GR8.

Courtesy of Despair.com

Imagine if twitter were real life, people you don’t know strangely following you around like mutant lemming zombies while you go about your daily business announcing with automaton like vapidity the how’s why’s and where’s of your daily business……not using it has helped clarify a suspicion…

Change has always been infinitely inevitable and therefore occuring within an increasingly minus-infinite timespace…you can’t do anything about it.

The puff & grandiloquence of the spiel is often inversely proportional to the capability of the product

look out for this in your friends – do they change colour around money? if so – ditch them.

if you talk to god you are religious…if he talks to you; you are psychotic

The Romans had spaghetti. We’ve got our systems. Let’s take over the world.

…everyone jumping on the same bandwagon? The wheels ain’t never gonna fall off.

If we redesign our website and talk alot of trendy marketing adwank then maybe no-one will notice our product is the same old piece of mediocre shit it was last year?

Facebook – it’s getting a little bit cranky – with three blogs plumbed into a couple of pages the whole thing is sometimes barely operable. BUT it’s better than lonliness isn’t it?
Is it? Or does all that social media bullshit just mean we have huge internet bills, no real friends and another dirty habit?
At an interactive shindig last week a very smug and “high on my own geek bullshit job” ad-rat in a cheap suit told me that web 3.o is on the way. Man, I had to laugh:

“Well, maybe 2.5″
“Does that mean its only half fucking baked?”

Apparently A.I. means “sites” themselves will “do the talking”; sounds great. BUT will they do the dishes and mow the lawn too? I haven’t visited many sites intelligent enough yet to make toast. The concept of a “site” really sums it up as an area of containment, but what the hell, we’ve built most aspects of our culture to contain and imprison, like our cities.

http://www.uniservices.co.nz/pageloader.aspx?page=1484d8d0d82

Unless one is reading being trapped in 2d is poor experientially: transforming electric into magnetic or other energy forms means we can permeate the air with data and subsequently  display information in “air”  or in mind: then we will be free from the tyranny of the screen/device; able ultimately to control/manipulate/communicate data in a telepathic omnisphere. Which is problematic -  at what level is thought language (signs and signifiers)?
“Machines” using organic chemical reactions could match speeds of (self?) reflexive sentience. In what could be an organic/digital/biological symbiotic technolosphere people universally connected through thought consciousness create infinitely realtime instantaneous “social networks” (freed from hardware/ownership/cost/expense/control -or trapped by them) meaning natural collective egalitarian change effected through consensual ideas at the speed of the synaptic / immediate…

heads will explode.

Sometimes though when I look at our dirty, filthy world with its entrenched notions of war and violence, a “media” focus upon shallow consumerism, greed, an industrial complex that values fossil fuels and pollution combined with disease, inequality, suffering and overpopulation, plus our inability to coexist with each other and the hollow conceit of our self annointment as “king of the animals”, and the privilege of the few over the may then I think we are, if not as a species, but as governments/controlling bodies dumb, selfish and stupid enough to f*&k it up.

I received an email just today regarding my comments on My Space and how it was actually a poor platform for audio distribution. Some people did not like this. Well, unless you are Lilly Allen who seems to have the fucking thing sewn up quite nicely  (an example of the industry using social media to continue the interruptive model of blanket advertising) how can it work? To my mind anything that makes it onto the front of My Space warrants ignoring because it must have be paid for. And there`s so much damn stuff – the new this , the next that, god it`s boring.
SO for those of you who think my space really works consider this:

If you want to hide a tree – hide it in the forest.

My Space is one of the most popular destinations for musicians. I`ve used it; but never to listen to anyone`s music really – it just fails miserably for that. What is clever is that despite having a clunky interface with a fairly poor usability quotient the site is popular. Why? Probably because it allows its users to develop and customise an identity and to talk sh** with each other.
Now, this is not a post about My Space being a large spam portal run by a huge global media corps of greedy manipulative suits tracking the populace or any other dark practices. What this post is about is the fact that success on  My Space is inversely proportional to communication efficacy. It`s very simple: the more friends you have the less likely any of your messages will stand out. If you bulletin 500 friends and each of these friends have 500 friends then your bulletin has a very slim chance of being noticed.

Yeah – thats right. The more “friends” you`ve got , the less successful any bulletin will be, lost in a sea of meaningless, ubiquitous, homogenous bulletins that all look the same.

Do what you want – in music, art, work, wherever possible. If someone notices that`s great. But, if they dont , so what? You are still doing what you want.

