Oblique Strategies

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt had published four editions (in 1975, 1978, 1979 and 1996) of what they call "Oblique Strategies." It's a deck of cards with a random aphorism on each, dedicated to prodding people out of creative funks. And it is now available in iphone:

Some examples:

Use an unacceptable color.

Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics.

Fill every beat with something.

Don't stress one thing more than another.

Ask people to work against their better judgment.

Call your mother and ask her what to do.

Humanize something that is free of error.

Breathe more deeply

Do nothing for as long as possible

Use "unqualified" people.

Make a blank valuable by putting it in an excquisite frame

Faced with a choice, do both

Use fewer notes

Get your neck massaged

Remove specifics; convert to ambiguities

Remove the middle, extend the edges

Imagine the music as a series of disconnected events

Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance

Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them

Disconnect from desire

Mechanize something idiosyncratic

Do something boring

Accept advice

Pay attention to distractions

Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify.

And some unpublished ones from his diaries:

Steal a solution. (22 July)

Describe the landscape in which this belongs. (9 August)

What else is this like? (9 August)

List the qualities it has. List those you'd like. (9 August)

Instead of changing the thing, change the world around it. (9 August)

What would make this really successful? (9 August)

Who would make this really successful? (9 August)

How would you explain this to your parents? (9 August)

Try faking it. - from Stewart Brand (9 August)

What were the branch points in the evolution of this entity (20 August)

Back up a few steps. What else could you have done? (20 August)

When is it for? Who is it for? (23 August)

What do you do? Now, what do you do best? (27 August)

First work alone, then work in unusual pairs. (8 September)

What most recently impressed you? How is it similar? What can you learn from it? What could you take from it? (10 September)

Take away as much mystery as possible. What is left? (30 December)

Subway Time

I just bought this at Little Otsu on Valencia. its awesome & combines two of my passions: calendars and subway maps.

Overnewsed but Uninformed

so i don't speak german (as i learned incontestably while in berlin this summer). and thus, i had to rely on google translator to translate the page for me:

"News mediation was the beginning of our century still a few media is limited. ... With the possible anytime access to news about a variety of communication channels has a broad media landscape with a myriad of information producers and suppliers develop. For the viewer, it becomes more difficult to determine authenticity of messages. You are looking for sources to whom they can trust.

Overnewsed but Uniformed helps in the search. Sequences are described, ownership and dependencies disclosed and user behavior illustrated. Background information and the monitoring and analysis of the real message of a bridge no fall in Minneapolis convey the basis on whic the Chamber News better assess and categorize can."

from what I gather, its an infovis of the news-media industry.

can be downloaded (in german) from
www.overnewsed-but-uninformed.de

Signs of Life

By Freddie Yauner for his work at Platform 11 at RCA in London.

In his words:

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We spend our lives being directed by signage, but what do the signs get up to when they have no one to tell what to do? Reactive signage, giving a look into the lives of overworked pictograms.

Site specific instalation for Sleepless exhibition at the Great Eastern Hotel. When people were present, the sign would function, but when the space was empty the overworked pictogram [its very hard work standing on one leg all day] would take a well earned break, that is until he was needed back at work!
Flash animation controlled by a motion sensor.

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kinetic sculpture

Electric moons

text from yatzer: "Electric moons is one of the installations that will be at display during the STRP festival in Eindhoven, Holland. It’s a performance which makes use of balloons, sound, light and movement. The height of the helium balloons is adjusted with a computer-controlled cable, whilst the internal illumination is accomplished using dimmable super-bright LEDs, creating a pixel in a warped 8x8 spatial matrix."

BMW museum lobby

text from infosthetics: "a mechatronic data sculpture made up of 714 metal balls that translates a virtual design process into the space around it. seemingly weightless, the kinetic sculpture moves through a cycle of free abstractions and typical BMW vehicle forms."
see the hi-res version here.

PES

http://www.eatpes.com/

extinction timeline

notable extinction predictions:
2009: mending things
2013: getting lost
2018: secrets
addiction outlives intimacy
spam outlives coins
nothing outlives cher

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