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My 2009 survival strategies

December 29, 2008 / Klint Finley

Meeting more people

This one’s simple: meet more people in the real world. Attend more conferences, unconferences, and meetups. I know of no better way than “networking” (however crass that sounds) to find jobs, collaborators, business partners, romantic partners, customers, clients, etc. etc. In increasingly precarious times, having strong networks has never been more important.

Indoor gardening

I have no illusions about getting “off the grid” but I do want to substantially supplement my diet with homegrown food. Given that during WWII 40% of all vegtables eaten were grown at home, I think it’s reasonable to think that gardening will be a key part of our food security moving forward into the recession.

My partner and I have access to outdoor gardening space at our apartment building, and live about 3 blocks from a community garden. But since we’re planning on moving (and obviously we missed planting season) we’re planning on starting with a small indoor hydroponic system, probably an EarthBox (or maybe a DIY EarthBox) with an LED grow light. Also, I just ordered the Espresso Oyster Mushroom Patch from Fungi Perfecti. I’ll be sharing my results and experiences with the process.

Excercise & ergonomics

Your health is probably the most sound investment you can make at this point. I’d done a decent job of keeping in shape in recent years until 2008, but I totally fell off this year. My partner and I have been doing vinyasa yoga at home lately, and I plan on keeping up with this. More walking and biking is also mandatory.

I’m also dedicating myself to learning up on ergonomics. Bruce Sterling has a good rant on the subject here, but doesn’t fully drive home the health angle. Most of you reading this are probably destroying your eyes and back right now. Hell, I’m screwing myself up writing this. This must stop.

Start using local currency

I’ve been fascinated with local currency for some time, but have never actually used it. It’s about time I signed up for Cascadia Hour Exchange.

Committing to solving global problems

Perhaps the best way to protect oneself against the global problems we face is to solve the problems. Thus, I am committing myself to converting all my experience to the highest advantage of others. So from now on, everything I do will revolve around a couple simple questions: does this benefit humanity and if not, how can it?

Superstruct Review: Unplayable, Unwinnable, Still Awesome – Skilluminati Research

December 2, 2008 / Klint Finley

The reason I opened this with the Nick Douglas joke — aside from the fact I thought it was funny — is the fact that all of the best content from the Superstruct project grew outside the original petri dish. Most of the best brainfood wound up growing on the Tumblr platform, which makes sense…I would especially recommend The Gupta Option.

In fact, the Superstruct information works so much better on other platforms, I’m kind of confused why they’d take the time to code up a clunky site in the first place. Check out the Reconstruct Ning page — it handles every aspect of usability and information design better than the actual site. Much like the Obama campaign, the best thing to come out of Superstruct is the community that it created. To me, that’s awesome enough to still give Jane McGonigal, Jamais Cascio and the rest of the folks at IFTF credit for a job well done.

Superstruct Review: Unplayable, Unwinnable, Still Awesome // Skilluminati Research.

Urban design body armour

April 29, 2008 / Fell

This is too cool not to share. From Dutch designer Tim Smit, made of stylish neoprene and strategically lined with body molded kevlar, this runway show stopper will be the must have accessory for your next war, skirmish, struggle, conflict, combat zone or civil strife you find yourself in or starting. Aeon Flux eat your heart out.

More pics via Yanko Design.

‘I Love the World’

April 17, 2008 / Fell

Another one for today. Can’t get much better than this! xo
Kudos to agency 72andSunny and creative director Glenn Cole for this inspirational piece of advertising.

Amazing what a power a positive note can have on one’s day. When’s the last time you made a stranger feel this way?

Subliminal exposure to corporate logos effect how people think, study says

March 30, 2008 / Klint Finley

Kevin at Grinding looks at the connection between a new study on corporate logos and the connection to sigil magic:

The team conducted an experiment in which 341 university students completed what they believed was a visual acuity task, during which either the Apple or IBM logo was flashed so quickly that they were unaware they had been exposed to the brand logo. The participants then completed a task designed to evaluate how creative they were, listing all of the uses for a brick that they could imagine beyond building a wall.

People who were exposed to the Apple logo generated significantly more unusual uses for the brick compared with those who were primed with the IBM logo, the researchers said. In addition, the unusual uses the Apple-primed participants generated were rated as more creative by independent judges.

