Alone in a crowd with content (day 197)

Crowds and crowds and lineups and free food and free drinks and loud music and people moving in streams.  It reminded me of the dot com days but this time the crowd was much more mixed.  Some from those days and some younger, and a mix of men and women.   A big emphasis on social media.  Almost too much.  It's somewhat suspicious in its pervasiveness.  Like we're praising at the altar.  This too reminded me of the bubble ten years ago.  A constant consumerism vibe with products being offered as we travel from venue to venue.  Even the 'we can end this' campaign had to adopt a similar tactic to get attention.  Because in a place where distraction is the mode of being, attention is currency.  Very little eye contact.  Most people had their eyeballs on their screens.

For me the most exhausting thing was being alone in a crowd.  I didn't see anyone I knew but I laughed and was frustrated with them, and read their tweets.  I felt strange about going to parties alone and this made the lineups that much more daunting.  So I came home to my new hotel which is a far cry from the Hilton where I spent the first night.   I asked Yelp to tell me where to eat and ended up at this Lebanese cubicle in a strip mall.  Context is everything.  Yes it's a 4 star in this neighbourhood, no doubt.

So what about content in this chaos?  I'm happy to say there is some content.  I attended a talk on design for awareness that had some interesting points about how to created a state of augmented mindfulness.  It's too bad the talk was not well attended.  From the tweets, I know that people were in the iPad panel.  Robert Fabricant of Frog Design gave a great talk on how data collection and presentation can motivate people into making changes.  He exemplified the challenge by showing someone craving fried chicken at time t, and not wanting diabetes at time t+x -- we are not temporally consistent in our desires.  It is possible both want fried chicken and not want diabetes because they are not immediately and not completely correlated.  That, and the fact that habits are physically compelling, make changing things really really hard.   Fabricant talked of the design challenges in convincing people to collect data (if it's not automatic), convince them to spend time with the reporting, and then make sure they know what to do, and then help them make the change.  Enough to keep designers busy for a while.

Also attended a talk by Danah Boyd, on privacy and publicity.  She had lots to say on the equivalence of privacy and control.  That people may be more public but it does not mean they want to be publicized.  She also talked about the privilege of being able to share and the crowd's rejection of some, and the fear of some.  Hiding is sometimes a necessity and in a pinch this is hard to do if you're all over the web.  She didn't take any questions.

The last talk of the day was a conversation with Ze Frank which was entertaining, heart-warming, and bemusing.  Ze is a funny man.  I'd say he's joyful and human but sometimes his entertaining side gets the better of him.  When he was in balance he was amazing.  I'd say this talk/interview/performance was the best I saw today.  I laughed and cried.  I loved his 'children songs for adults series' -- one about being scared and another for when you're overwhelmed.  I thought it was interesting that he made these in response to request from his followers and with the help of his followers in the case of the second one.  There was a kind of vulnerability that I thought was really sweet...perhaps the best of social media.  Someone in the audience asked him if there was a limit to the world going faster and faster.  Were we going to reach a breaking point.  He was very dismissive of her question which I found surprising.  He switched into making fun at her expense.  It's too bad.  I think it's an interesting question because it begs all kinds of questions -- how are things faster?  Are we doing more things? Thinking more things?  Being asked more things?  Are any of these things controllable?  Is everyone's life faster? Faster than what? What happens if we refuse to go faster?  There are so many directions to take this question.  Perhaps it's worth a panel on its own.  I think she asked the question to the wrong crowd.

A song for this post.

Going Sou' (day 195)

SXSW.  I've heard of it.  Now it's time to see what the fuss is about.  I've shared my nervousness about it with some people.  I've been to enough conferences to know that the big media ones are confusing and made for people who love the special kind of freedom that comes from chaos, drink, and unfamiliar surroundings.  I can be that person.  Or I can feel so lost that the only thing I can think about is getting back to my hotel room to read a good reference book.  It seems to depend solely on the company I keep or don't keep.

I admit I have not done enough homework to even know where to go when I wake up on Saturday.  Hopefully before then I'll have cozied up to the schedule and intuited the best coolest things to take in.  The tools are there: fill up your my.schedule, gather info by pointing your iphone at coded designs, etc, etc.  Being social is the what of this conference it seems.  I'll be looking to my friend Alex for some tips, right after I load up my phone with the proper apps and have double-booked all the slots in my.schedule.  Always better to start from a baseline before hitting up the experts.

And whatever happens, at least I get the sun for a sweet few days.

A song for this post.

