Oh, I do love stock responses that *completely ignore* the question asked. Viz:
--------------------------------------------
Customer (KIM PLOWRIGHT) - 07/27/2007 04:27 AM
Hello
[tracking number] - this packet is showing as having attempted delivery at 12am on July 25, 2007.
That's midnight...
Could you confirm if USPS uses Royal Mail in the UK to attempt delivery? In this case, is Midnight the time at which the package left USPS and was handed to the Royal Mail?
I have had no confirmation through my letterbox to say any delivery was attempted, and I don't know how to track this package or ring to arrange a time when I'm going to be in... and not asleep!
Kim
--------------------------------------------
Response (Angelique M) - 07/27/2007 07:43 AM
Dear KIM PLOWRIGHT,
Thank you for contacting us about item number, [tracking number].
We attempted to deliver your item in GREAT BRITAIN at 12:00 AM on July 25, 2007.
For further assistance regarding this item, the United States sender must call 1-800-222-1811:
Monday through Friday -- 8:00 AM to 9:30 PM Eastern Time
Saturday -- 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern Time
Sundays & Major Holidays – Closed
If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Thank you for choosing the United States Postal Service®.
Regards,
Angelique
As our customer, your privacy is important to us. Please see our privacy policy at www.usps.com
-[---001:001238:46443---]
Friday, July 27, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Chore Wars :: Latest News from ChoreQuest!
Chore Wars :: Latest News from ChoreQuest!
Bugger. Jen and I were just discussing the other day that we should invent a Household Tasks MMORPG so that we could gently encourage our other halves (and ourselves, occasionally) to do more housework, chores etc.
Someone's gone and done it already. Awesomes!
Bugger. Jen and I were just discussing the other day that we should invent a Household Tasks MMORPG so that we could gently encourage our other halves (and ourselves, occasionally) to do more housework, chores etc.
Someone's gone and done it already. Awesomes!
Moo Stickers
MOO | Stickers - Print stickers using your images
So, you can now buy Moo Stickers. They're great. Really. You can put your own pictures on them, or buy one of our new ReadyMade packs if you don't think your pictures are up to the job.
You'll notice I said 'Our' there.
About a month ago, I was chatting to Roo Reynolds, who said 'I keep reading your site expecting you to make the big announcement, but you never do. What's with that?'. Except he probably didn't say 'What's with that?' because he's not Californian. But, he had a point.
So, I left the BBC. In May. I now work for Moo, as a product manager. Doing nice things. Yes. I'd spent eight and a half years at the Beeb, doing all kind of things, from Cult and Doctor Who, to the bbc.co.uk2.0 project looking at the way the site needs to change to keep up with the rest of the internets. But a girl gets tired, and needs a change.
Moo is a challenge. It's a small company - we're all in one room! It's fast moving. I get to make suggestions that get acted on in hours, not years. I'm working with lovely people like Denise, Dan, Stef and Richard. It's a good change, and a challenge, and we make cute things. The project I'm working on is interesting, and brings me back closer to an old love - design.
I'm pretty happy.
So, you can now buy Moo Stickers. They're great. Really. You can put your own pictures on them, or buy one of our new ReadyMade packs if you don't think your pictures are up to the job.
You'll notice I said 'Our' there.
About a month ago, I was chatting to Roo Reynolds, who said 'I keep reading your site expecting you to make the big announcement, but you never do. What's with that?'. Except he probably didn't say 'What's with that?' because he's not Californian. But, he had a point.
So, I left the BBC. In May. I now work for Moo, as a product manager. Doing nice things. Yes. I'd spent eight and a half years at the Beeb, doing all kind of things, from Cult and Doctor Who, to the bbc.co.uk2.0 project looking at the way the site needs to change to keep up with the rest of the internets. But a girl gets tired, and needs a change.
Moo is a challenge. It's a small company - we're all in one room! It's fast moving. I get to make suggestions that get acted on in hours, not years. I'm working with lovely people like Denise, Dan, Stef and Richard. It's a good change, and a challenge, and we make cute things. The project I'm working on is interesting, and brings me back closer to an old love - design.
I'm pretty happy.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance)
The Google Cache - and indeed, the internet - has a very long memory. Once you post something to the internet, it becomes very hard to remove it. Things you post when you're 18 have a habit of sticking around until you're, say, 33. I know this, as my old posts still float around in old archives.
