Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon, Clint Eastwood, Marvin Gaye, Buzz Aldrin, Marilyn Monroe were all part of the “Silent Generation.” Demographic justification defines this generation with birthdays between 1925 and 1945; it includes the children born during the Great Depression and World War II, and those who fought in the Korean War. William Manchester, a biographer and historian, summarized the generation as “withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent.” My experiences over the last few Tuesdays have proved Manchester a fool.
Class lets out at 4:45pm on Tuesday. I’m usually a bit fried from discussions on technology as a disruptive force and heavy with weight of homework assignments due in less than 24 hours, but I agreed to join my professor and a few classmates on a trip to a senior community in Shelburne, Vermont. With promises of a $5 dinner, and good karma, we were tasked with helping seniors with digital technology.
Jody was one of the first residents to enter the room. I looked up from my screen, having downed the vegetarian option at the café and feverishly trying to knock out some part of my hefty homework load in the small window. She smiled, I smiled, and the journey began. “Where should I sit?” she asked. The evening was a bit of an experiment, pre-assigned to topics, uncertain of our destined partners or further arrangement I invited her to take a sit until we were told otherwise.
“Do you have an iPad?” she inquired.
“Well no. But I have an iPhone, it’s the small version of the iPad and I work with a lot of Apple products. I bet I can help.”
“I really need to talk to someone who knows the iPad.”
What happened next was perhaps serendipity… Jeff, my professor surfing the room, formally assigned us to work together. Needless to say, Jody wasn’t thrilled, she had come here, looking for simple, straightforward, easy answers and my lack of an iPad was a strike against me. She whipped out a laundry list of topical questions, sync issues and other problems. I took a deep breath and dug to the core of my inner yogi. I knew I had something to prove and jumped to the plate, reading the first item aloud, “e-books.”
Did you know that the Kindle reader app doesn’t work on the iPad 2? You need the Amazon Cloud Reader app apparently. Long story short, I didn’t know that. Jody studied library sciences, was a librarian and has a love of a book in hand. She really had no interest in reading e-books but she wanted the option. She wanted to know, what was all the rage? Lesson 1. Technology is not seamless. Lesson 2. Technology makes things easier, but it isn’t easy.
Tuesday 1. Downloaded some new apps, managed to get access to e-books against great odds, set up email account and covered podcasting. I was amazed and caught off guard by Jody’s hunger; in her 70’s she was aching for modern technological enlightenment. Along with the hunger was fear and frustration. The more she talked about her six children and numerous grandchildren that more I understood. Jody knows the world is operating a new digital playing field and she does not want to be left behind. She wants her voice heard.
I returned the following Tuesday evening, not quite knowing what to expect. Jody arrived shortly after with her laptop and iPad. It sort of felt magical on Tuesday 2. She had played with some of the new apps and had questions on syncs and social networking. “I tried Facebook,” she said. My eyes bugged out of their sockets. Curiosity is what keeps us young, regardless of what year it says on your birth certificate. Her internal digerati had been awoken. By the end of the evening we were following each other on Twitter and she was planning a trip to Small Dog to buy a MacBook. I assume her Dell laptop has found a dumpster by now. Lesson 3: Technology can be your friend, if you let it.
Lesson 4: Life works in mysterious ways. I’ll be honest, 15 minutes into Tuesday 1 was thinking about wolves wearing sheep costumes. By the end of Tuesday 2, I was feeling a bit sentimental that the experience was coming to a close. Lesson 5: Empathy. It is important to look at the resistance of technology and where it comes from and what feeds it. It is easy to forget that we all use technology with different expectations.
Jody has sent me words of thanks by email. I don’t think she understands that I am grateful for these Tuesdays; sure a lesson in patience, a reminder to be sweet and steadfast, but a powerful experience nonetheless. I am confident that Manchester’s generalization needs to be revisited. Nothing about Jody suggests she is withdrawn. She reads more than anyone else I know and is openly seeking education in her golden years. Perhaps she is a bit cautious but I would argue, well shouldn’t she be? I think over one cup of tea, Manchester would be biting his tongue, unimaginative? Unadventurous? I don’t think so. Silent? Think again sir.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Photography, Painting and Puppy Love
Digital painting: let's hear it for trying something new! I used a Wacom drawing tablet and many of the paintbrushes in Photoshop to create this digital painting of my dog and I:
This is is a link to the PSD file.