Genius is a word that`s bandied around these days as though it`s something that`s free, something to be found in the bottom of a packet of cornflakes. Not that rare gleaming like the flashing of a comet in the surface of a calderan lake. Unfortunately we live in an age of arch-mediocrity masquerading as noesis…….mostly through the perceived synonymity of marketing and meritocracy.
Achieving genius is often paraphrased as being “99 percent perspiration and 100 percent inspiration”.

A genius is a person who successfully applies a previously unknown technique in the production of a work of art, science or calculation, or who masters and personalizes a known technique. A genius typically possesses great intelligence or remarkable abilities in a specific subject, or shows an exceptional natural capacity of intellect and/or ability, especially in the production of creative and original work, something that has never been seen or evaluated previously. Traits often associated with genius include strong individuality, imagination, uniqueness, and innovative drive.

Achieving genius is more like evaporation, like boiling water. It takes more energy for water temperature to lift from 99 degrees to 100 degrees than to reach 99 degress from ambient temperature.
There`s a vast difference between “almost” and “all”; that extra last percent is worth 100 times the 99 that went before.

One of the deadly traps hidden along the road to creative success:

Perfectionism.

This is a stifling, choking pathological form of maladaptive behaviour that stop achievement dead in its tracks.

I just recently listened to some music from 1990 to 1997: I was surprised at how awesome, explosive and vital it was, good hooks, great licks, some good songs – perhaps it could have gone somewhere, but it never did, never went anywhere…perfectionism made bloody sure of that. It was never quite good enough; especially the production, the equipment it was recorded on, the instrumentation, I thought the playing could be better etcetera… I guess it`s just another pillar to hide behind, another clever reason not to take a chance, another way to avoid critique, another way to conveniently but unobtrusively fail.

Conversely its absolutely no good either, diluting your ‘brand’ with lacklustre, unprofessional messages that scream poor quality and a lack of judgement. Work with whatever you`ve got, but work well.

… it happened around 1995.

I attended University in the 90’s, wrote with an inkwell and fountain pen; a what ? Okay a pen….on paper…..Anyway; I emerged from the classical enclaves of academia to a world where the stylus was invisible, mobile phones illiterally ubiquitous and a preternatural digital goldrush heralded by neu-optimism and championed by dot com VC up-starts, code-yuppies and hipper than hip web-dee-zynaahz with blue hair threatened to kill itself off at 11.59pm, 1999, Millenium time.

In those 3 years of studying the planet had become quite wholly unrecognisable and obviously inoperable; until 12.01 p.m. 2000, when the BUG thing emerged as an expensive hoax of sorts.

Change. Change. Change. Where was the planetary “change-management team”?  Nowhere! Can traditional business and advertising respond intelligently, to infiltrate and/or build exclusive tribes, deliver products, accountability, honesty, to drop that shout in your face old fashioned advertising pitch? Or die a slow lingering death in the invisible centre of nowhere trying to look cool while flogging a dead horse? We`ll find out.

Hank Williams just recently suggested that the web 2.o social media phenomenon was “economically neutral”. Maybe so, but, these sites allow the idea and word virus to propagate quickly and speedily, to build connections from the previously dissolute, to exist without traditional CENTRES of exchange…Web 2.0 perhaps embodies a need to make more real world sense, utility,  and impact from the online one- to create purpose, meaning, fullfilment and change from the individual through to the global; distances collapse and old fashioned models dissolve. For the creators of these ideas, the digital nomads, the scions of change, evolution is inevitable.

One day these “faster than market” networks will become truly multilateral, instantaneous, conversational and so responsive and adaptive to communities that they may become like thought.

Hank has recently pointed out though that this marks the death knell of the individual as a component in a useful society.

He’s right: life made more sense when we paid for DOING things that could be properly measured, not just for f**king around on yawn…facebook.

In the tech economy, in the last five years we have produced very little that actually makes any of our lives better. Twitter is cute, but economically unproductive. Ditto Friendfeed. Ditto (fill in the blank with your favorite social media platform). These products are economically neutral. And that is not a good thing. To those of you that would argue with me on this point, I defy you to explain the real world economic value/impact of the social media revolution. How does it help increase the real world GDP even one little tiny bit. I dare you. I double dare you. You can’t do it. Because if all of it went away, the world would be the same the next day. And I don’t want to hear any crap about how we are going to “figure it out”. The time for figuring out how to create value out of economically unproductive concepts has passed.