In particular, these three young gentlemen should be aware that any future employer will be able to Google their names for a very long time to come.
* Garren Salibian (Acton- Boxborough Regional High) (creator)
* Harout Yogurtian (Belmont High School)
* Garin Parseghian (Belmont High School)
They are the founder members and admins of the Facebook group, The Anti Gay Alliance.
Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance)
It is 'Dedicated to preserving straightness throughout the world.'
The people who have commented on the site should also be aware that their comments are now indexed and searchable, as follows:
The group Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance) has 32 members at 4:38pm BST on 11 July, 2007.
Those members are:
That is all.
In particular, these three young gentlemen should be aware that any future employer will be able to Google their names for a very long time to come.
* Garren Salibian (Acton- Boxborough Regional High) (creator)
* Harout Yogurtian (Belmont High School)
* Garin Parseghian (Belmont High School)
They are the founder members and admins of the Facebook group, The Anti Gay Alliance.
Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance)
It is 'Dedicated to preserving straightness throughout the world.'
The people who have commented on the site should also be aware that their comments are now indexed and searchable, as follows:
Lee Campell (St. Cloud, MN) wrote
at 11:28pm on July 7th, 2007
those mother fucking fags wow they should all be shot. and for anybody that sickes up for them should be beatin also. goldam shit packers .and oh yeah GOD hates fags
Richard Wohlbier (Wisconsin Colleges) wrote
at 11:14pm on July 7th, 2007
For every deer that we shoot, we should shoot a fag.
Scott Campbell (Chippewa Falls High) wrote
at 3:57am on July 6th, 2007
I say all fags or fag lovers who talk shit on this group should get the fuck out and run into a middle of an intersection
The group Facebook | AGA (Anti Gay Alliance) has 32 members at 4:38pm BST on 11 July, 2007.
Those members are:
Name:
Brennan Heath
Network:
Arkansas State '09
Name:
Jordan NAve
Network:
Marshall High School '10
Name:
David Arshakyan
Networks:
Watertown High School '09
Boston, MA
Name:
Paul Derderian
Networks:
Rye High School '09
Westchester, NY
Name:
Matt Fitzpatrick
Network:
Lloydminster Comprehensive '08
Name:
Teddy Lucas-rowe
Network:
Sherborne School '07
Name:
Michael Hill
Network:
Australia
Name:
Mitch Larson
Network:
Eau Claire, WI
Name:
Ani Israelyan
Network:
Watertown High School '07
Name:
Richard Wohlbier
Network:
Wisconsin Colleges
Name:
Samuel Volk
Network:
Raleigh / Durham, NC
Name:
Mike Griffioen
Network:
Central Mich. '11
Name:
Scott Campbell
Network:
Chippewa Falls High '07
Name:
Oscar Derderian
Network:
Belmont High School '09
Name:
Rob Karasiewicz
Network:
Lowell High School '07
Name:
Bosah Hlwah
Networks:
None
Name:
Matt Barber
Network:
Falmouth High School '11
Name:
Anita Tomasian
Networks:
None
Name:
Meroujan Bagdasarian
Network:
Watertown High School '07
Name:
Lee Campell
Network:
St. Cloud, MN
Caleb Merrick
Network:
Thorold Secondary School '07
Name:
Danielle Cormier
Network:
Royal Valley High '08
Name:
Harout Yogurtian
Networks:
Belmont High School '07
Boston, MA
Officer Title:
Vice President
Name:
Garren Salibian
Network:
Acton- Boxborough Regional High '09
Officer Title:
President
Name:
Will Truax
Networks:
Acton- Boxborough Regional High '09
Boston, MA
Name:
Allen Papazian
Network:
Belmont High School '09
Name:
Greg Torosian
Network:
Belmont High School '08
Name:
Eric Grigorian
Networks:
Belmont High School '10
Boston, MA
Name:
Garin Parseghian
Network:
Belmont High School '10
Officer Title:
Vice President
Name:
Chris Wood
Network:
Red Bank High School '07
Name:
Christopher Seifel
Network:
St. John's '09
Name:
Brady Lee
Networks:
Chippewa Falls High '07
Wisc Stout '07
Eau Claire, WI
Name:
Garren Salibian
Network:
Acton- Boxborough Regional High '09
Officer Title:
President
Name:
Garin Parseghian
Network:
Belmont High School '10
Officer Title:
Vice President
That is all.