“This is the first clear evidence that subliminal brand exposures can cause people to act in very specific ways,” said Gr?inne Fitzsimons. “We’ve performed tests where we’ve offered people $100 to tell us what logo was being flashed on screen, and none of them could do it. But even this imperceptible exposure is enough to spark changes in behavior.”

Other than their defined brand personalities, the researchers argue there is not anything unusual about Apple and IBM that causes this effect. The team conducted a follow-up experiment using the Disney and E! Channel brands, and found that participants primed with the Disney Channel logo subsequently behaved much more honestly than those who saw the E! Channel logos.

Full Story: Grinding.

Inimitable

March 25, 2008 / Fell

Reminds me of something a designer acquaintance of mine, Melncoly, is fond of saying:
"Be yourself and you will always be in fashion.”

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

March 20, 2008 / TiamatsVision

In an attempt to shake off a major case of cabin fever, I went to my local botanic gardens to take a walk. In their exhibition building was a pictoral showing of “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” created by renown architect Charles Jencks and his late wife Maggie. This is an amazing piece of work and I was blown away with it’s concept and design.

“This book tells the story of one of the most original and important gardens of the 21st century, created by the internationally celebrated architectural critic and designer Charles Jencks. He and his late wife started working on a landscape, that, after her death in 1995, continued to grow into a larger project, an ongoing speculation on the basic elements of nature. Covering thirty acres in the Borders area of Scotland, the Garden of Cosmic Speculation is conceived as a place to explore certain fundamental aspects of the universe.

What are atoms made of and how should we conceive of them? How does DNA make up a living organism and why is it essential to celebrate it in a garden? In dialogue with eminent physicists, cosmologists, and biologists, including Paul Davies, Lee Smolin, and Steven Rose, Charles Jencks has created a series of new, expansive, visual metaphors that challenge misleading and frequently misunderstood concepts, such as the ‘Big Bang’ and the ‘Selfish Gene.’

(Preview of the book “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” via Google Books)

(Charles Jencks website. Article on “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” via Recreating Eden)

Future by Design, a documentary about futurist Jacque Fresco

March 3, 2008 / Klint Finley

Future by Design web site.

(Thanks Danny!)

The Shiny Report: tracking the synergy of form + function

March 3, 2008 / Klint Finley

LINC phone

Irreality webmaster Squink launched a new gadget blog called the Shiny Report. Here’s his critique of the business model of a new “ecologically friendly” cell phone company:

Every now and then, a conceptual design company comes up with a really fantastic idea – and then you read it and realise that somehow, against all odds, they actually missed the mark. One latest example of this is Kaleidoscope, who did exactly this. I will explain why momentarily, but first, let’s take a quick look at their angle.

The LINC phone is an eco-friendly cellphone, which is leased to the user on a yearly basis. Once a year, the distributor of the LINC posts out a brand new LINC phone to the user. In exchange for this, the user is to then somehow (either through mail – eugh, or walk-in LINC stores) return the old LINC model to the distributor. The distributor then sends the phone back to the plant, where it is recycled and it’s components are harvested for use in other units.

The LINC model is designed to “[change] the entire paradigm of the production and consumption model”, and eliminate large amounts of hazardous waste material from the phone industry. The user (read: not owner) of the LINC phone can also log into the LINC website and get a warm fuzzy feeling about how eco-friendly they are.

This in itself is a reasonably good idea. But let’s face it, it’s not the primary reason you’d want a LINC phone. In actual fact, who wants to LEASE a phone from a distributor? Answer: nobody. That said, the phone itself is constructed of modular, environmentally-conscious components. Remove the leasing agreement and you’re left with something that almost constitutes a better idea: an eco-friendly, modular phone.

This is where the ‘obvious good idea’ comes into play.

Your eco-friendly, modular LINC phone can be disassembled and upgraded with new modular components. Take your LINC phone to the nearest LINC retailer, or order LINC components online. As new technologies and standards are introduced, simply upgrade your phone for a nominal fee. And you can still save the environment by handing your old components over to LINC to be re-harvested in exchange for future upgrade-credits (assuming you haven’t sold them on, or given them to a friend).

Original story (with more pics).