Click away (day 194)

Sometimes one more click doesn't cut it.  Sometimes the unreal nature of digital communications gets louder than the real connections they are supposed to represent.  Emails come in.  Some get answered.  Others sit in uncomfortable silence unable to generate a coherent response or be discarded.  As the life stream goes by they scroll off the screen and the silence becomes the response.  Sometimes they come back and do not take nothing for an answer.  Emails go out.  Some are answers and wish to be final.  Some are missives and wish to be answered but are forgotten until the response comes.  Some are FYIs and are confused when they elicit a response.  Whole days go by where the conversations with people in the flesh are greatly outnumbered by those with people never seen.  Eventually, the immediacy of digital communication gets confused for the efficiency of information surfing.  A manic clicking fest has left a mass of waiting and frustration.  Many conversations are in the air.  Typing them will always be slower and that's why there needs to be many in the air.  It's not more productive, it's the same.  Except for one crucial difference:  sometimes all the answers come at once and trigger a slight panic at seeing the day's end without an empty daybox.  It's the feed for the involuntary scroll out.  The drama of the inbox never ceases.  It's a soap opera with the same characters and different actors.  Apparently younger people don't do email.  The drama has no doubt mutated to infect another medium.

I needed time away from the the clicks.  I'm back now.  I think.

A song for this post.

Alive in a cemetery (day 190)

Just got back from the fourth installment of Paul Wong's 5 Projects.  This time it was at the MountainView cemetery.  For some reason before I went there I had visions of Halloween with spooky soundtracks and disturbing images.  It wasn't that at all.  Turns out Paul has a fascination with death in a way that I can relate to.  There were 16 works in total, each really interesting.  Some highlights:

• Vigil 5.2 - Video documentation of Rebecca Belmore's performance at the Talking Stick Festival in 2002.  She wrote the names of the missing women in the DTES on her body and screamed out their names then ripped the leaves and petals off of flowers with her mouth.  She also nailed her dress to a pole and ripped it free.  Repeatedly.  A lot of grief.
• 60 Unit; Bruise - First colour video from Western Front, 1976.  Paul Wong and Kenneth Fletcher exchange blood.  The video was shown at Kenneth's grave site.  He committed suicide two years after the video was shot.
• in ten sity - an intense dance piece shot from above a padded room where bodies throw themselves about the room and each other.  Dedicated to Kenneth Fletcher.  It was projected on a petal-covered sheet underneath a tree.  A lot of grief and frustration and energy.
• Burka - slide show of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.  The slide show was projected on the wall, with a woman (mannequin) in a burka looking at it, lit from the inside.  She is standing on what seems like traditional carpets but upon closer inspection there were woven guns and war machinery on them.  The soundtrack is a machine voice.  I wasn't able to quite make out what it was saying. It was interesting to see all the faces.  Some looked very disconnected and dead even while alive.  Others looked completely normal and happy.
• Hungry Ghosts - A five channel piece about death.  Different types of deaths, rituals around death, talk around death, violent death, natural death.  A really touching piece.

Many other interesting pieces.  The setting of the cemetery was really amazing.  This was the best of the projects so far in my opinion.  Everything worked really well together.  I'm glad I went and gave it some time.

A song for this post.

The promise of compromise (day 189)

The search for a portable S3D continued yesterday and today.  Some incredibly useful people helped narrow down the search including Michael Verity, Vic Love, and Chris Lakes.  There is no perfect solution out there but in the interest of time and future intrepid field stereographers of the S3D Centre,  I had to make a decision.  I settled on a system by Inition which integrates lower end but narrow Sony HVR-A1 cameras on a side by side rig, a LANC sync method, and a 3D preview monitor.  The total weight should be around 30lbs but I'm missing some info to give a precise number.  I think this system will be a nice complement to the full-featured Kerner rig with Sony HDC-P1 cameras.

All this last minute shopping has made me realize how much I hate making decisions.  Yes, I'm a director and making decisions should be easy by now but sometimes knowing that there is no perfect solution is really heart-breaking.  Or knowing you don't have the right people for the job but strategically you still need to go ahead and hope the right people show up.  And seeing everyone else's press releases on the same things you are working on and wondering how you'll ever stand out in the crowd.  I find comfort in logistics but just like cooking, there's no point being precise without a plan for all the food to complement each other.  This is where a good team comes in.  And I do have a good team.  Shout outs to Rob Inkster, Alexandra Samuel, Dawn Whitworth, Lynn Leboe, Shannon McKinnon, Morgan Brayton, Simon Overstall, Rick Overington, and Bobbi Kozinuk!

A song for this post.