Green and Pleasant LAN
Terra Nova: Our avatars, ourselves
I love the kicker at the end of this article. Spending two years in Warcraft, and having seen the world, I've often found myself thinking 'If I could live in one of these zones, which would I choose?'. Until recently, it was Arathi Highlands; nice rolling grass, occasional pleasing rocky outcrops, good mountains. Ashzara came close, too, but I'm less of an autumn fan. These days, I'd be living in Nagrand.
I wonder, actually, what the spectrum mix of light coming from a monitor would be, when questing in one of WoW's green areas. Is it the nearest approximation of full-spectrum summer sun? Is it just hitting our pineal gland's sweet spot? Has anyone tested melanin levels of regular hardcore gamers? Could this explain the late nights we all pull, given the opportunity?
Hmn.
I love the kicker at the end of this article. Spending two years in Warcraft, and having seen the world, I've often found myself thinking 'If I could live in one of these zones, which would I choose?'. Until recently, it was Arathi Highlands; nice rolling grass, occasional pleasing rocky outcrops, good mountains. Ashzara came close, too, but I'm less of an autumn fan. These days, I'd be living in Nagrand.
I wonder, actually, what the spectrum mix of light coming from a monitor would be, when questing in one of WoW's green areas. Is it the nearest approximation of full-spectrum summer sun? Is it just hitting our pineal gland's sweet spot? Has anyone tested melanin levels of regular hardcore gamers? Could this explain the late nights we all pull, given the opportunity?
Hmn.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Too old for Facebook? « Scobleizer
Too old for Facebook? « Scobleizer
What goes around comes around. I was upstairs, playing Warcraft for most of today; my first good five-hour session in a long time. As I ripped through a metric buttload of Ogres, grinding my way through level 68, I was thinking about the time I've spent on the game, and how my media habits have changed over the last few years.
I've started watching television a bit more, recently; rarely live (unless it's a half eye on the sport that Ian has on), usually documentaries from the PVR, or catching up with Doctor Who. The set rarely moves from UKTV History or BBC Four, to be honest. This evening, as I tore myself away from Azeroth, I came down to find Ian watching a best of Clive James' Chat shows programme.
The line-up - admittedly, a best of, so they had a lot to choose from - but the line-up of guests was amazing. Peter Cook and Barry Humphries together. Germaine Greer and Alan Coren. David Attenborough and Howard Jacobson. Melvyn Bragg, Jonathan Miller, Joanna Lumley, Katherine Hepburn...
There used to be clever people on television, with opinions, whom you learnt from. They cling on in Radio 4, but TV is the realm of the makeover, the WAG. It makes me feel old and irrelevant, and it’s oddly unsatisfying, like a diet of takeaway food.
Which brings me to Robert Scoble's comment about the drop in blog traffic. I'm so behind on my feed reading at the moment, it's not true. I'm not (book) reading much, but I'm listening to more music and watching more TV than usual. I'm fiddling on Flickr, and a bit on facebook, but neglecting Twitter, and Jaiku.
I'm fickle, and only have so much attention to pay to things. If one thing takes my time and energy, other things must be neglected.
It amuses me that I've been in so many meetings with people going 'games and the internet will take eyeballs and time away from telly!' and now I'm hearing bloggers going 'Social Networks are taking attention away from blogs!'. Admittedly, in the case of telly their idea of attention is a bit warped; it’s been long known that those viewing figures aren’t a guarantee that anyone was actually taking in your programme’s content, just an indication that the telly was burbling in the corner of the room whilst domestic life ebbed and flowed around it.
I’m getting to a point where I feel permanently un-satiated by my media. None of the experiences seem… significant enough, in the way that watching the Late Show in the early 90s made me set the course of my life away from science and towards art. Even the excellent Andrew Marr histories felt too… shiny and slick to really be meaningful. The images are empty. My to-read pile of books is growing inexorably – thanks to Amazon and the ease of finding things that look interesting, I’m buying faster than I read now.
