How Smart People Think
/“If you understand something in only one way, then you don't really understand it at all. The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we've connected it to all other things we know.” – AI researcher Marvin Minsky
The Week's Links (8.14.11)
/All the links posted to Facebook and Twitter (@smartercreative) this week:
- Who invented the high five? The history and mystery of the high five.owl.li/5ZmUs
- Brain in a Dish Comes Alive owl.li/5IxoP A computer chip marinated in neurons and stem cells creates super bursts of activity
- Are Your Co-Workers Killing You? owl.li/61f6J
- The Shocking True Tale Of The Mad Genius Who Invented Sea-Monkeysowl.li/5IwuM
- Space Classics, Sci-Fi Film Themed Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Adshttp://owl.li/61fbW So great.
- Beyond Fashion: The Met’s “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”ow.ly/1edhZ2
- How Do You Keep Your Creative Edge? http://owl.li/60WJ4
- ‘Brain Bugs’: Cognitive Flaws That ‘Shape Our Lives’ : NPR http://owl.li/5Iddq
- Phase Change Materials Bring Us Closer to ‘Brain-like’ Computers : Discovery News http://owl.li/5IxQI
- Publishers and the internet: a changing role | Cory Doctorow http://owl.li/5IxKl
- Stop Fetishising The Insight http://owl.li/60W06
- A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn - remove the new default to use your name and photos in ads http://owl.li/60SLU (Thanks @brainpicker)
- beta620 | Experimental Projects From The New York Timeshttp://owl.li/5YURs
- Museum 2.0: No! More! Exclamation Points! http://owl.li/60SoA
- The player IS the story: why the big gaming publishers don’t get transmediahttp://ow.ly/1eclTq
- Agile Web Development That Works http://owl.li/5Imd0
- The Only Way is Londinium, Roman London is Revealed with Augmented Reality in New App http://owl.li/5Idpg
- UK riots: every verified incident - interactive map | The Guardianhttp://owl.li/60IsI
- UK Govt. to meet Facebook, Twitter and RIM about their responsibility to not fuel riots - TNW UK http://owl.li/60Inq
- HTML5 Video Voting http://owl.li/5IcKx
- all that inspires me http://owl.li/5Zfyt
- Phillip Toledano: Make Stuff That Matters :: The 99 Percent http://owl.li/5Iz0w
- Critic’s Notebook: Lucille Ball, 100 and ageless http://owl.li/5YV1q
- “Why’s this so good?” No. 7: Barry Siegel and the weight of consequenceshttp://owl.li/5Zil6
- “Why’s this so good?” No. 6: Alma Guillermoprieto’s view on Bogotahttp://owl.li/5Zik8
- “Why’s this so good?” No. 5: Raymond Chandler sticks it to Hollywoodhttp://owl.li/5Zij3
- “Why’s this so good?” No. 4: W.C. Heinz on Air Lift, son of Bold Venturehttp://owl.li/5Zih7
- “Why’s this so good?” No. 3: André Aciman on the geography of longinghttp://owl.li/5ZigT
- Melissa: The Power of Love, 350,000 Post-Its Animation http://ow.ly/1ebtdZ
- 15 Top Instagram Users http://owl.li/5IxVm
- Designers Go To Heaven http://owl.li/5ZdWV
- Typeverything http://owl.li/5ZdY7
- The Marvelous Floating Stage of the Bregenz Festival In Austriahttp://owl.li/5YUGZ This is, wow, just wow.
- STICKERS: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art http://ow.ly/1ebn0T
- Introducing: The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors http://owl.li/5Id3I
- Web Typography for the Lonely http://owl.li/5IcU8 Fantastic.
- The Habits of Highly Creative Marketers - Creativity Online http://owl.li/5Zdcr
- Celebrating Kenneth Grange, Unsung Hero Of Everyday Designhttp://owl.li/5IzIO
- Following A Web Design Process - Smashing Magazine http://owl.li/5IyIY
- Analyzing Culture with Google Books: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?http://owl.li/5YV8Q
- Why It’s Smart to Be Bilingual http://owl.li/5YUvi
- Twitter’s Jack Dorsey reportedly invests in “new kind” of marketing firm lead by Ex-Apple Exec http://owl.li/5YU9X
- Google’s Astro Teller on Innovation at Singularity Universityhttp://ow.ly/1eanDI
- The Talks is weekly interview magazine with some great interviews already.http://owl.li/5IyBK
- An 80-page dissertation on what makes Instagram tick http://owl.li/5Imy8
- Creativity Top 5: August 8, 2011 http://ow.ly/1e9QJb
- On Web Typography: Notes from An Event Apart http://owl.li/5WV1S
- Folklore.org: Anecdotes about the development of Apple’s original Macintosh computer, and the people who created it. http://owl.li/5IyRT
- Delivereads - Curated Content for Your Kindle http://owl.li/5IxnM
- PBS Arts: Off Book - Episode 2: Typography http://ow.ly/1e9pHT
- Are Smart People Getting Smarter? http://owl.li/5WSU9
- PBS Arts: Off Book - Episode 1: Light Painting http://ow.ly/1e9mOb
- Among Six Types Of Failure, Only A Few Help You Innovate http://owl.li/5ImiE
Beyond Fashion: The Met's "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty"
/The Met's exhibit Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty closed recently after breaking many attendance's records for the museum. A friend, describing the exhibit as "a visual concert," prompted me to visit the museum to see it for myself. If you missed it the above video is the closest you'll have to attending the lavishly curated and presented collection.
From the museum's catalog:
The exhibition, organized by The Costume Institute, celebrates the late Alexander McQueen's extraordinary contributions to fashion. From his Central Saint Martins postgraduate collection of 1992 to his final runway presentation, which took place after his death in February 2010, Mr. McQueen challenged and expanded the understanding of fashion beyond utility to a conceptual expression of culture, politics, and identity. His iconic designs constitute the work of an artist whose medium of expression was fashion. The exhibition will feature approximately one hundred ensembles and seventy accessories from Mr. McQueen's prolific nineteen-year career. Drawn primarily from the Alexander McQueen Archive in London, with some pieces from the Givenchy Archive in Paris as well as private collections, signature designs including the "bumster" trouser, the kimono jacket, and the three-point "origami" frock coat will be on view. McQueen's fashions often referenced the exaggerated silhouettes of the 1860s, 1880s, 1890s, and 1950s, but his technical ingenuity always imbued his designs with an innovative sensibility that kept him at the vanguard.
Beyond fashion, what the exhibit represented for me was the work of a cultural remixer expressing his ideas via haute couture. In his video series Everything is a Remix Kirby Ferguson talks of artists copying, transforming and combining ideas to create new works that are remixes of ideas past. Every single garment presented in the exhibit embodied that philosophy.
The player IS the story: why the big gaming publishers don't get transmedia
/This is almost certainly a budget issue, but at the very least, the concept of transmedia will only become truly interesting when singular creative visionaries are brought onboard. A Grand Theft Auto novel penned by Bret Easton Ellis, or a Grant Morrison Dark Souls comic book; hand Dead Space to Neil Marshall, or Mass Effect to Matthew Vaughn. The last person a video game tie-in should be given to is a meek and respectful freelance hack, just glad of the chance to meet the guys who made his favourite sci-fi game series.
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If transmedia is really going to work as a mainstream consumer concept rather than a marketing endeavour or a cult experiment, it will have to involve stories designed from the ground up to be both interactive and platform agnostic. Otherwise, all we're really doing is selling comic books to completists.