more natural gestault solution to things )

the snow day ... certain components of a typical snow day come to mind ... trying to stay warm and watch the storm unfold ... the need to shovel or plow or dig your family out in some way ... and with that, the need to bundle up and go outside ... which for kids means the opportunity to run around, make snow angels, throw and taste snow, have a snowball fight, build a snowman, play with parents even ... which for parents means the opportunity to run around, make snow angels, throw and taste snow, have a snowball fight, build a snowman, play with children even ... its an amazing opportunity that none of us should pass up ... its totally fun and super fantastic for your mind, your body, your family or whoever else might get involved in snowplay

doing your own laundry ... well, this is an interesting one ... but most of the time, in today's modern day 'n' age, we spend in front of a monitor with a keyboard under fingers hands pointed downward typing away ... this is work ... we spend less and less time using our hands to manipulate and craft things, but what's interesting is that when we do something like knit, sculpt, fold, etcetera ... when we use our hands to actually touch and not tap ... well, parts of our mind open up and operate in an entirely different manner ... a different awareness comes into play ... and we free up parts of our mind to think differently ... i think its the same thing Henry Miller describes when he talks about walking ( a repetitive, physical event he actually worked into his daily routine for most of his writing and living life ) ... in fact, Henry Miller knew he was a writer because the words would come to him along walks through New York, Paris, wherever ... if only he could capture those words along the way, right? well, anyhow, this is why i think we should all do our own laundry, sometimes wash dishes by hand, physically touch and handle actual materials in the real world ... i know that Montessori, and now other schools, espouse the value of 'manipulatives' as part of a child's learning and development ... i personally believe that this is a basic human need ... we need texture ... we need to touch ... its part of our bodies and brains ... as much as we'd like to deny the animal side of our existence, this is essential stuff, this touch ... this touch and the need to run around and chase each other in the snow

Bill Nigh recently asked the LinkedIn Community to contribute what he calls 'a defiantly postive statement' as a reflection on the events of Septermber 11, 2001. On his website Positive News and Views — Bill nicely collects beautiful, amazing perspective from contributing visitors to help 'remind us that we are not powerless'.

Here is my personal response as posted to LinkedIn and to Bill's website:

I think we were all left a little bit lost after the events of September 11. Especially for that short time before the unfortunate and inevitable decision for the US to declare perhaps the strangest war concept ever, that of 'Freedom vs Terrorism'. The more important aspect — the part of history I believe we should all focus on — that intense need we all felt to seek out our loved ones, to find out if those nearest were safe and find out what they might've heard, how they were taking the news, and if they knew anyone directly affected. If there was really anything we could do.

Let's admit it ... we all felt pretty helpless and scared. And the world, the entire world watched and empathized. Some nations understood the sheer horror we experienced on that day from similar constant terror meshed into their daily experience on their own native soil. And their hearts went out to us. They might've even had a new-found, deeper connection with the people of our great nation than ever before. These were innocent people that were targeted and killed. And for what? To lure us over, to embroil us in these century-long inhumane and continual conflicts?

I hope that — in some strange twist of awakening that might have been instilled throughout the world — I hope that somehow we all appreciate and watch over each other with a bit more cognizance of the fragility of human life. With a heightened sense of world consciousness — an interconnectedness — interdependence. That we call and catch up with family, friends, colleagues ... and that we make new family, friends and colleagues ... with a slightly firmer grip and perhaps a deeper appreciation for those moments we are lucky enough to share together.

the semester is over, you may go in peace

summers here + the time is right to go drinking in the street

analysis of the internationally still infamous Surrealist film 'Un Chien Andalou' ... with a bit of simple subcutaneous research into concepts behind the storytelling ... reveal some interesting insights into the fetish objects ofttimes automatically rendered through the lucid daydream creativities of the mad genius revolution started in the early 1930s

those familiar with the principle character, the 'Chien' himself, + the delightfully strange cinematic sequences of the film as they unravel + peel away, will recognize this satirical modernization of the classic Dalinian swarm of ants within the palm of the hand

i call my cyberSurreal iPhone automatic app suggestion 'formis Andalou' in homage to the original ... Dalí affords the presence of ants special symbollic meaning ... 'ants point to death, decay, and immense sexual desire' ... from my previous research the inference is multivariate + deep + actually suggests a sort of societal decay

watching the passage from 'Un Chien Andalou' ... the man + woman standing + staring into the palm of his hand ... mysteriously mesmerized by the vision of these ants as they run in + out of a stigmata-like opening in the center of his palm ... as a living, breathing witness of incessant + neverending myriad similar watchers, similarly hypnotized fiends visually engaged with all that dances in the palm of their hands ... well, i cannot help but ask about the data that plays within these, our daily apps ... ants, data, information ... the device itself, perhaps this is the hole ... our own informatic stigmata allowing this newfound, willingly self-afflicted weapon of our own societal decay ... Dalinian ants reborn again as the very data that makes us dance around like ants in our own unstoppable puppetshow afterlife ... we follow the data ... we watch + check + cannot help but come back + gently stroke our shiny, beloved touch-interface objects of desire { thank you to Toby Bottorf for this brilliant description, the way we touch our device }