How many hours in the day do you need to keep up with the onslaught of information? When was the last time you engaged really deeply with a pop culture artifact? These are all transient things.
I just wish those transient unsatisfying things didn't distract me from getting round to that slow, tangible drawing project I've been thinking about for weeks.
What goes around comes around. I was upstairs, playing Warcraft for most of today; my first good five-hour session in a long time. As I ripped through a metric buttload of Ogres, grinding my way through level 68, I was thinking about the time I've spent on the game, and how my media habits have changed over the last few years.
I've started watching television a bit more, recently; rarely live (unless it's a half eye on the sport that Ian has on), usually documentaries from the PVR, or catching up with Doctor Who. The set rarely moves from UKTV History or BBC Four, to be honest. This evening, as I tore myself away from Azeroth, I came down to find Ian watching a best of Clive James' Chat shows programme.
The line-up - admittedly, a best of, so they had a lot to choose from - but the line-up of guests was amazing. Peter Cook and Barry Humphries together. Germaine Greer and Alan Coren. David Attenborough and Howard Jacobson. Melvyn Bragg, Jonathan Miller, Joanna Lumley, Katherine Hepburn...
There used to be clever people on television, with opinions, whom you learnt from. They cling on in Radio 4, but TV is the realm of the makeover, the WAG. It makes me feel old and irrelevant, and it’s oddly unsatisfying, like a diet of takeaway food.
Which brings me to Robert Scoble's comment about the drop in blog traffic. I'm so behind on my feed reading at the moment, it's not true. I'm not (book) reading much, but I'm listening to more music and watching more TV than usual. I'm fiddling on Flickr, and a bit on facebook, but neglecting Twitter, and Jaiku.
I'm fickle, and only have so much attention to pay to things. If one thing takes my time and energy, other things must be neglected.
It amuses me that I've been in so many meetings with people going 'games and the internet will take eyeballs and time away from telly!' and now I'm hearing bloggers going 'Social Networks are taking attention away from blogs!'. Admittedly, in the case of telly their idea of attention is a bit warped; it’s been long known that those viewing figures aren’t a guarantee that anyone was actually taking in your programme’s content, just an indication that the telly was burbling in the corner of the room whilst domestic life ebbed and flowed around it.
I’m getting to a point where I feel permanently un-satiated by my media. None of the experiences seem… significant enough, in the way that watching the Late Show in the early 90s made me set the course of my life away from science and towards art. Even the excellent Andrew Marr histories felt too… shiny and slick to really be meaningful. The images are empty. My to-read pile of books is growing inexorably – thanks to Amazon and the ease of finding things that look interesting, I’m buying faster than I read now.
How many hours in the day do you need to keep up with the onslaught of information? When was the last time you engaged really deeply with a pop culture artifact? These are all transient things.
I just wish those transient unsatisfying things didn't distract me from getting round to that slow, tangible drawing project I've been thinking about for weeks.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Powerpoint definition of Irony
slideshow4 » SlideShare
Practice what you preach, sir, practice what you preach.
Not much going on around here recently, sorry. I'm having a fallow posting period, as my energies are elsewhere.
Roo, the big post you're expecting will be along... sometime soon.
Practice what you preach, sir, practice what you preach.
Not much going on around here recently, sorry. I'm having a fallow posting period, as my energies are elsewhere.
Roo, the big post you're expecting will be along... sometime soon.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Google Homepage Gadget
BBC Pres Clock Google Gadget
I made a gadget. It shows the flash files of the old BBC clocks from the cult site. You can put it on your google homepage.
To make it work:
- Sign in to your google personal homepage
- hit the 'add stuff' link on the left just above the content panel
- hit 'add by URL' next to the search homepage content button
- put this url http://www.mildlydiverting.com/bbcpresclock.xml in the box
- confirm
- go back to your homepage and marvel at my leet coding skillz. :)
It may stop working when the BBC archives my old cult site. /wipes away tear
I made a gadget. It shows the flash files of the old BBC clocks from the cult site. You can put it on your google homepage.
