Floblogg

Research shows that most people search for their own name first when coming across a new search engine. I’m no exception and for years I’ve had the plan to create a definitive search results page of everything that comes up when I search for my self. Not so much because anyone may be interested in a comprehensive list, more as a means to explore how new, alternative search engines find different stuff. Today I tried deepdyve, a search engine that justifies its existence “because traditional search engines do not deliver the quality results that information-savvy consumers and professionals need.” For $45 per month (that’s $540 per year, more than many people pay for CATV) you get deepdyve Pro, that offers “Dynamic Grouping, Visual Clustering and Venn Diagrams”. The interface offers advanced search but does not recognize “Florian Brody” as a text string and thus returns 90% irrelevant stuff. Their Blog has an interesting mélange of content – most recently an entry on the “unbunding of content“.

I found one critical commentary on a paper I gave in 1995 in a research journal that requires a subscription, but deepdyve offers a detailed view with the complete paper “Contradicion versus Convergence” by Charles Tashiro: “Whether or not we agree with Brody’s late-Romantic argument, it seems strangely out of keeping with the disintegrative nature of digital technologies, their capacity to change and transform, even if completely in keeping with the formalist rhetoric underpinning many of the ideas and presentations at the conference”.

Today – 14 years later – I’m still right and hoping that this will change soon. Search engines on the other side have not caught up with the writings of the world and possibly never will, never should.

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New India Bazar

The man with his big eyes and the beret on his head could have easily passed for the long lost Indian brother of Pablo Picasso, waiting in line at the India Supermarket with a lonesome salad in one hand and a dollar bill in the other. While I was unloading the Basmati rice and the chutneys from my cart I asked him to pay first. He made an unsure move to the lady behind the cash register, she took his money, I smiled at him and said “please go ahead”. He smiled back and responded: “you took my patience away” and walked out into the sunshine.

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The Austrian TV ORF interviewed me today on the future of digital media, if the electronic book will replace the book on paper and how the digital immigrants will cope with cutting-edge technology.

The interview almost fell through because I’m in the Silicon Valley and the TV station is in Vienna. My suggestion to use Skype was well received Patrice went out of her way to make this happen. Thank you! After some initial set-up they had no problem recording my image from the PC screen in the studio. I don’t know the current state of technology but there should be a way to feed the video and audio data stream directly into the recording system.

There is always a way to adapt new technology to the technological level your are comfortable with.

I’ll investigate and report back on the blog how to best do TV interviews over Skype. Please leave a comment if you have suggestions.

The interview will be on Austrian TV ORF on March 23, around 2200 GMT+2 (10 PM local).

Note to self: revisit Walter Benjamin.

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I will be speaking at the Destination Design Management Conference on February 9 & 10 in Huntington Beach, CA and while I’m preparing my talk, I’m pondering who will be in the audience. Business execs, designers, people hiring, managing, selecting designers?

The organizers position the 3rd iteration of this event as “the event that gives you the tools to take action and re-energize your team. Discover the freedom to strengthen your brand with design and democratize the creative process. This year is all about the value proposition: Defining, Creating, Measuring, Quantifying, Communicating, Delivering, and Proving the Value of Design”.

Design - MC Escher

This is not about the design department. This is about Design as a process within the organization, a certain facon de penser – a way to think about things – that change the perception an the action of everyone involved.

I will try to outline in my presentation a practice for everyone in an organization to enter into a design mind state and benefit from an open and fresh view onto processes and actions as they unfold while they continuously redraw themselves.

The program for the conference is here and if you are interested in attending, let me know and I can get you a deal on the ticket.

I look forward to seeing you in Huntington Beach

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If form follows function, does art follow technology or is technology following art? Nobody follows. Kids always want to finish first and nobody wants to be a follower – everyone is a leader. Even though we know that time, especially directional time is just a convention, we are tempted to see the form running, trying to catch up with function, maybe never reaching it.

“…That form ever follows function. This is the law.” Louis Sullivan: “rule that shall permit of no exception”.

The law is rooted in the domain of technology and as technology finds its own roots as τέχνη (techne: craftmanship, craft, art) the whole discussion will be come irrelevant as the work itself will define its look and feel and functionality.

Take an ubiquitous personal technology object such as the mobile phone. With a pretty well-defined functionality it is amazing to see how ugly and how hard to use many of these devices are. And it is not a lack of form, function or the two following each other but the missing awareness to the demands of the object, it’s materials and it’s users.

There is a risk involved for the designer, the engineer: when asking the device “How would you like to be?” a very expensive solution may come out and most likely a solution that does not fit the personal taste of the product person.

(to be continued – comments welcome)

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