Learning Aesthetics » Uncategorized

New Year

dmlittle — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:43:07 +0000

Welcome to 2012

It’s the Algorithm Stupid!

dmlittle — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:12:32 +0000

It’s tempting to forget that what you see is indeed what you ask for, but the asking is always already filtered. Here’s a complicated reminder from the Microsoft Research Social Media Collective Blog.

How To

dmlittle — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:05:07 +0000

I’m not sure whether language or culture is more at work here:

Second That

dmlittle — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:09:40 +0000

Checking with an old friend, who is checking in with an older one:

If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery—isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.

Charles Bukowski

History

dmlittle — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:06:09 +0000

Perhaps part of the difficulty is that what I’m struggling toward isn’t really implementation, but rather evolution. Someone recently pointed out that you don’t change societies by changing laws. Instead the most effective way to produce social change was to introduce a new technology into the culture. Of course it’s hard to predict exactly what kind of change you’re going to effect. What’s critical is recognizing the effect early and leveraging it to a business advantage. This isn’t trivial because all nature, including our own, is inherently conservative and the tendency is to preserve the status quo. There are, however, likely to be things that implement themselves. All of which is related, in my mind at least, to a post on The Technium on how Google does science.

Phantasies

dmlittle — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:37:41 +0000

Privacy means not having to explain.

I’m going to be going to one of those HR how-to-be-a-better-(fill in the blank) things next week; this one titled “Crucial Conversations”, which I assume has something to do with honest-communication or unafraid-plain-talk. Remember those? Put me in the re-mind that all these sorts of things are about: Affective Change, and that for the most part “intellectual realization” doesn’t help in mammal-space. “The therapeutic process cannot begin until the patient is willing to share his or her masturbation fantasies.” To which Shel said, “Jesus, why does everything come down to sex with you?” It doesn’t; exactly. MFs aren’t in this context about sex, but rather about personal space and privacy. How much do you trust the other; how comfortable are you with yourself?

It’s facile to say things like, “Privacy is dead;” I’ve been guilty myself, but as usual things are more multiplex. danah boyd and Alice Marwick have useful draft: Social Privacy in Networked Publics: Teens Attitudes, Practices, and Strategies

Connectivity

dmlittle — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:42:32 +0000

Can’t let a month go by. This from mpesce:

The mobile telephone spreads connectivity directly to the person. The mobile creates the phenomenon of direct human addressability. The mobile is an inherently personal device; each mobile and SIM is associated with a single person. With this single innovation, the gap is spanned between tribal and urban organizational forms. Everyone is directly connected, as in the tribe, but in unknowably vast numbers, as in the city.

Remainders

dmlittle — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 22:47:14 +0000

I find myself reading The Best Music 2009 which leads to Michael Pisaro

Perhaps as Giles Deleuze says about philosophy, Art is not communication. It’s always trying to subtract its relation to communication in the service of a remainder: something we hear or see or experience that “says” nothing so that it can “do” something (or nothing).

Which you’ll have to admit requires a bit of unpacking, but form do tend to follow function and vice-versa.

Which Leads To

dmlittle — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:52:18 +0000

I’ve been thinking about short, really short, Twitter short fiction for a while now, and as usual if you wait a bit it will present itself. Note to self: The key may well be context, again.

Eleven very short stories about SXSW

Here’s my pick:

I was out of his room by eight o’clock, just in time to make the first panels. No point waking him up, so I didn’t.

Still, I left him my business card. I’ve got 300 to get through, and a little networking never hurt anyone.

Leads to: BBH Global

A Totally Wholesome Approach

dmlittle — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:47:22 +0000

After the last couple you probably need this (you’ll probably want the full-screen button):