To make it work:
- Sign in to your google personal homepage
- hit the 'add stuff' link on the left just above the content panel
- hit 'add by URL' next to the search homepage content button
- put this url http://www.mildlydiverting.com/bbcpresclock.xml in the box
- confirm
- go back to your homepage and marvel at my leet coding skillz. :)
It may stop working when the BBC archives my old cult site. /wipes away tear
Saturday, June 09, 2007
FlashFlavor » photographing a beach ceremony at night with no available light
FlashFlavor » photographing a beach ceremony at night with no available light
Does what it says on the tin, in spades. Sigh, wish I were better at photography.
Does what it says on the tin, in spades. Sigh, wish I were better at photography.
Favourite New Concept: Schrodinger's Celebrity
Glitter For Brains: "The most annoying thing about her is she's Schrodinger's Celebrity - she only exists because we look at her. So all this vitriol and hate I've just poured over my keyboard (and a small amount of Bloody Mary, but someone nudged my arm while I was having breakfast) is fuelling her time in the spotlight."
Lovely Lee on Paris Hilton. The most perfect way of describing the new breed of celebretard that's doing the rounds; only famous because we keep supplying the oxygen of publicity...
Lovely Lee on Paris Hilton. The most perfect way of describing the new breed of celebretard that's doing the rounds; only famous because we keep supplying the oxygen of publicity...
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
..and Lemons
newswireless.net .:. News .:. Orange "doesn't think it's a problem" ...
Interesting little article about Orange's data policy. £8 for 30Mb. As opposed to the 1Gb cap on T-Mobile. Hah.
I've been meaning to upgrade my mobile for ever. I was using a Nokia 8310 until about a fortnight ago, and it was slowly dying. A great shame, as it's a lovely phone, with the last of the great black and white operating systems; really elegant and quick if you use your phone for calls and texts and nothing else.
The decision was taken out of my hands by a lucky name-from-a-hat moment at Jaiku; I took a marketing survey and was - frankly - shocked to win a Nokia N95 a few weeks later. I had of course completely forgotten about the survey in the meantime.
So - there I was, shiny new dataphone, old one-to-one pricematch tarrif with Orange, plus a moment in a phone shop when the assistant laughed in my face when I asked about upgrades.
I'm now with T-Mobile. It's all good.
Although, N95 appears to have a funny bug where, if left idle for a while on charge the microphone doesn't work when I go to answer a call. Anyone else having similar trouble?
Interesting little article about Orange's data policy. £8 for 30Mb. As opposed to the 1Gb cap on T-Mobile. Hah.
I've been meaning to upgrade my mobile for ever. I was using a Nokia 8310 until about a fortnight ago, and it was slowly dying. A great shame, as it's a lovely phone, with the last of the great black and white operating systems; really elegant and quick if you use your phone for calls and texts and nothing else.
The decision was taken out of my hands by a lucky name-from-a-hat moment at Jaiku; I took a marketing survey and was - frankly - shocked to win a Nokia N95 a few weeks later. I had of course completely forgotten about the survey in the meantime.
So - there I was, shiny new dataphone, old one-to-one pricematch tarrif with Orange, plus a moment in a phone shop when the assistant laughed in my face when I asked about upgrades.
I'm now with T-Mobile. It's all good.
Although, N95 appears to have a funny bug where, if left idle for a while on charge the microphone doesn't work when I go to answer a call. Anyone else having similar trouble?
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Verka Serduchka - Gop, gop! - Jump, jump!
Look, how can you NOT like it? Really? It's all bouncy and oompah!
Ukrainian Gay Power Polka
Look, this is the single most brilliant song of the last five years. I don't care if you think otherwise; you are wrong. Look at it. It has a man pretending to be a lady, a glitterball, glasses that make everyone naked, a completely awesome keychange, and ACCORDIONS. It's a work of genius, and there isn't enough gay accordion-based space disco polka in the world. Ever.
My carbon footprint expands massively
UPS: Tracking Information
So, I'm waiting on a parcel from the US - a Goldtouch keyboard, which was a birthday present from my Mum. Incidentally, they're amazing things if you have RSI, I recommend them thoroughly.
Anyway, I thought I'd have a look see to find out where it was; it's been several days, and it was moving on from Newark last time I looked.
Well - it came in to Stanstead, then was *flown to the East Midlands and back to Heathrow*.
Wow. I mean, that's like the next town if you're in the middle of the US. But on this side of the pond...
