February 2010
78 posts
Istanbul (not Constantinople) →
Even old New York is not old New York in this map. It appears to be old Lisbon:
This map is doubly strange. It simultaneously depicts the wrong city, and under a previous name — the former error committed on purpose, the latter possibly unwittingly.
And:
[T]he main map — one of the first bird’s eye views of a North American city — is not of New Amsterdam. This depiction of a hilly metropolis,...
Geodesic spontaneity →
DUS Architecten and Studio for Unsolicited Architecture built a dome of umbrellas around a lamp post in Amsterdam and held a party under it:
The Bucky Bar was first in the series to be realized, made from the most common and yet most unusual of building materials: umbrellas. The title refers to the great American inventor, Buckminster Fuller, who demonstrated how minimal energy geodesic domes...
Winning words →
Bryan Garner on judging the utility and quality of neologisms — webinar (web + seminar), simulcast (simultaneous + broadcast), smog (smoke + fog):
The answer is that the entire language community becomes the judge. Once a word acquires general currency, only a hopelessly out-of-touch pedant would take up quixotic arms against it. Through the force of linguistic natural selection, some words win...
Points in the real world →
Jesse Schell, Carnegie Mellon assistant professor, in a presentation from DICE 2010 on the future of gaming and the crossover of gaming and life:
The idea of games being part of the real world is what’s taking hold: games that have you jumping around in the real world, games that have you connecting with people in the real world.
Schell:
People are demanding reality, demanding authenticity....
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Causing a scene
Last November, I had the opportunity to interview Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere — an improv troupe in Brooklyn NY — as research for an article I was writing. Today the issue is out, so here’s a snippet of the interview that made it into the article. Head over to see the article in its entirety.
How much of an event is planned beforehand versus and how much is left open to improvisation...
The value of hard →
Nathan Heleine on the value of doing things that are hard:
When you write a letter, even after the physical act of putting pen to paper which arguably produces more valuable writing as a sheer response to the effort involved, you still have to find an envelope, address it, find a stamp, lick it, find a mailbox, and stuff it. In digital that entire stream of actions is consolidated to a few...
Book-judging constraints →
Tyler Cowen has a principle for judging books:
I go to Mary Riley Styles Falls Church Public Library and check the non-fiction Return carts, to see what other people have been reading.
Jamie Lawrence:
I skip nearly all books by politicians, executives, and similar people. Even when people tell me that one is good, it usually isn’t.
Someone I know read, for an entire summer, only the books...
Seeing black →
Paul La Farge in the latest Cabinet on the color black:
Black is a lack, a void of light. When you think about it, it’s surprising that we can see black at all.
According to Aristotle:
Even when we are not seeing, it is by sight that we discriminate darkness from light, though not in the same way as we distinguish one colour from another.
The contemporary philosopher Giorgio Agamben:
[T]he fact...
Things, curated →
The Museum of Things in Berlin places all objects at the same level:
[O]bjects of well-known designers and anonymous creations, functional, puristic objects and so called “taste aberrations” or “Kitsch”, substantial “honest” objects and surrogate materials, trademark and no-name products.
The “thing of the month” seems especially special.
Inventory of the infinite canvas →
Keeping track:
1998: Porphyria, webcomic
2009, Jan: And the Pursuit of Happiness, blog
2009: Dec: Pictory, showcase for photo stories
2009, Dec: GF1 Field Test, product storytelling
2010, Jan: The Truth About the East Wind, short story
2010, Feb: Annapurna Moonrise, visual narrative
2010, Feb: Cool Hunting, website redesign (more)
2010, Feb: Thinking for a Living, website redesign (more)
...
Think cold cash for less pain →
New research finds that simply the thought of money can make people feel less pain:
Cash gives people an inner strength and can reduce their physical and emotional pain. In fact, simply the idea of cash has this effect.
It doesn’t even need to be real money:
[P]people became more self-sufficient because of money. Simply being in the presence of Monopoly money or a screen saver showing...
Training the butterflies →
On public speaking, one of the worst human fears:
There are certifiably good reasons to fear public speaking, but Scott Berkun, author and professional speaker, points out that at least, “we can’t say that public speaking is scarier than death.” That’s why it’s curious that public speaking is often listed with some of the worst human fears — along with sickness, death, elevators, heights, and...
To find is the thing →
Picasso on his artistic method, 1923:
I have never made trials or experiments. Whenever I had something to say, I have said it in the manner in which I needed to be said…I can hardly understand the importance given to the word research in connection with modern painting. In my opinion to search means nothing in painting. To find is the thing.
In other word, he was improvising. This is,...
Walking in the woods makes you smarter →
Seth Fischer on giving your brain a needed break, or “attention restorative theory:”
When you go for a walk in, say, the woods, you’re using a more subtle “involuntary attention” when looking at things like sunsets or squirrels. When you’re in the city, you’re always avoiding that asshole bicyclist, stepping over that pile of human poo, or spending your brain power ignoring the...