A 3D you can lift (day 187)

bacterial update: I'm waiting for my tea to cool down so I can put the kombucha mushroom in it.   It's important not to shock the mushroom.  Usually I spend time worrying about things getting cold.  It's amazing how long it actually takes for things to cool down.  I've been underestimating all this time.  Next time I'll plan a bit better.  When I did a taste test today, I realized that I had to bottle the current batch before it went way too acidic.  So it was a bit of a mad rush around the kitchen to get everything organized.  I think this batch ended up with a bit too much yeast.  It's not as good as the previous one.  And the mushroom didn't form as quickly or get as thick either.  Hopefully this next batch is a bit more healthy.  I also realized that I need to buy a jar with a spigot.  That way I don't disturb the mushroom formation when I need to test the pH.  These used to be so popular in the early 80s because of Sun Tea.  You'd think they'd be a dime a dozen.  But a quick look at the Kitchen Store didn't yield any loot.  The Happy Herbalist does sell some containers with spigots but they are twice as large as what I currently have.  With the size of my kitchen I can't really fit anything bigger than a gallon jar.

I spent the day looking for portable stereoscopic 3D solutions.  They are harder to find than I thought.  Panasonic just came out with a twin lens solution but it's not really available yet and has limitations like fixed inter-axial distance.  Still at 6.6 lbs it's an amazing solution for quick field work.  Other than that, it's really a DIY market out there.  I love the little Iconix cameras but the issue with those (besides the steep price) is getting small diameter matched lenses.  It would be so great to have such small cameras to work with not just because of the lower weight but also to shoot in confined space or at close range.  Love knows no bounds and I will find a way.  I've also been looking the 3DFilmFactory rigs for smaller side by side setups.  The ideal setup would be a system where everything fits in a backpack, is less than 30 lbs and runs on batteries.   I remember seeing pictures of Ansel Adams and all the gear he use to lug up mountains in Yosemite.  Not sure how much weight he had but it probably wasn't much more than that.  I have to have some sort of defined shopping list by tomorrow morning.  I've put out lots of leads out there, hopefully some of them pan out.

A song for this post.

To spawn or not to spawn (day 186)

Recently a book review in the Globe and Mail caught my eye, and the eye of many others. It became one of the most shared articles for the week.  The book?  No Kids - 40 good reasons not to spawn.  It caught my eye because I'm quite ambivalent about having kids but deep down I think "but everyone says it's so wonderful, am I missing out?"  It was actually refreshing to hear a woman say "I had kids and I regret it".  I haven't read the book and judging by the review it may be quite deliberately provocative.  Still it's a voice that's not often heard.
Corrine Maier wrote the book in reaction to a policy push in France to promote higher birth rates.  Apparently the policy worked.  But the author claims many have been duped into procreation by a baby marketing drive.  She is there to prevent that from spreading.

She took a pretty big beating in the comments section particularly because she apparently gave a copy of the book to her two children (who can read).   I'm assuming they've been around her antics long enough not to pay too much attention.  Love is in the details.  Nonetheless, it will make for some good stories later on.

I think having kids is like winning the lottery.  If you were happy before, you'll be happy after. If you were miserable before you'll be miserable after.  Same thing when the bio-clock stops.  There's no point agonizing over what could have been or resenting your own life.  So, as much as I admire Corinne for having written the book, I think a pros and cons kind of list doesn't really cut it when it comes to kids.

For reference, here are the 40 reasons:

1. The desire for children: A false aspiration.
2. Childbirth is torture.
3. Don't become a travelling feeding bottle.
4. Continue to amuse yourself.
5. Subway-job-kids: No thank you!
6. Hold onto your friends.
7. Do not adopt the idiot language we use to address children.
8. To open the nursery is to close the bedroom.
9. Child, the killer of desire.
10. They are the death knell of the couple.
11. To be or to make: You shouldn't have to choose.
12. The child is a kind of vicious dwarf, of an innate cruelty.
13. It is conformist.
14. Children are too expensive.
15. You become an ally of capitalism.
16. They will destroy your time and your freedom.
17. The worst drudgery for the parents.
18. Do not be deceived by the notion of the ideal child.
19. You will inevitably be disappointed by your child.
20. To become a merdeuf (soccer mom) - what horror!
21. Parenting above all else - no thanks.
22. Block your professional path with children.
23. Families: They are horror and cruelty.
24. Don't fall into an overgrown childhood.
25. To persist in saying "me first" is a badge of courage.
26. A child will kill the fond memories of your childhood.
27. You will not be able to prevent yourself from wanting your child to be happy.
28. Child care is a set of impossible dilemmas.
29. School: a prison camp with which you'll have to make a pact.
30. To raise a child, but toward what kind of future?
31. Flee from the benevolent blandness.
32. Parenting will make you soft.
33. Motherhood is a trap for women.
34. To be a mother, or to succeed: You must choose.
35. When the child appears, the father disappears.
36. The child of today must be a perfect child: a brave new world.
37. Your child will be in constant danger from pedophiles and pornographers.
38. Why contribute to a future of unemployment and social exclusion?
39. There are too many children in the world.
40. Turn your back on the ridiculous rules of the "good" parent.

Two songs for this post.
One for the adventure without kids.
One for the adventure with kids.
Same artist.