Look, here's a cunning line on a map to show you quite how bonkers that was. It makes the cheerful assumption that the package will get to my house from Feltham, by the way, and not be rerouted via Edinburgh, frinstance.
So, I'm waiting on a parcel from the US - a Goldtouch keyboard, which was a birthday present from my Mum. Incidentally, they're amazing things if you have RSI, I recommend them thoroughly.
Anyway, I thought I'd have a look see to find out where it was; it's been several days, and it was moving on from Newark last time I looked.
Well - it came in to Stanstead, then was *flown to the East Midlands and back to Heathrow*.
Wow. I mean, that's like the next town if you're in the middle of the US. But on this side of the pond...
Look, here's a cunning line on a map to show you quite how bonkers that was. It makes the cheerful assumption that the package will get to my house from Feltham, by the way, and not be rerouted via Edinburgh, frinstance.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.
Epicenter - Wired Blogs
An interview of Cory Doctorow by David Weinberger. Fascinating stuff about metadata, and the differences between implicit and explicit data, along with the political-cultural constructs in play around classification systems.
I wonder, sometimes, about going off and getting a librarianship or curatorial qualification. I am most certainly one of those people who likes sorting - systematising, tidying, classifying and arranging is something I find incredibly soothing. I have a feeling it's incredily hardwired in to me; back in my wild art student days there was a wonderful incident with some hallucinogens and waking up to discover my room ordered to the Nth degree - even my cupboard shelf contents were tidied, rectinlinearly stacked in size order. Others get messy on drugs, I get tidy. But I digress.
I've written bits and bobs about tax- and folks- onomies before here; I don't have the energy for a retread this evening; frankly, reading the transcript of the interview will tell you everything I've said and more, with greater clarity and intellectual rigour. It's worth reading or listening to.
One interesting point made is about flickr, and the huge mass of CC-licensed photos available on the web:-
The interview goes on to talk about copyright, and elision of cultural and commercial constraints in copyright law. The ususal.
But... what does it really mean that there's so much available for free, now? Is the bespoke the final recourse of arts, now? If everyone can micro-produce and micro-sell, what happens to the 'great work' - does it become more valuable, have more of an aura?
In a fully described world, where the overlay of discussion and culture is captured in searchable, semi-machine readable electronic forms, where the map and the territory are completely blurred... what does a creative person do? When there can be no 'underground', no hidden pockets of creative collaboration left to diversify in obscurity, away from the wider culture, do we end up with ... less creative speciation? Or radical, precambrian explosions of diversity?
Flickr is always a good example; it made me want to photograph more, initially, but now makes me not want to photograph at all, because anything I capture will be so like so many other pictures. Interestingness is rarely that; it's more frequently inoffensively pretty and technically pristine; a kind of mass idea of what a good photograph might be, smoothed out by the gentle erosion of traffic flow across the site. It feels a bit like Clement Greenberg's idea of kitsch; it seems to point out that originality is nearly impossible to achieve.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this thought. I think I'm interested to understand what it means to be trying to create something unique in a world where everything-there-is is instantly available and addressable, and any new creation is instantly contextualised by being indexed as 'a bit like this, and this other thing, and maybe 30% similarity to this other thing here'. What gets made? The things that spring to mind are the great renaissance works, painted for super-rich patrons, and elaborately personally codified; the language of art history becoming more obscure and arcane, and personalised to the patron. Commissioning something, collaborating, and encoding undisclosed ideas into the work becomes a way of opposing the same-ness of originality. Or does creativity become private again; something jealously held away from the systematizing gaze of the web? Or do objects become valuable purely because of personal significances - does taste die?
How do we preserve surprise, and grit, and significance? And are these valuable things, or am I pining for mirages?
An interview of Cory Doctorow by David Weinberger. Fascinating stuff about metadata, and the differences between implicit and explicit data, along with the political-cultural constructs in play around classification systems.
I wonder, sometimes, about going off and getting a librarianship or curatorial qualification. I am most certainly one of those people who likes sorting - systematising, tidying, classifying and arranging is something I find incredibly soothing. I have a feeling it's incredily hardwired in to me; back in my wild art student days there was a wonderful incident with some hallucinogens and waking up to discover my room ordered to the Nth degree - even my cupboard shelf contents were tidied, rectinlinearly stacked in size order. Others get messy on drugs, I get tidy. But I digress.