Hank Williams on his blog “Why does everything suck?”

Anyway; the metaphysical otherness of web 2.o; it truly is bound up in ethereal non-specificity!

Okay most social media sites such as Facebook and Myspace are economically neutral, but that`s perhaps because they are closed social habitats; contained, linear and dependent upon a traditional & therefore traffic fed advertising model. This is obviously a catch 22 for them and hard to resolve both technically and economically – membership dependent and selling poor quality, non personalised interference and static – these sites feel hideously outmoded already but, no-one knows quite how to step up to the next rung.
If only they could all talk to each other simultaneously…

Nevertheless as Hank implies social media isn`t a failure if used properly to create real world changes. Perhaps the value, though not fiscal, lies in  the creation of networks that champion the voice of the customer and in doing so place them over and above that of the sponsor? In this sense advertising will surely become controlled by choice, as networks will eventually become open and controlled my their consituents rather than a company.

Change the world or go home.
What does it really mean?

Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the 15th century changed the world, fed the Renaissance and powered the scientific revolution – where once the pre-Copernican earth was a flat disc in a heliocentric universe it was now a mere spherical satellite at the dependent mercy of the ever raging Sun, the death of God, Aristotelian physics, and the triumph of Paine’s Age of Reason.

Gutenberg’s invention also precipitates the archetype of mass communication where publishing power remains squarely in the hands of the elite. If we consider that modern advertising perhaps had its foundation in the military propaganda created during World War One, but was really born through the spread of television in America, propagated through the NBC introduction of the commercial break rather than a single programme sponsor then technologies such as television and radio support elitism & further transform media into commercial opportunity.

The current media overload, saturation, and the whole ad` space shouting match basically means that advertising and marketing has been forced to evolve from the interruptive, intermittent, high frequency, WOW factor linearity of the early Fifties and the ungainly mass media signals of print, billboards, radio-television commercials, and even online banners to Permission based programmes that build upon reciprocal loyalty, and in doing so ethically and respectfully, create greater permission and therefore increasing opportunities.

Intelligent conversational media projects illuminate just how smart, positive and responsive technology becomes socially responsible, or even how mobile technologies, for example an iPhone or digital camera are intrinsically creating new social fabric; that both social change and technology seem to have become reciprocal entities built upon choice, consent, collaboration and inherent networks that grow smarter & faster. The mobile phone may provide the next truly big ad space, and perhaps bolster a new elite in Telecommunications companies.

Social media sites depend upon integrating technology with and creating interaction and conversation between people to build shared-meanings, values, dialogue and to challenge inertia through the power of collaborative conscience (embedded in the web) to create change. Closed social habitats like MySpace hinge upon the almost televisual, hermetic relegation of choice, freedom, movement, compatibility, independence, and transparency to concepts of audience numbers & advertising.

For example Buzz the people is a New Zealand website that makes it very easy to help charities whilst informing New Zealand companies what you think about their advertising, products and service. Have your say on politics and current New Zealand issues, influence media and corporate organisations, win prizes and donate points to the charity of your choice just for giving your views. Great!

This is a very clever method of market research [& unbelievably, positive social engineering] conceived by BuzzChannel, an Auckland agency. Making communication between government, companies and their customers, the general public, seamless, desirable and socially responsible is something to be recommended…

Does anyone else have occasional issues with the Adobe products security? It works alright, it works so well that I can’t access my applications even with my serial number. My re-install discs are an aeroplane flight and therefore currently a week away. The software doesn’t like me keeping it in two places – laptop / external drive.
Here is the scenario: my adobe discs are in a different city. I am a long way away for now. An upgrade to my music production software kills off my system. I back up my Adobe applications and reinstall the OS. I fire up my Adobe application:

This application has moved from the location in which it was originally installed. Some settings need to be repaired. Repair Now.

I repair them and try to launch them. They fall over, in a big way. I am presented with:

“Licensing for this product has stopped working.”

No opportunity to enter my serial number arises. I download a trial app from the net on top of the old one. I enter my serial number. It doesn’t work. The Adobe fixes don’t work. Great products, fantastic security; and a bit of a drag to use at the moment but a great advertisement for cloud computing.

The Dell blog Digital Nomads is generating alot of interest. Its a great place to start if you`re wondering what the fuss is all about. I heard about it from Hugh`s superlative blog at Gaping Void. I think there are different degrees to what being a digital nomad means obviously.
If you want the low down on hardcore tenets, principles and reasoning head over here to Chris`s community and social media site.

