me news

almost nothing in the natural world

really interesting article on the future (or demise) of interactivity in technology and in our lives…

…pictures Under Glass is an interaction paradigm of permanent numbness. It’s a Novocaine drip to the wrist. It denies our hands what they do best. And yet, it’s the star player in every Vision Of The Future…

…the next time you make a sandwich, pay attention to your hands. Seriously! Notice the myriad little tricks your fingers have for manipulating the ingredients and the utensils and all the other objects involved in this enterprise. Then compare your experience to sliding around Pictures Under Glass…

m / 10-11-2011 09:32 - tags: , , ,  

google nothing

inspiring article by steven heller on the power of ‘real’ research…

…at no time shall Google or any search engine be used to either locate or research the objects, unless . . . well, actually, there is a loophole, but the students have to solve that riddle for themselves. Of course after the class is all over, the students can Google to their heart’s content. But I guarantee they will agree that Google will never replace hands-on involvement or (hint, hint) befriending a truly enthusiastic librarian…

m / 10-11-2011 09:10 - tags: , ,  

paper letters & sour grapes

last night was the awards ceremony for the dutch theater poster awards in amsterdam, i attended along with fellow jury member ‘sander plug’ and the winner was ‘paulien cornelisse’ (shown above), a decision i still firmly stand behind…

afterwards i was, as usual, confronted with all kinds of ‘sour’ and negative reactions from other nominees, the ususal blogs and ‘design journalists’ who like to criticise everything did just that, my own nomination also wasn’t without problems, as usual it earned me a lot of accusations of nepotism, the nomination was then withdrawn several weeks ago as it apparently didn’t meet the criteria (a decision which mainly reflects on the poor quality of the oraganisation itself in my opnion) it was then reinstated and last night i was lead to understand that being a jury member automatically disqualified me from winning anyway, a fact that has never been clear to me, in fact i had been told that quite the opposite was the case

all in all a very deflating and unpleasant experience to be honest, this is certainly the last time i will be spending so much time & energy working (for free) for a jury that earns me nothing but sour grapes from other designers… the jury report can be read online here and if you don’t agree with what it says don’t call me i’m not interested in your opinion right now… and my sincere congratulations to paulien

m / 09-11-2011 09:34 - tags: , ,  

beethoven 1967

i was approximately six months old when the above image was taken, in the ‘summer of of love’: beethovenstraat 1967, three young hipsters crossing the street looking towards the camera, this well-known and quite famous image was shot by ‘ed van der elsken’ who often engaged his subjects whilst shooting around amsterdam, trying to capture the atmosphere on the streets…

now, local journalist and filmmaker ‘bahram sadeghi’ is looking to find the three girls in the image to help him make a film, the photo museum in rotterdam has recently discovered several unknown images from the same afternoon… if anybody knows who they are, he would love to hear from you…

m / 08-11-2011 09:11 - tags: , , ,  

deadlines

(with thanks to ‘wilbert leering’ for the share)

m / 08-11-2011 08:56 - tags: , ,