I've written bits and bobs about tax- and folks- onomies before here; I don't have the energy for a retread this evening; frankly, reading the transcript of the interview will tell you everything I've said and more, with greater clarity and intellectual rigour. It's worth reading or listening to.
One interesting point made is about flickr, and the huge mass of CC-licensed photos available on the web:-
If you're a stock photographer trying to sell photos of Capri, even if it can be found, you're probably screwed at Flickr because there's 100, 000 of them there available for free--unlicensed, actually, Creative Commons licensed--yours is going to have to be pretty darn good for somebody to actually shell out money for it.
The interview goes on to talk about copyright, and elision of cultural and commercial constraints in copyright law. The ususal.
But... what does it really mean that there's so much available for free, now? Is the bespoke the final recourse of arts, now? If everyone can micro-produce and micro-sell, what happens to the 'great work' - does it become more valuable, have more of an aura?
In a fully described world, where the overlay of discussion and culture is captured in searchable, semi-machine readable electronic forms, where the map and the territory are completely blurred... what does a creative person do? When there can be no 'underground', no hidden pockets of creative collaboration left to diversify in obscurity, away from the wider culture, do we end up with ... less creative speciation? Or radical, precambrian explosions of diversity?
Flickr is always a good example; it made me want to photograph more, initially, but now makes me not want to photograph at all, because anything I capture will be so like so many other pictures. Interestingness is rarely that; it's more frequently inoffensively pretty and technically pristine; a kind of mass idea of what a good photograph might be, smoothed out by the gentle erosion of traffic flow across the site. It feels a bit like Clement Greenberg's idea of kitsch; it seems to point out that originality is nearly impossible to achieve.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this thought. I think I'm interested to understand what it means to be trying to create something unique in a world where everything-there-is is instantly available and addressable, and any new creation is instantly contextualised by being indexed as 'a bit like this, and this other thing, and maybe 30% similarity to this other thing here'. What gets made? The things that spring to mind are the great renaissance works, painted for super-rich patrons, and elaborately personally codified; the language of art history becoming more obscure and arcane, and personalised to the patron. Commissioning something, collaborating, and encoding undisclosed ideas into the work becomes a way of opposing the same-ness of originality. Or does creativity become private again; something jealously held away from the systematizing gaze of the web? Or do objects become valuable purely because of personal significances - does taste die?
How do we preserve surprise, and grit, and significance? And are these valuable things, or am I pining for mirages?
Friday, May 04, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
It's probably fair use, but...
Second Life - Videos - KNBC
A friend just pointed me at this video that went out on US TV. I've tried three or four times to leave a comment on the actual page, but it doesn't seem to be working. Hence, I thought it worth reproducing here, because, well, someone should make a fuss when big media rip off other people's stuff against the specific license it's published under.
I've spent a LOT of my life over the last few years ensuring image use is all within the bounds of license agreements and copyright - even getting release forms for a five year old, once.
I suppose we don't have the benefit of that pesky 'fair use' under UK law.
Anway - the Yentob avatar was created by Siobhan, so she should take the credit.
Comment text would have been as below:-
A friend just pointed me at this video that went out on US TV. I've tried three or four times to leave a comment on the actual page, but it doesn't seem to be working. Hence, I thought it worth reproducing here, because, well, someone should make a fuss when big media rip off other people's stuff against the specific license it's published under.
I've spent a LOT of my life over the last few years ensuring image use is all within the bounds of license agreements and copyright - even getting release forms for a five year old, once.
I suppose we don't have the benefit of that pesky 'fair use' under UK law.
Anway - the Yentob avatar was created by Siobhan, so she should take the credit.
Comment text would have been as below:-
Hello
I notice that you've used one of my screenshots in your piece. Whilst Alan Yentob's (a famous UK TV personality) avatar and the screenshot was created for a BBC TV documentary, I assume you've obtained the shot from my flickr stream.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mildlydiverting/309499776/
It's released there under a Creative Commons Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
You don't appear to have Attributed me; the adverts at the front of your piece seem to suggests you're a commercial concern, and there's a clear copyright statement at the bottom of the page, suggesting you haven't 'shared alike'.
Just thought you might like to know for future reference, so you can consider complying with the licensing requirements.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