This is is a link to the PSD file.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Moves Like Jager
“Make it new,” he said simply. This is a principle Michael has lived by for the last 20 years directing the multidisciplinary creative and design efforts of JDK. The firm’s portfolio includes Burton Snowboards, Microsoft’s XBOX, Nike, Levis, Phish, MTV and Patagonia. As Michael would say, emotional, rational and cultural forces inspire their work and helps focus the center on the idea that design distinction matters.
As I pulled into my parking spot outside my condo, I couldn’t remember my drive home, my mind outpaced the wheels rolling on the pavement. I was anxious to make sure I held on to the inspiration and I plunked myself on the couch with some markers and wrote down everything I could remember. Now, every morning when I wake up and the wall above me looks like this:
Michael’s presentation was a glimpse into the creative thought process, a storm of thought, inspiration and I’ll say it, brilliancy. I put together this poster and threw in a little mayhem, to keep his ideas alive. Just like my bedroom wall, I hope to hold on to Jager’s advice, I know the sentiments will make me a better designer and I would argue a better person.
Michael Jager’s talk was part of the Emergent Landscape Speaker Series at Champlain College. The talk was recorded and is available online. I'm sure the energy will not be the same as it was in the room but here is the link to Michael Jager's talk.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
The Internet Has Arrived
There is much to say about the Internet. We can glorify it, we can vilify it; but the bottom line is that it makes each and every one of us more empowered. “Why aren’t we more amazed by this fullness? Kings of old would have gone to war to win such abilities. Only small children would have dreamed such a magic window could be real,” wrote Kevin Kelly.
I feel like my Grandfather complaining about the youth today, but I am going to do it. I feel a lack of appreciation for the web. The Internet is expression, entertainment, community, knowledge and connectivity at our fingertips. I can only imagine my sentiment of ingrate users growing with passing generations. Kids today grow up with the convenient ease of its speed, information and search functionality; there will be a lot less hauling of 10lb encyclopedias. Kids today will never get to hear the beautiful sound of a modem dialing up; “a noise like a duck choking on a kazoo,” according to Dave Barry. Companies like Netscape, Compuserve and America Online will be unrecognized. The invention of the web is perhaps the greatest innovation of my lifetime, and I feel we owe it a few more kudos.
In 1945, American engineer Vannevar Bush wrote, “The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.” Was he the oracle to our matrix? Bush wanted to take on the overwhelming task of making all of human knowledge more accessible. With great foresight, and perhaps prophetic talent, Bush envisioned hypertext, and thus became a pioneer of the World Wide Web.
Bush recognized humanity’s increased ability to keep an improved record with developments in photography, printing, film and other mediums. He saw potential for authentic and accurate copies of information and even foresaw the ability to compress these, “The Encyclopedia Britannica could be reduced to the volume of a matchbox. A library of a million volumes could be compressed into one end of a desk.” Bush wanted a better way to augment human understanding and cognition, a few decades later his vision become a reality.
Kevin Kelly is a great writer. Interested in the early history of the web? Take a second, and read the article “We are the Web” from Wired magazine.
Ok, I’m going to skip a lot of the history lesson because it is available all over the web, ironic isn’t it? I want to talk about what really surprised the hell out of web pioneers: the prevalence of user made content. Believe it or not at one point there was fundamental concern that web content would be too expensive to procure and thus the net would be lacking information. These early web masterminds underestimated human desire to make and create contributions, for interaction, participation, and for options--- and this is what has turned into “the main event.” The scope of the web today is hard to believe. The culture is participatory: we are sharing recipes, updating Wikipedia, commenting on the news, and posting and reading blogs. Kelly is right, we are the web.
