projeqt: A Creative Storytelling Platform

This week, the launch of projeqt offers hope for a platform that does it all and then some. Dubbed a “creative storytelling platform,” it’s Tumblr meets Slideshare meets Cargo Collective — only a more flexible Tumblr, a sleeker Slideshare and spanning more media than Cargo Collective. And if this isn’t enough of a treat, it’s also device-agnostic — built entirely in HTML5 for cross-platform compatibility and specifically optimized for iPad and iPhone, projeqt is part publishing CMS, part portfolio-builder, part something else entirely.

projeqt is simple, intuitive and highly social, playing nice with other platforms by allowing you to mesh together text, image, video and feeds within the same projeqt, so you can embed your Vimeo uploads, post photos from your Flickr stream, import your blog’s RSS feed and even your tweets — in other words, it’s a creative polyglot that invites you to tell your story, whatever creative languages it may be in. (The reader experience is equally flexible, allowing for seamlessly switching between line, grid and full-screen view.)

via brainpickings.org

Looking forward to exploring this further. A tool that seamlessly connects all your online presences in a cohesive and visually rich way could make a significant change on how we present work.

YouTube Play Live From The Guggenheim Highlights

Last night the YouTube Play event took place at The Guggenheim in New York and was streamed live on the web. Conceived by YouTube and The Guggenheim, it was billed as a biennial of creative video but it is so much more than that. Taking over and transforming one of the world’s most iconic museums, the event made no distinction between live performance and video, art and technology, culture and commerce, high and low brow, it was simply a celebration of passionate creative work. Kudos to everyone involved, in particular the production crews responsible for staging such an extraordinary event.

Here are some highlights of the evening:

Introduction.
 

The amazing video mapping building projections.

Jarbas Agnelli, creator of “Birds on the Wires,” and the Noname Ensemble from the Julliard School.


Pogo, creator of “Gardyn,” and many amazing video mashups.


Kutiman performs “Hungarian Dance #5” by Brahms, accompanied by the Noname ensemble from the Julliard School, YouTube Symphony Orcherstra players and video performances from around the world. 


The LXD translates the video work “Seaweed” into dance.


Everynone uses video to honor the power of words.

OK Go, kings of the YouTube music video, closed the evening with a delightfully subtle acoustic performance.


I find myself profoundly inspired by this event and hope you find yourself inspired too, wanting to share your work with the world. 

 

Seaweed: @theLXD - excerpt from YouTube Play at the Guggenheim

via youtube.com

Last night I connected my laptop to my tv and watched YouTube Play live from the Guggenheim, while one of my friends, someone I’ve known most of my life, watched in Korea. Three different locations around the world connected by technology to celebrate art, passion, creativity.

This moment that pays tribute to the amazing video work of Seaweed and the truly extraordinary LXD encapsulates in a nutshell why it is awesome to love and want to do creative work today.

The 600 Years Building Video Projection

Mapping during 600 years anniversary of the astronomical tower clock situated at Old Town Square in center of Prague. Concept and animations by The Macula (Amar Mulabegović, Dan Gregor) Coworking animators: Michal Kotek Lukáš Duběda Sound: data-live (www.data-live.cz) Production: Tomato Production (www.tomatoproduction.cz)

via vimeo.com

Lately we've seen many great examples of video projections and this one is particularly good. The one thing that I've yet to see anyone mention is how important sound design is to these projections. Without good sound design this would not be able to have any context.

Procrastination: What are you waiting for?

Last week we posted a short animation showing the many ways in which we end up avoiding work. Since then it feels like everyone is in a procrastination state of mind.

First there is the book review for “The Thief of Time” in The New Yorker. In it we learn

what the Greeks called akrasia—doing something against one’s own better judgment. Piers Steel defines procrastination as willingly deferring something even though you expect the delay to make you worse off.

And

Most of the contributors to the new book agree that this peculiar irrationality stems from our relationship to time—in particular, from a tendency that economists call “hyperbolic discounting.” A two-stage experiment provides a classic illustration: In the first stage, people are offered the choice between a hundred dollars today or a hundred and ten dollars tomorrow; in the second stage, they choose between a hundred dollars a month from now or a hundred and ten dollars a month and a day from now. In substance, the two choices are identical: wait an extra day, get an extra ten bucks. Yet, in the first stage many people choose to take the smaller sum immediately, whereas in the second they prefer to wait one more day and get the extra ten bucks. In other words, hyperbolic discounters are able to make the rational choice when they’re thinking about the future, but, as the present gets closer, short-term considerations overwhelm their long-term goals.

Much of procrastinating is an inner negotiation about what should happen, and why.

The philosopher Mark Kingwell puts it in existential terms: “Procrastination most often arises from a sense that there is too much to do, and hence no single aspect of the to-do worth doing… . Underneath this rather antic form of action-as-inaction is the much more unsettling question whether anything is worth doing at all.”  

Brain Pickings, in the post 5 Perspectives on Procrastination, highlights points of view on procrastination “from the scientific to the philosophical to the playful.”

The Procrastinators is a series of 11 episodes of monologues about procrastination produced by Dutch artist duo Lernert & Sander. “Artists, writers and filmmakers talk about concentration, focus and the fine art of wasting their time.”

Clearly the many ways in which we procrastinate are universal. 

We created a new series of 11 episodes of monologues about procrastination. Artists, writers and filmmakers tell about concentration, focus and the fine art of wasting their time. Premiere: July 4th, at the Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam at Limboland Live. Online september 2010, on limboland.tv Camera & Lighting: Ram van Meel Audio recording & Mixing: Diederik Idenburg Music: Danny Calvi English subtitles: Tom Johnston Assistent: Wilfred van der Weide Special thanks to: Wendela Scheltema, Kim Tuin, Peter Frank Heuseveldt, Noel Lozen and Egbert Steenwinkel The Procrastinators Club: Aux Raus - Jop van Bennekom - Boris van Berkum - Guus Beumer - Ewoudt Boonstra - Matthijs de Bruijne - Arjan Ederveen - Bas Fontein - Dirk van der Heuvel - Cindy Hoetmer - Ernst van der Hoeven - Florentijn Hofman - Frank Houtappels - Peter Jeroense - Alex Klaassen - Bert Kommerij - Pieter Kramer - Esma Moukhtar - Piet Paris - Michael Schaap - Coco Schrijber - Mo Veld - Victor Vroegindewij - Martin de Waal - Micha Wertheim - Job Wouters - Roel Wouters

An interesting pattern begins to emerge from all these accounts of procrastination. Prolific creators often actively engage in procrastination in a methodical and disciplined way. Apparently writers can not begin to work unless their households are sparkly clean. 

I view this as less procrastination and more psychological distancing. 

In the article “An Easy Way To Increase Creativity,” published in Scientific American, Oren Shapira and Nira Liberman state 

scientists have demonstrated that increasing psychological distance so that a problem feels farther away can actually increase creativity.

We then can conclude there are degrees of procrastination and one of those degrees is less about avoiding work and completely about letting the subconscious percolate. Cleaning the kitchen and organizing the bookshelf as a way of thinking. The trick is to know what is motivating our desire not to work. 

On those times when I find myself procrastinating I stop and ask myself: what are you so afraid of that this is the better choice? That usually gets me going again.