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On origins, or lessons from a stationwagon
“Life isn’t fair.” He said it as if he were reporting a not-so-interesting weather pattern or the arrival of a tunafish sandwich, as we slid into backseat of the stationwagon. Mr. Fowler was responsible for carpooling us to kindergarten, and as such, he was responsible for shaping our six-year-old minds. This new statement, then, reshaped everything for me thereafter.
You see,...
Body language of the stars →
A new TV program reveals “appreciation escalation,” what behavioral psychologists mean when words say one thing, but hands or eyes say another:
On Tony Blair:
[R]ight from the start you see him swallow. That’s a really telling sign. All signs of anxiety focus on the mouth and throat. …. A sign like that tells us that he’s been caught unawares. When he does swallow he...
In praise of boredom →
On the exquisite nature of boredom:
It’s about a certain mindset. Perfect boredom is the enjoyment of the moment of stasis that comes between slowing down and speeding up — like sitting at a traffic light for a particularly long time. It’s at the cusp of action, because however enjoyable it may be, boredom is really not a long-term aspiration. It’s for an afternoon before a sociable evening. It...
On sleeping beauties →
Mark Peters debunks some linguistic fairy tales with a new term:
“Sleeping beauties” is perfect for describing words that were in use at some point, and then faded away, only to reawaken to widespread use decades or even centuries down the line. It’s as fitting and catchy as other web-spread lingo, such as eggcorns, snowclones, crash blossoms, and the Colbert suffix. Let’s add “sleeping beauty” to...
Ten rules, an edited list →
Inspired by Elmore Leonard’s forthcoming 10 Rules of Writing, a round-up of authors on writer-ly do’s and don’ts:
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful. —Elmore Leonard
Cut (perhaps that...
The wisdom of the tweet →
Songbirdbrains can help us understand how humans learn to talk. They need tutoring to be able to sing:
A zebra finch needs tutoring before it can vocalize or sing. If what appears true for zebra finches is true for humans, then infants deprived of appropriate auditory experience (due to hearing loss or isolation) may fail to develop normal lateralization, which, in turn, could lead to defects in...
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Cliché →
Seth Godin on clichés:
In printing, a cliché was a printing plate cast from movable type. This is also called a stereotype. When letters were set one at a time, it made sense to cast a phrase used repeatedly as a single slug of metal. “Cliché” came to mean such a ready-made phrase. The French word “cliché” comes from the sound made when the matrix is dropped into molten metal to make...
Dinner party usepaths →
A Diller + Scofidio sketch begs the question (by looking at dinner-table etiquette forward and backwards) could we redesign dinner-table conversation?
What if we studied dinner party usepaths — “ways of doing things which are typical and which tend to work according to the people who most commonly perform the activity in question,” in Tim Boucher’s helpful definition — and redesigned our dining...
Framing the user experience →
Look around you. There’s a field surrounded by trees, a curb along a street, a raised subway platform, a sign-in invitation, a checkout process with five steps—indications of boundaries, of edges. Of frames. The field, the city, the transport system, the website—none have inherent boundaries. Yet they take on different boundaries when designers frame them. Designers, then, shape opportunities for...
Elusive dish of cities →
Jessa Crispin with thoughts on some of the obstacles to creating a vibrant city, starting with thoughts on Richard Florida’s theory:
It comes off a little like a home baker trying to recreate a magical dish from the restaurant the night before …. [T]here’s always something you can’t quite place, or something you would never have thought of, like a little turmeric in the...
The emergent grammar of design →
UX London recently asked me, “What is the most-often overlooked or misunderstood aspect of design and why?”
That it has a beginning and an end, when, in fact, it is emergent. Design has this kind of emergent grammar defined both by those who create it and by those who use and enjoy it — as systems, as products, as services.
I answer this question differently every time. There are...
Where all crime starts and ends →
Roger Ebert knows things we don’t know:
I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is...
The sign stands alone →
On Sign Out, Josef Schulz’ billboard project, and the magic of the highway:
Today, long after the appropriation of the land came to an end, there is a particular magic to the highways, the magic of departure, like one of these mirages which shimmer above the road surface in the summer. What has been lost is the notion that one’s own existence has to be wrested from a plot of land and is, as...
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than... →
The Dunning–Kruger effect:
A cognitive bias in which “people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it”. The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than in actuality; by contrast the highly skilled underrate their abilities,...
Caffeinated oxymoron →
Stephen Morrissey on what’s being called “Slow Coffee:”
“Slow coffee” is an attempt to tackle the notion of quantity and convenience as what defines good coffee. We think the quality of the cup is the most important thing. … We’re trying to elevate coffee to its overdue culinary status. Specialty beer and wine are kind of out there in the public; what...
Desire-to-distance ratio →
Even when looking at everyday objects, our perceptions can be deceiving:
According to the New Look approach, first propounded in the 1940s by the influential cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner, perception is largely a constructive process influenced by our needs and values. … [T]he desirability of an object influences its perceived distance.
Proven by:
90 undergraduates were made to sit...
