The Shard at 14:00 on 02/04/12 from the roof terrace at Tate Modern. A case of little, large and the ugly.
Today I discoverd Noisy Jelly and I think it's rather fun. Noisy Jelly is a game that has been developed by two French industrial design students - Raphaël Pluvinage and Marianne Cauvard. The game is part chemistry kit, part electronics experiment and part musical instrument.
It is not all about fun. The project's objective is to demonstrate that electoronics can have a new a new aesthetic. That it can take material form and be malleable and be manipulated. Here is a nice video and link where you can find out more:
<p>NOISY JELLY from Raphaël Pluvinage on Vimeo.</p>
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/30/view/19977/noisy-jelly-la-gelee-musicale.html
The Shard at 18:25 on 26/03/12.
I like The Guardian. I have consistently bought and read it more than any other newspaper. The thing is, I rarely buy a physical paper copy any more. And I do like it as a physical product - I like the Berliner format. But what was once a daily purchase is now usually Saturday only.
However, my connection with The Guardian as a product and brand continues. I still read their content as a primary source of news. I subscribe to their iPhone app and I have the digital addition bookmarked as a favourite. When I eventually succumb to an iPad, I will probably never buy a physcial copy again.
The other week I caught the long-form Three Little Pigs advert on Channel 4. It was clearly well made and it made me pause from my ususl ad-break rush to make a cup of tea or pour a glass of wine. It was interesting and entertaining. No other UK paper has advertised itself like that before.
If you have missed the advert, you can view it here:
It was accompanied by a blog post by the editor Alan Rusbridger about 'open journalism'. How news is understood, generated and distributed in world of digital and social media. You can read his post here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2012/feb/29/open-journalism-at-the-guardian
So what was the advert for?
Court new readers. Raise brand awareness. Highlight added value ("we are not just a newspaper"). Indicate how switched on The Guardian is to news creation and how it can go viral with a Tweet, how non-journos can break stories before the mainstream media. The importance of 'open journalism'.
All these things I guess. Alan Rusbridger closes his blog by saying:
"The newspaper is moving beyond a newspaper. Journalists are finding they can give the whole picture better. Over a year the readership grows - a little in print, vastly in digital. Advertisers like it, too."
Ok. But it's been like that for awhile now. It's nothing new.
I doubt I was the intended audience. I get 'digital' and 'social media' (if I didn't, I'd be out of a job). My relationship with The Guadian is already established, regular and online.
But having seen the advert and read the blog, you are left wondering what next for The Guardian. Do they carry on as they are? Do they follow The Times and have a paywall? Do they focus on digital and push cheap or free newspaper 'lites' versions to commuters? Will paid for added value apps be enough to support the free versions?
It's not clear how they can sustain providing qualtiy news and content largely for free, supplemented by advertising revenue. It does not seem sustainable to me.
It would be a sad day if The Guardian had to close due to lack of reserves and income.
There continues to be much debate about what the future of print is in a world of digital. Is there still a place for newspapers, magazines and books as physical paper products when we can consumer them on a smartphone, tablet or traditonal computer?
I think there is. But the realtionship will be different. This post is not an attempt to answer the question. It is merely an opportunity to share something interesting about digital and print. About media consumption and editing. About the possibility of the Internet of Things.
The design studio BERG has created The Little Printer, a product that brings together the digital and physical. The Little Printer serves as a miniture publisher. It enables you to print live social media streams, updates, text messages, images. Using the Berg Cloud technology you can deliver personal messages to other owners of the Little Printer and curate news stories from publications like The Guardian. They are all printed on paper the same size as a till reciept.
I think it is rather beautiful, charming, initimate, simple and fun.
Here is a rather nice clip showing what its all about:
So what does it all mean?
Status updates and Tweets are often like snowflakes falling on warmer ground - they exist for a brief period and then melt away. The Little Printer allows you to print out content that might mean something. This could become significant in a world overwhlemed by digital, where it becomes important to have a physical a memento. Something beautiful and fun that you can pin to the wall. Something that grounds you to the physical in a digital world.
This can be extended to the increasing trend of self-editing, control and curating content. This can be seen with apps like Pinterest.
The other interesting thing is the associated technology.The Berg Cloud technology enables you to use an app to connect devices to the Little Printer. This is core to the 'Internet of Things'. An example of the potential to connect devices to everyday household objects so that they can be more useful in our lives.
The Little Printer may not be the answer debate about the relationship between print and digital. But I think it serves as a beautiful and fun example of the potential to link physical and digital communication in a tactile and personal way.
You can get your hands on one later in the year. You can find out more here: http://bergcloud.com/littleprinter/
This is rather nice. Internet memes and virals re-imagined as old fashioned styled movie posters.
Alan Watts (1915 to 1973) was a British philosopher. He was best known for his interpretations of Easten philosophy such as Zen and communicating them to Western audiences.
I must confess I had not heard of him until recently. I came across him when someone at work showed me an animation done by Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park fame. They had taken a recording of him talking about two personality types - prickles and goo.
Prickles being believers in certainty. Goo being more vague. He was saying that in reality neither type holds sway exclusivley. You have prickly goo and gooey prickles. We are always playing with both or having to deal with them together.
And to me it often holds true.
The animation is rather lovely. Short and simple and fun. His voice is rich and humorous.
Here is a link to view it: http://www.neticons.net/prickles/
You can find out more about Alan Watts here: http://www.alanwatts.com
"Sacred cows make the best hamburgers"
This is a well known quote often attributed to Mark Twain. It's hard to determine if it did originate from him. There is something rather pleasing about the image of Mark Twain sitting in a diner waxing lyrical about life and distributing witty bon mots while chowing down on a burger with a side of fries. But it does seem a bit incongrous. I suppose it's possible for him to have been aware of or perhaps eaten a 'Hamburg Steak' during his life time.
This post is not about Mark Twain or hamburgers. It's about the sentiment behind the quote. Sacred cows are immune from criticism. It's an often used idiom by advocates of change.
It came to mind today when considering a much used and indeed former award winning website. It could be argued that in some quarters it had become a sacred cow. To others it has faced criticism, not for what it was but for what it has become. The trouble is that this particular sacred cow is still producing milk, even if at times it's sour and likely to decline in yeild. The question is when to make some burgers. Now, or in a year or so when the milk is either drying up or needs to be poured away.
In this particular case, I'd say let's enjoy some tasty sacred cow burgers now. Let's not wait until it's too late. It won't be easy. There will be challenges. But it will be easier today than tomorrow. We could even put it out to pasture for a bit while we introduce something new. Then enjoy the burger with relish.
Finally caught-up with some old Guardian articles at the weekend. As always, Jarvis Cocker was good value.
He summed up Britpop rather nicley I thought:
"Britpop ended up being slightly overweight men with their shirts untucked, getting sucked off while watching The Italian Job."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/27/jarvis-cocker-pulp-readers-questions
If you fancy a read about some music from the 1990s that often gets overlooked, then here are some interesting articles from The Quietus 'A New Nineties':