filed under articles – page 2 – lucas did this

September 19th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, articles, culture and sociology

My lostness comes from the sense that our cultural collections are not wholly our own anymore. In the era of algorithmic feeds, it’s as if the bookshelves have started changing shape on their own in real time, shuffling some material to the front and downplaying the rest like a sleight-of-hand magician trying to make you pick a specific card — even as they let you believe it’s your own choice. And this lack of agency is undermining our connections to the culture that we love.

Even though I definitely don’t consider The digital death of collecting being something I myself might be affected anytime soon –I collect LPs, books and magazines, polaroids and probably even too much other physical stuff, I do fear Kyle Chayka’s observations might hold true for the general public —especially for the generations yet to discover the broad field of culture.

Another interesting essay adding to the sentiment that made me publish on this blog again in the first place.

kylechayka.substack.com/p/essay-the-digital-death-of-collecting
August 28th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, articles, culture and sociology

Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast proposes, slow disposes. Fast is discontinuous, slow is continuous. Fast and small instructs slow and big by accrued innovation and by occasional revolution. Slow and big controls small and fast by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power.

Interesting essay by Stewart Brand for the Journal of Design and Science, outlining the strengths of a construct called “Pace Layering”.

Even though he focuses on human society and a six-layered structure (Fashion/art, Commerce, Infrastructure, Governance, Culture, Nature) as the basis of a healthy civilization for the most part of Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning, Brand proposes all dynamic systems to be based on a structure made of multiple layers of different pace and size in order to be robust and durable.

In design –no matter the specific field, but especially in software and systems design, of course, we come across and/or form a lot of dynamic systems with the need to be adaptable, so pace layering might provide a valuable concept to build upon.

jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/issue3-brand/release/2
June 30th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, articles

I am on Twitter, still, despite my better judgment, and it seems to me to be The extremely unforgiving medium in my life.
It is risky compositionally. You can delete a tweet, but you can’t edit a tweet. You can add to a tweet, but it’s hard to improve upon it.
It is risky socially. Every tweet is an invitation for scrutiny if not consultation if not correction if not misunderstanding if not rancor. Forgiveness, even if we agreed it still existed in the wider culture, I think we could probably agree it doesn’t really exist on Twitter. (“Never Tweet” is not terrible advice.)

While Twitter still refuses to provide its users the repeatedly brought up and widely requested edit button, Austin Kleon has a point for Blogging as a forgiving medium —published on his personal blog of course. Reaffirms my suggestion to move back from the centralised social media structures to self-contained, more private digital spaces, instead.

austinkleon.com/2021/02/09/blogging-as-a-forgiving-medium/
June 28th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, articles, culture and sociology

To be truly countercultural today, in a time of tech hegemony, one has to, above all, betray the platform, which may come in the form of betraying or divesting from your public online self.

Earlier this year Caroline Busta wrote a comprehensive –and very interesting– online article about counterculture in the time of social media hegemony, touching on politics, technology and culture. The internet didn’t kill counterculture—you just won’t find it on Instagram.

documentjournal.com/2021/01/the-internet-didnt-kill-counterculture-you-just-wont-find-it-on-instagram
June 17th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, articles, design

I came to the same conclusion as Massimo and many other designers—I don’t need a huge range of fonts of questionable quality to choose from, I only need a few high quality ones. So I created my own list of 5 fonts that I use most often.

Not sure, if I’d be able to strictly limit myself to five fonts like Massimo Vignelli, but I certainly have a bunch of fonts I keep coming back to more frequently. Guess I’m going to make a list of my favourite ‘five fonts’ covering the cited criteria and then try to use them whenever I start working on something new, as Matej Latin suggests in All you need is 5 fonts.

betterwebtype.com/articles/2021/06/07/all-you-need-is-5-fonts/
May 11th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, articles, design

Over the past few decades, we have helped build a corporate culture that systematically prioritizes short-term gains over longer-term product health.

A well written, intriguingly designed online essay by Fabricio Teixeira, Caio Braga and Emily Curtin about provoking change through the work we do every day as digital product designers. I totally agree, the world needs a tech diet.

essays.uxdesign.cc/tech-diet/
May 3rd 2021
filed under hyperlinks, articles, culture and sociology

This dynamic hints at another shift: Even our most solid, real-world possessions are increasingly inseparable from the intangible and ephemeral digital world. Which means that as much as our relationship to digital possessions may be evolving, so is our relationship to tangible ones — and it’s not a relationship in which the consumer holds much power.

A great article by Dan Greene on The erosion of personal ownership in our increasingly connected world. I highly recommend checking out Internet of Shit on twitter afterwards to witness some of the ludicrous, unintentionally funny ramifications the internet of things holds when the current digital development goes bananas.

vox.com/the-goods/22387601/smart-fridge-car-personal-ownership-internet-things