i am certain Buñuel + Dalí were not attempting to peer into the future ... no, no ... their purpose, as was the primary goal of much of the original Surrealist movement, was to explore the subconscious ... to create a dreamlike expression of the Freudian worlds within us all ... and perhaps, in doing so, unintentionally reveal some of the Jungian collective unconscious pertaining to our timeless existence

interviews with Buñuel helped decipher the metaphor of the diagonally-striped box ... a box first carried by the bicyclist ... a disembodied hand is placed into the box ... later, the fashion remains of the deceased bicyclist are taken from the box ... and from the fashion remains the female heroine of 'Un Chien Andalou' is able to bring our anti-hero back to life ... she literally reanimates the man, the fiend

Buñuel calls the striped box an 'object of desire' ... + many of the poetic objects imagined + realized by the Surrealists played with sexual tension + in some respects our inescapable human condition ... our new 'objects of desire' are the machines ... not the machines glorified by the original Futurists ... not the automobile or steam engine ... not at all ... instead, our modernday equivalent to the striped box, to the ants in our hand ... our machines, our 'objects of desire' are the computer, the laptop, the mobile device, the electronic reader ... the ants go in + out ... 'death, decay, and immense sexual desire'

i wouldn't say that the desire is directly sexual ... but it can truly be addicitive ... our need to phsyically interact with data becomes very obsessive-compulsive ... i see it everyday ... the most crowded room filled with the most amazing, intelligent + engaging people can become an instant information graveyard of stonefaced data-retrieval meatware ... a ring, a buzz, all screens come out + suddenly the socialSpace we all exist in is swept away, everyone whisked into email, text, tweet + feed ... the data rules supreme ... + the desire itself, this is opportunity ... the promise of a quick, witty message ... maybe messages that will lead to an interesting conversation a few hours down the road ... as most of us earn our living off from the new information economy, its difficult to not think of every ant as some new opportunity, some new chance ... chance though that is far different from the joy of random, automatic expression through parlor games + madcap theatricality ... chance that is totally unrelated to Duchamp + his chance procedure, a sort of zenlike appreciation for what destiny might bring your way ... how unCagian is this new chance, this new chance is far less playful, utterly unSurreal ...

i hope i am wrong ... that my train of thought stops soon at the very next station up ahead

i truly hope that the word i am about to change, that our 'objects of desire' ... that this chance, as i was about to say ... well, it feels a bit desperate ... our interaction with the data, with our technologies ... its all flipped now at this point, hasn't it?

the information, the data, the tools, the technologies ... well, we originally created it to use ... for the betterment of our human condition, right? to improve our standard of living ... to help make the world light + playful + free ... this was the original intention ... the 1950s vision of what our technology could bring to humanity

but this addictive behavior ... our relationship to our technologies ... and our changing relationship with each other ... there is something of desperation in it all from what i can sense + see

i need to sleep on this for now ... get away from the monitor myself for a bit, right? after all, i might be writing more about myself, observations about myself, my own inner psychology + my own conflicts than about the universal change that might be going on in the world ... maybe i'm imagining it all ... maybe i'm putting more into what i think i see in my daily life { but i honestly don't think so ... which completely scares me } ... yes, yes, for now i will go to sleep ... but these are the thoughts i am left with after another year of research into cyberSurrealism ... after a year of discovering what my personal motivations might be in wanting to explore the cybernetic + the Surreal ... as Toby also pointed out, in a very Carlinesque sort of way actually, the material is all already there ... i just need to point it out to people ... to report on the state of things per se ... to nurture a better awareness + live somewhere between ... to mistrust things just enough + report on my experience

this is my story

these are my dreams

Rich Kellerman of MarketAmerica posted the following question to LinkedIn Answers. I've included a link to the thread up on LinkedIn as well as my response for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

View the LinkedIn Answers thread here: http://hotsects.com/liworstweb

What is the worst website you ever saw and why?
This question pertains to active websites. Please exclude one page websites.

This is a tough question to answer. Some fantastic, classic examples of horrific website design were already posted and they totally make me laugh ( and thanks for posting them ).

As an accomplished and seasoned designer ... and one that keeps up with all the current trends and terminology ... I have to say there is currently a proliferation of bad websites 'out there'.

