Bits Table

Bits Meditation

bits

quirks with the drawing tool leaving odd artifacts,
otherwise an exploration of using building blocks
in the creation of, perhaps, various pieces from
the "bits"

Hiro's Computer as chair

Language of a chair

Metachair

Reality & Linguistics

reality is what we perceive and how we perceive. it is what we understand and how we create that understanding. we can divide reality into components (social, work, sleep, etc). we can create new realities (SecondLife, IM, literature, etc). it can be said that we each have our own reality and it can be said that we are all part of a collective reality.
we have been children and seen children who played by ourselves within a world of our creation
does that mean time spent "out of touch" with reality or merely pushing the fabric of it to include that which exists only to the individual?
68 degrees as pleasantly warm and
68 degrees as requiring a sweater
we understand the facets of reality and tend to address them differently - i.e. we speak differently than we write. we think in different ways - some think in words, some in feelings, some in concepts, some in visuals. the consciousness is a reality - though it is contained - and is the primary means for us to partake of reality.

linguistics is the study of language, it contains the phonetics, semantic, and syntax of this construct. there is the linguistics of human language, and the linguistics of animal language, as well as computational linguistics - which is of interest as it is how we tell an object we created to talk to us, itself, and others like it. we create languages between siblings and friends, we have social dialects (slang) and regional dialects. we modify our language by medium - written, spoken, typed, txted. it can be said that there is a language of the body and its movements, a language not only of our words but how we write them - the implement, the angle, the pressure among many factors. There is an entire culture of understanding how and we say what we say and it sounds very surreal to the untrained ear.
The power of emphasis, or the lack there of - which only matters in non-tonal languages - where the matter of emphasis comes not from the way we say particular words but the words chosen.
Discussions exist about if are brain shapes language or language shapes our brain - and in both cases to what extent they do so.
communication is essential in a world with more than one individual in it - but the complexity of that communication is hard to comprehend - particularly when considering how much of it is efficient and therefor necessary? that must all depend upon what the people communicating deem as necessary.

Experimentation with Ideas and Media

Attempting to use online drawing tool and digital drawing tablet and imagining some of the visuals from the book. Obviously still need to play with the drawing tool

Snow Crash - book presentation

Building a reality around a book...

I'm currently in a course titled "furniture investigations"
we will be developing a concept for our piece of furniture from a book of significance to us. the book i'm using is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. i am now to be refreshing my memory of this book, developing a reality around it, and from that extruding a story that shall serve as a touchstone for my design concept. i am not entirely certain about how to go about the reality/story development - in part, because NS does such a comprehensive job of elaborating the world in the book.

for now i'm hitched on a quote from the book:
condensing fact from the vapor of nuance

i'll see what if anything comes of this quote - and if the reality/story will evolve outside of the book, or perhaps, from within

I think I'm in designerlove

Risk

In 1953 David van Dantzig created this:

risk = (probability of failure) x (projected cost of damage)

It is now the basis for risk analysis from aerospace to nuclear power.
It seems somehow fitting that the Dutch would create something so simple, so powerful, and so inherently pessimistic. I guess it is only perceived as such because it is utterly rational, and rationality isn't always the barer of smiles, hugs, and flowers.

I look forward to having, hopefully, a new approach to risk revealed to me in future reading (LB...).

The catch-up

You've found yourself some time that you won't feel so bad about if you use to catch up with that growing pile...? That has been this week and the pile is 4 months worth of 5 magazines. I've gotten through several - Rollingstone is a flip through with the occasional "read me" article. Interior Design is a bit of a tome - but mostly flip through with pretty pictures - but its a tear-out mag - good for product spec'ing and such - which is a good bit of my field. Wired is good - which is unfortunate, as you want to read it cover to cover - which takes time. time and again though - it fits my life and my serendipitous approach perfectly delivering me tidbits right as or before i need them!!! Domino - blah - what am i, a housewife? some occassional goodness - though mostly decorating (i'm a designer!) I should cancel. and then their are the industry association mags/alumni rag and one-article hand off mags - which i count all together as 1 mag. All this and i'm still not through the pile. I'm resistant, I suppose - its easier to keep putting off relieving myself of the burden than just letting it grow. And then i read the Chris Hardwick "diary of a self-help drop out" article Wired [17.01] (of course) and I'm raring to go - enthusiastic for my sloppy approach and yet optimistic that i will achieve what needs to be done - so when this touch of "free" time runs out (sneaky bastard Monday!) I'll be where i should be and where I want to be.