Social media is just one example of our participatory environment but it is a significant shift in our culture. Watch this video.
Today, from your laptop, desktop, game system, tablet or handheld device, you can get: a an enormous variety of music and video, a constantly updated encyclopedia, the weather forecasts, help wanted ads, satellite images of anyplace on Earth, up-to-the-minute news from around the globe, IRS forms, road maps with driving directions, ticking stock quotes, telephone numbers, real estate listings with virtual walk-throughs, pictures of just about anything, game scores, records of political contributions, library catalogs, appliance manuals, live traffic reports, archives of major newspapers and magazines - all wrapped up in a searchable platform that really works. Information is available to us like never before.
What will come from the explosion of information, increased technical ability and our desire to share? This is the question of the future. We will certainly get more “lol cats” Clay Shirky suggests in his Ted Talk, “How cognitive surplus will change the world.” But Shirky is also hoping for something more, something bigger than “lol cats.”
Shirky talks about Ushahidi, a website that launched in 2008 as a form of crisis mapping in Kenya. The tool offered Eastern Africans information and the ability to share information about what was going on around them in the shade of their government’s media blackout. This platform embodies the idea of cognitive surplus, of shared information meant to help one another, of open source information made up of the world’s free time and talents. Man, it is truly a beautiful thing. I think we should all be amazed and inspired by idea of “design for generosity.” The Internet has given us an enormous opportunity to create tools and spaces that offer civic value, change society and build a more cooperative world. It’s up to us to harness the power for more than “lol cats.”
I do not deny that there are problems with Internet. We can talk about things like privacy, control and the loss of “common ground” sometime soon. But there is only one era in history when the Internet is born. You and I have are alive at this moment. I don’t know about you, but I find it exciting.
I feel like my Grandfather complaining about the youth today, but I am going to do it. I feel a lack of appreciation for the web. The Internet is expression, entertainment, community, knowledge and connectivity at our fingertips. I can only imagine my sentiment of ingrate users growing with passing generations. Kids today grow up with the convenient ease of its speed, information and search functionality; there will be a lot less hauling of 10lb encyclopedias. Kids today will never get to hear the beautiful sound of a modem dialing up; “a noise like a duck choking on a kazoo,” according to Dave Barry. Companies like Netscape, Compuserve and America Online will be unrecognized. The invention of the web is perhaps the greatest innovation of my lifetime, and I feel we owe it a few more kudos.
In 1945, American engineer Vannevar Bush wrote, “The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.” Was he the oracle to our matrix? Bush wanted to take on the overwhelming task of making all of human knowledge more accessible. With great foresight, and perhaps prophetic talent, Bush envisioned hypertext, and thus became a pioneer of the World Wide Web.
Bush recognized humanity’s increased ability to keep an improved record with developments in photography, printing, film and other mediums. He saw potential for authentic and accurate copies of information and even foresaw the ability to compress these, “The Encyclopedia Britannica could be reduced to the volume of a matchbox. A library of a million volumes could be compressed into one end of a desk.” Bush wanted a better way to augment human understanding and cognition, a few decades later his vision become a reality.
Kevin Kelly is a great writer. Interested in the early history of the web? Take a second, and read the article “We are the Web” from Wired magazine.
Ok, I’m going to skip a lot of the history lesson because it is available all over the web, ironic isn’t it? I want to talk about what really surprised the hell out of web pioneers: the prevalence of user made content. Believe it or not at one point there was fundamental concern that web content would be too expensive to procure and thus the net would be lacking information. These early web masterminds underestimated human desire to make and create contributions, for interaction, participation, and for options--- and this is what has turned into “the main event.” The scope of the web today is hard to believe. The culture is participatory: we are sharing recipes, updating Wikipedia, commenting on the news, and posting and reading blogs. Kelly is right, we are the web.
Social media is just one example of our participatory environment but it is a significant shift in our culture. Watch this video.