After recently reading Jarod Lanier's 'You Are Not a Gadget' I came to the guided realization that it is too easy for the average person to put together and release a blog, website or some online experience. I realize that not everyone participating on the web today might need a designer for what it is they are trying to accomplish with their online extension and expression, but I cannot emphasize how tiring it is lately to come across website after website that use the same cookie cutter out-of-the-box blog app theme ... or some componenture from the same 4 to 7 Web 2.0 canned content widgets. Right now I could Google a topic, visit the top 10 sites that come up and probably discover most of the links lead us unto the Wordpress 'N' Theme with modifications by 'designer' such and so.

Step back a bit ...

That said, these are truly exciting times. I love the Web 2.0 world we live in. Social media. All that. We have a short window right now of near-democratized capabilities to really say what's important, publish anything we want on the web, stand up for something good or stand up against those things we find frustrating or bad. But how many of us feel we can really put it ALL 'out there' without somehow hurting our public brand. How many people are really using this new democracy of expression to its full advantage? To say something unique and important? To find out what's next, right around the corner?

From the conversations I find myself in these days, I have the sorry notion that the ability to freely publish to the web, to take advantage of this amazing space we have to form online and real world communities, to hold certain people accountable for their contributions to our newsScape, and to just put up your real, genuine feelings and point of view to reach out ... that ability could be both underutilized and soon slipping away ( we need to stand up for net neutrality and keep our only people-driven means of communication open and free and clear ).

Anyhow, my point might be ... there are many 'worst websites' online right now. In the great Dadaist tradition, I stand up and scream with a big:

Down with the cookie cutter websites!
Down with abandoned sites and those left out of date!
Down with experiences lacking any real content or meaning!
Down with the clone! The marching detritus of free and easy templature!
Down with the sites lacking direction, focus or feeling!

Let us now take a pledge to stop pointing our fingers. We know what is bad. What's the worst. And the many reasons why. Let us come together with every bit of energy we can muster and collaborate. Yes, let's work together to build an even brighter and beautiful web. A smart landscape of online experiences and websites that:

1. Consider an audience
2. Talk to that audience in a happy, human way
3. Provide something of value to that audience
4. Exist for some purpose ... to make money, that's a good one ( perhaps the lesson from bubble burst 1.0 would be develop a business plan ) and one that most sites might want to think about from the inception of their product, service or content. But there may be a myriad of purposes ( of course )
5. Connect people ( real people to real people, no pre-recorded, robotic and faceless organizations that text you in the night )
6. Serve some greater sense of goodness
7. Sing

Links: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Not-Gadget-Manifesto/dp/0307269647

masses of people as dynamic media ... can we continue to keep the masses happy + distracted whilst the military-industrial complex continues to push its twisted sense of freedom, of anti-terror? nothing to see here ... move along please

well, watch this video 'The Century of the Self, Part 1' ... just found it thanks to a little post from Jo-Anne Green on The Book through Turbulence's Networked_Performance

as we move from the military-industrial into the age of information ... this seemingly neverending transition where everything is automated + less expensive ... where the underbrimming horizonless world of our formerly newly-found globalized debauch ... is it possible to move on into the numbness ... is it even ecomonically feasible? 

interesting discussion about Freud + Bernays ... about the beautiful way we can use the extremely powerful force of words, of language, to modify the concept of propaganda + invent a counsel of public relations

the frenzied mob, yes ... in a strange way i would love to pull another War of the Worlds to play upon the fear of the masses + play on the heightened internal fears of the masses

interesting talk about democracy, about the engineering of consent, about a sense of enlightened despotism, consumerism, a special form of guidance

happiness machines

 

i was lucky enough last night to find a bit of processing code on an open wetware site ‘out there’ after hours + hours of research into latent + emotive telepathic communication using the arduino … a bit more difficult to find than some of the open source code that so many gracious folks share out on sites like instructables + dorkbots, but still well-worth the challenge

after really digging into the code a bit, hooking my arduino up to the MacBook Pro, uploading the program to the nifty little microprocessor that could + quick insertion of the psychotronic implants using carefully sterilized common sewing needles, Carol + i were able to transfer thoughts + feelings back + forth from across the room in relative real-time … pretty amazing stuff … we gave each other some simple commands, making each other reach up or down, turn around, wink … anything to quickly + visually confirm to each other that our digitally implemented experiment in clairvoyance was actually working

at a certain point i left the house + took a drive down to the local Friendly’s … walking up to the ice cream take-out counter, i tried tuning into Carol’s mind frequencies + quite confidently placed our order, waited the 15 to 20 minutes or so, + made the drive back home … at this point i can report back that our testing resulted in a bit of a miss due to the distance when applied to our synthetic telepathy … i got the entire order almost right, i just forgot to order the extra nuts + chocolate jimmies on Carol’s Jim Dandy … a minor faux pas, i know … but still enough to get me delving back into what code snippets i can further research online