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Designing for improvisation
We all had to play two instruments. Piano, “and.” Regardless, the music was classical. All structure, baroque. As I got older, I still picked up instruments, but always played within classical lines. Improv, and in particular, jazz, have always been a fascination to me because they’re a downright mystery. This is what brought me to the making of Kind of Blue.
In the spring of...
Blank pages of the sidewalk →
The city of Saint Paul is stamping poems into their sidewalks:
Sidewalks are the blank pages of our city as a book. If you look closely, however, you see traces of text, such as Knutson Construction or Standard Sidewalk, stamped discreetly into some of the panels. I wondered if we could borrow this simple stamping idea, enlarge the stamp to a prominent size, and give our poets this everyday public...
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T.S. Eliot via Jonah Lehrer. cf. “The mind knows not what the tongue wants.” Malcolm Gladwell on Dr. Howard Moskowitz
The airport barometer →
Airports offer an expression of what a city purports to be:
It’s probably the airport experience on the ground that cements a traveler’s first substantial impression of a city and its merits, whether premature or otherwise. That experience — the flow, sense of efficiency, and all the small details enabled by the airport’s architecture — can be viewed as an expression of what the...
Protagonistic secrets →
Lawrence Wright on one of the secrets of the writer’s craft:
The first thing I look for in trying to tell a story is a great character whose life can take us on a meaningful journey. I think of this figure as a donkey. I don’t mean that disrespectfully. A donkey is a beast of burden. If the reader cares about your character, you can load him up with information that would otherwise be...
Reborn into ordinariness →
This week a new batch of aerial photos remind us of September 11.
What I’m reminded of is a subway ride.
From Manhattan to Brooklyn, when the train passes over the East River, conductors announce, “Last stop in Manhattan. Next stop, Brooklyn.” Today, it’s nothing. But the days and weeks after September 11, those words were everything: We were crossing the river to back...
How to make time fly →
Our perception of time is connected to how much we enjoy life. To make time fly:
- Remove time cues: clocks and watches - Drink tea, coffee or other stimulants - Allow yourself to become absorbed in what you are doing
“There’s no agreement on the biological basis for time perception. A lot of papers are published but they are all contradictory,” explains one time psychologist....
On wisdom →
Andrew Zuckerman’s latest feat reveals how 51 people weigh in on the topic of wisdom. Some selections:
“Your best work is your expression of yourself. You may not be the greatest at it, but when you do it, you’re the only expert in it.” —Frank Gehry ”You can’t get to wonderful without passing through alright. You can’t skip from not being able to function...
Happiness is a by-product →
Jessa Crispin on by-products:
I was having a conversation with a writer the other day, and he stated that the best things are always by-products. Happiness is a by-product, and I loved that he said that. You can plot your journey to success or happiness or wealth or whatever it is you’re looking for, but if you’re too focused on the end result, you’re going to miss anything good going on around...
Design for social change →
Announcing a new program at SVA:
Impact: Design for Social Change is an advanced program that will run on two parallel tracks; the first will educate students on how to conceive and execute their own projects for social change with a focus on funding projects that are not client-based. At the end of the intensive each student will have a fully developed concept. Along with a personal project,...
License to improv →
Whatever you think of classical music, Mozart and even Beethoven were improvising too, specifically during solos:
It is believed that Mozart improvised his own cadenzas at concerts. …. This place in his scores was always left blank, with a fermata (pause sign) over the six-four chord, leaving the choice of what to play to the performer’s discretion.
So why is his music written down at...
The sound of catchy →
The practice of replacing actual words with meaningless words in songs continues with abandon, and for good reason:
Without meaningless words we would never have had many of the greatest anthems in pop. … [L]yrics without meaning often appear in songs that might, in some circles, be described as “catchy”. One explanation for this is that catchy songs are catchy because...
Some truth about TPUTH →
TPUTH launched yesterday, an electronic newspaper that strikes a balance somewhere between Matt Drudge and Jon Stewart but specifically for geeks, designers, and venture capitalists.
I caught up with Craig Mod, editor and partly responsible for the concept. He answers some of my questions by email from Tokyo:
Where did the idea come from?
Craig Mod: This is an idea we’ve had for half a...
Modern-day time machines →
People have their own versions of time machines:
If you are a fan of the 1960 movie version of H. G. Wells’s classic novel, it would be a steampunk sled with a red velvet chair, flashing lights, and a giant spinning wheel on the back. For those whose notions of time travel were formed in the 1980s, it would be a souped-up stainless steel sports car. Details of operation vary from model to model,...
To raise, lift →
Kevin Kelly believes the network economy is a meta-country:
In both country and network, the surest route to raising one’s own prosperity is raising the system’s prosperity. …. To raise your product, lift the networks it ties into. To raise your company, lift the standards it supports. To raise your country, increase the connections (in quality and quantity) that allow others to...
Elder undercover →
Patricia Moore, posing undercover, forged a new career out of what is now called Universal Design:
In the mid-1970s Moore was the only female industrial designer at Raymond Loewy’s internationally renowned design office in New York. She was continually shushed by her peers for bringing up issues of safety and accessibility. As long as they were redesigning a refrigerator door or a can...