Today, from your laptop, desktop, game system, tablet or handheld device, you can get: a an enormous variety of music and video, a constantly updated encyclopedia, the weather forecasts, help wanted ads, satellite images of anyplace on Earth, up-to-the-minute news from around the globe, IRS forms, road maps with driving directions, ticking stock quotes, telephone numbers, real estate listings with virtual walk-throughs, pictures of just about anything, game scores, records of political contributions, library catalogs, appliance manuals, live traffic reports, archives of major newspapers and magazines - all wrapped up in a searchable platform that really works. Information is available to us like never before.
What will come from the explosion of information, increased technical ability and our desire to share? This is the question of the future. We will certainly get more “lol cats” Clay Shirky suggests in his Ted Talk, “How cognitive surplus will change the world.” But Shirky is also hoping for something more, something bigger than “lol cats.”
Shirky talks about Ushahidi, a website that launched in 2008 as a form of crisis mapping in Kenya. The tool offered Eastern Africans information and the ability to share information about what was going on around them in the shade of their government’s media blackout. This platform embodies the idea of cognitive surplus, of shared information meant to help one another, of open source information made up of the world’s free time and talents. Man, it is truly a beautiful thing. I think we should all be amazed and inspired by idea of “design for generosity.” The Internet has given us an enormous opportunity to create tools and spaces that offer civic value, change society and build a more cooperative world. It’s up to us to harness the power for more than “lol cats.”
I do not deny that there are problems with Internet. We can talk about things like privacy, control and the loss of “common ground” sometime soon. But there is only one era in history when the Internet is born. You and I have are alive at this moment. I don’t know about you, but I find it exciting.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Anachronism
Technology has allowed us to create new digital worlds of make believe. Programs like Adobe Photoshop have given us incredible power, but with it comes responsibility. What happens when reality and make believe collide? What happens when we distort reality and don't recognize the truth? Images have been altered to erase and change history and newsworthy events. Through "airbrushing techniques" we have forced an artificial sense of beauty. Here are a few examples of Famous Altered Images. I was tasked this week with creating an anachronism. An anachronism is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement. The goal was to create an image out of two or more images in which something from the present appears in the past in a way that reflects a temporal impossibility.
World War II was a unique time in history. For the most part, women still stayed at home and tended to their families. Few people imagined women could‚ or should‚ fly. But the need took precedence over traditional male-female roles. My Grandmother, Elsie Matheke Lynch, was a service pilot. From 1942 to 1944, more than 1,000 women were trained to ferry aircraft, test planes, instruct male pilots, and tow targets for anti-aircraft artillery practice.
I often wonder about what this adventure was like for her. The women pilots prided themselves on having better flying records than their male counterparts. Through their ability, courage and diligence, they proved to the skeptics that women were capable pilots. Yet they were given no official military status or privilege. In 1944, as the war was drawing to a close, more male pilots began returning and joining the service. The government forced the shut down of an established program known as WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot). It would be more than thirty years until women would fly again for the US Military.
I wonder what my Nana's Twitter feed would have looked like? I would have definitely followed Airborn Elsie, a brave lady who never lost her sense of wonder and gave the heavens more than a passing glance.
World War II was a unique time in history. For the most part, women still stayed at home and tended to their families. Few people imagined women could‚ or should‚ fly. But the need took precedence over traditional male-female roles. My Grandmother, Elsie Matheke Lynch, was a service pilot. From 1942 to 1944, more than 1,000 women were trained to ferry aircraft, test planes, instruct male pilots, and tow targets for anti-aircraft artillery practice.
I often wonder about what this adventure was like for her. The women pilots prided themselves on having better flying records than their male counterparts. Through their ability, courage and diligence, they proved to the skeptics that women were capable pilots. Yet they were given no official military status or privilege. In 1944, as the war was drawing to a close, more male pilots began returning and joining the service. The government forced the shut down of an established program known as WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot). It would be more than thirty years until women would fly again for the US Military.
I wonder what my Nana's Twitter feed would have looked like? I would have definitely followed Airborn Elsie, a brave lady who never lost her sense of wonder and gave the heavens more than a passing glance.
Here is a link to download a PSD file: Airborn Elsie Photoshop File
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