Immaterial

 



June 27, 2009

Advertising Next - Tom Himpe

This is Himpe's follow-up to his previous book, Advertising is Dead, Long Live Advertising! This latest work includes 150 campaigns for 'The New Communication Age', organized around seventeen mantras; a couple are 'be a storyteller' and 'be experimental'. Himpe believes the digital revolution and its tools have dramatically altered the communication landscape. As a result, small brands can now compete head-to-head with the big brands. So, size or scale is no longer the real discriminator; behavior is. Himpe writes, 'It's not so much about being small or being big; it's about acting small or acting big.' Although I liked his previous book better, Advertising Next is still a great source for creative inspiration.

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June 20, 2009

Pre-Specifics - Vera Bühlmann, et al.

The full title of this book is pre-specifics: Some comparatistic investigations on research in design and art. This book contains contributions by and conversations with a wide variety of people across many interesting disciplines, from jurisprudence to game design to English literature theory. This is also the first book I've read that includes the word 'rhizomatic' on its cover. The topic is design in its broadest and philosophically most immaterial sense. Contributors include Eric Zimmerman, Greg Lynn, Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne. The conversations can be deep and quite erudite. Not for the intellectually faint of heart, but the insights are worth the effort.

From the back cover: This book argues that one of the promising strategies for the design disciplines of tomorrow can be seen in symbolizing the codes of virtual relations among material, biological, technological, cognitive, and medial perspectives. It provides material as well as a tentative theoretical framework to develop and bring to fruition thought-images for a design of the potential.

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June 13, 2009

In & Oz - Steve Tomasula

Although I included a book by Tomasula in an earlier entry, I can't help but mention In & Oz, as well, which would probably be the one novel I would take with me if I was to be stranded on a deserted island. It's hard to describe this book, but I'll try. Like many stories by Gabriel García Márquez, José Saramago, or Hermann Hesse, In & Oz is an extended parable. It has a postmodernist feel while criticizing postmodernist society. The different aspects of this society are embodied by its main characters (Mechanic, Photographer, Composer, Designer, and Poet/Sculptor) and their interactions in the story. But there are other aspects to this book, aside from its narrative form and story content, that I just found - innovative, if I had to grasp for a word - that I can't do justice to with my own inadequate description. And Tomasula does this all in less than 150 pages.

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June 6, 2009

Esopus

I picked up my first issue of the arts magazine Esopus a couple of years ago. It is published twice a year by the Esopus Foundation, a non-profit organization that believes in providing a non-commercial space for creative people. I like this magazine for a few reasons: 

First, no advertisements. Need I say more? It seems like every other page of your typical arts magazine has an ad or a promotion. For me, it breaks the experience.

Second, the format. The variety of paper textures, layouts, and content inserts makes each issue feel like a handmade creation compiled just for you - oh, and it comes with a CD, as well. 

Third, the price. At $14.00/issue, I regard Esopus as the Visionaire for The Rest of Us (who can't fork over the $250/issue, for that wonderful publication ). SInce it's priced well below its production costs, the foundation does rely on donations from organizations and individuals to help sustain its efforts.

Anyway, grab a copy and see for yourself.

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May 30, 2009

Simulation and Its Discontents - Sherry Turkle

Here is a book that explores the discontents of computer simulations, and how the technology has impacted fields such as science and architecture. I read this book with the intent of getting a different perspective from what Schrage presented in Serious Play. The book consists of essays by Turkle and other contributors; although, it is Turkle's essay that I found most compelling. Simulations can become - in the spirit of the Tyrell Corporation - more real than real. What happens when your simulations start edging out the real? Where no reference points exist in the real world for you to check for their correctness? When one observes a simulation and feels he or she now knows how something actually works? What are the implications? It's easy to be seduced by a beautiful visual simulation, regard it as 'real', when beneath it lies layers upon layers of abstract code. It makes one ponder.

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May 23, 2009

Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate - Michael Schrage

Although this book was published about ten years ago, I find that its ideas are more relevant than ever when it comes to design and innovation. Both Apple and Walt Disney Imagineering (as well as others) get it and know the importance of prototypes, models, and simulations. If you want to have meaningful interactions with others about your concepts or designs, you need to build them and not just talk about them. When I build prototypes, I'm creating possible futures. When I show them to others and we have conversations around them, it's a form of time travel; we are, in a way, exploring and examining artifacts from the future. What I like most about them is that they help to surface the unknown unknowns of a design concept. You can use simulations in the same way. They're all forms of play - serious play.

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May 16, 2009

Mind, Language, and Society: Philosophy in the Real World - John R. Searle

Another book from my reread pile. Searle is a philosopher and a professor at UC Berkeley. One of his most widely known thought experiments is probably the Chinese Room Argument, which argues against A.I.'s claim that a computer, one day, will actually be able to think or will become an actual mind. In this book, Searle describes the structure and interrelations of mind, language, and society. He provides conceptual frameworks that support what he calls 'the Enlightenment vision.' (As a quick reference point: postmodernists see themselves as challenging the Enlightenment vision.) There are many who may think that the real world is incomprehensible or relativistic, or that we live in multiple realities. Searle counters those notions with intellectual rigor, while still explaining things in very understandable and real terms. 

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May 9, 2009

All Marketers Are Liars - Seth Godin

I think Seth Godin writes great marketing books. I particularly like this book because he focuses on the telling of great and authentic stories. Although he writes about 'the consumer', I like to think of that person as any consumer of ideas. So it's not just about people who buy products; it's also about those executives, managers, partners, team members, &c. that need to believe in your ideas for them to succeed. From my own experience, I have seen how telling compelling stories influences executive management decisions, and how one cannot just rely upon the merits of an idea alone. It's not simply what you say, but how you say it (or show it). In this book, Godin offers great advice and examples on how to craft powerful stories and what will make them authentic. You don't have to be in marketing to appreciate this book. If you're in the ideas or innovation business, this book is for you, too.

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May 2, 2009

Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life - Winifred Gallagher

I've been meaning to read one of Gallagher's books for some time, now. Her topics of choice have always been fascinating, to me. The subject of her latest book, Rapt, seems especially timely for someone like me, who grew up in an era before Blackberrys, 24/7, and ADHD. Although I have adapted to this multitasking round-the-clock lifestyle, I question how it's affecting me. So, I thought, if I was going to start reading Gallagher, this would be an appropriate first book. I think contemporary society may be losing its ability to distinguish one's standard of living from one's quality of life.

Your life is composed of experiences and, according to Gallagher, your quality of life depends on what you choose to pay attention to. Although the premise is simple, the implications can be profound. Through stories and interviews, each chapter illustrates how attention impacts different aspects of our lives, including relationships, productivity, creativity, and health. Along the way, she shares her own observations and insights on how we can choose to apply our attention in beneficial ways.

Good stuff.

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April 25, 2009

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

Lately, I've been rereading some of the books that influenced me, as a youth. I would have to say that Zen sits at the top of that list.  Reading it was a seminal event for me. It led me to a serious lifelong study of philosophy (both Eastern and Western); it forced me to examine my own thinking; and it changed how I viewed the external world. It was an inflection point, for someone in high school, searching for the truth, trying to figure out life.

I don't know if young people in the 21st century still read this book. And if they do, I don't know if it would have the same impact on their lives, like it had on mine. Modern society seems to be less concerned about - and less willing to pursue - such topics, as discussed in Pirsig's book.

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