Personally, the fluctuations of the employment market forced me to become a nomad. The rise and fall of firms, design tools, software and technologies going out of fashion, salaries, working hard, being laid off because a rat in a suit couldn`t sell the product properly…all of these things helped me to bring into focus and really question what I had already been suspicious of, that is, there is no centre, certainty, regularity, guarantee or even sphere to exist within but rather that turning away from conventional paths and forging my own was the way forward.

I`m not saying it suits everybody, the sacrifices are huge, you pay one way or another for whatever lifestyle you choose….but one thing is for sure, happiness is available if you want it and the digital revolution has brought freedom, expression, creativity and the power to choose to those who want it…

I‘m an avid reader of Gaping Void and a keen proponent of Hugh Macleod. I am also a keen follower of his foray into the world of commercial art. Hugh has been working on taking his “doodles” (they are far more than that) to the next level – large commercial, limited run paintings and pieces. I think they are iconoclastic, different and Hugh Macleod`s use of Web 2.0 to develop, maintain, change and create a lifestyle/platform for his work is a feat of some proportion. He talks about it like it’s easy, but it aint.

In the brave new world of the digital nomad there is no ‘career’ as far as I can see, no job for life and no reason to want either of these things. I’ve been moving around relying on an internet connection for years.

In his last post Hugh was saying how he had been approached by various galleries but felt their proposition of little value – he can use his blog to sell. Galleries are merely loquacious! Hugh uses cutting edge techniques to sell an art form as old as the hills. That`s not to say that galleries are redundant. What makes an Art gallery so special is what they represent as vestibules of tradition; cathedrals dedicated to genius, form, expression, elitism and, why not? Expensive places for those with (a) taste.

Canvas is irreplaceable: I recently observed a Picasso that was so unbelievably clever, it seemed beyond the realms of perception, or possibility, being a painting both of what it was but achieved this somehow by being a painting exactly of what it was not. Let`s not forget how the most successful artists are usually very successful marketeers – just like Avidar Dollars, just like Hugh.

Will galleries disappear? No – there is something to be said for standing in front of a painting, much like reading online, or onscreen, cannot replace holding a novel. The medium seems highly important to me in relation to the message, long may they co-exist, what`s actually really changing is the topology of the marketplace.

Apart from having a ridiculously pretentious name – which these days sounds about as refreshing as New Labour, or perhaps New Prosthetic – what is it with ambient media?

If used correctly ambient could really challenge traditional forms and create new, dynamic messages. In effect it`s merely the same old advertising in new non-traditional places. At your dentist, on your beermat, bus ticket, plasma screen at airport… The thing is it just cannot deliver on the level of personalisation and control we already expect to encounter and don’t receive in real life or on the interweb. Perhaps it`s too guerilla for some companies, perhaps it’s too  hard to track the impact, make it accountable, deliver the figures, too expensive – it takes a leap of faith….and until supratechnologies such as digital paper, digital air even, universal unlimited bandwidth wi-fi and intelligence/choice/personalisation really arrive, and twist our  heads into knots, still a fucking clumsy old fashioned pile of ugly screens and boxes plastered around the place; it’s the leprosy of the advertising world.

Most ambient hardware quite rightly collects nothing much more than the attention of vandals; kiosks filled with Coca-Cola and chewing gum, dogged with errors and built like monolithic storm trooper Daleks the screens were so high only giants could read their intended messages. Yeah the ambient medium is different but it`s still essentially someone shouting in your face. In this sense all advertising is subliminal programming and will become ever more nefarious in attempts to command our attention.

The mobile phone will probably represent the next breakthrough in advertising space inheriting the internet`s latest “intelligent strategies”. Mobile companies are probably looking forward to a time when their virtual real estate becomes the most sought after. But again there is still no excuse for poor quality advertising even if it is highly targeted – we are resistant to bland, poorly encoded messages.

If I want to be advertised to I`d like it to be so personalised, so INVISIBLE: I choose it myself and moreover when I want it too. Myspace take note, your advertising is crass, vulgar and irritating, it is still SPAM. Anyway, when it comes to selecting a platform for your art think on this: if you want to hide a tree – hide it in a forest. Advertising ceases to become so irritating the moment it is targeted at exactly the right prospect through the right means. But this vision encapsulates a nightmare of Orwellian implications.