February 2012
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“There is less mobility in the work force because the computers are not simply...”
– Rick Bookstaber, The Bifurcated Society (via courtenaybird)
At a planning conference right now. How does the disappearing middle square with our understanding of the economic forces shaping urban form, revitalization and the future of cities.
January 2012
8 posts
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Lessons from the front lines of social design →
Lessons from the front lines of social design: Design Observer
In the last decade, much has been written about architecture for the greater good, and it would seem that the field, as a whole, is invested in bringing design to underserved communities. Yet all of this talk — at conferences, in the press, at universities — has focused hardly at all on how to put together a career in social...
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What used to be and is no more, at Cambie and...
This morning, I’m writing down some talking points in preparation for the walking tour I am leading about Broadway for the Canadian Association of Planning Students conference in two weeks. The walking tour is going to touch primarily on the regional implications of the TransLink’s UBC Line Rapid Transit Study and the City of Vancouver’s Central Broadway Planning Program. And...
“@stoweboyd: 30% of teenagers who were regularly online had shared a password...”
– January 18, 2012 at 04:52AM via http://bit.ly/y8RC3K (via stoweboyd)
Obviously they’ve never dated a sysadmin.
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Performing Public Space
A quote from The Media City by Scott McQuire:
In contrast to the paranoia towards strangers that constitutes somuch of official rhetoric post 9/11, [the art installation] Body Movies celebrates the spontaneous alignments that can make genuine public encounters - in Sennett’s terms - so memorable. These kinds of tactical interventions into u rban space provide a striking comparison to...
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An academic description on what it means to be a...
The quote I would like to draw your attention to in this post is the geekiest, densest, most academic prose anyone could possibly ever choose to quote. In some instances in this very passage, I have to read the sentence twice — and hey! I am more often than not the sort of person who is the one writing ridiculous sentences like this (before someone inevitably points it out and goes, “WTF was...
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“In terms of atmosphere, Inception doesn’t feel like a dream. Perhaps the...”
– Bag of Hammers: Inception Review. This passage made me giggle.
December 2011
17 posts
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The Coming War on General Purpose Computation -... →
While I am an Apple user, I’m definitely in there with Cory on the need to be able to make sure the policies on our general purpose devices which become our hearing aids and cars have policies that benefit me and not those who might have designs on me. What I am equally nervous about is “austerity for the rest of us” — sustainability via restrictive hardware policy. (Perhaps...
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Paris Review - The Art of Fiction No. 211, William... →
I didn’t even learn what a “bucket list” is until about 6 months ago. But after reading this article, I feel like I would be doing a great disservice to myself and everything I like about what I do, if I didn’t put on that list to take a month off and read all of William Gibson’s novels in one sitting.
Just one of many fantastic quotes from this piece:
I met Ridley...
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Christmas Ideas?
morethis:
My in-laws want to buy me something but I don’t know what to ask for. Ideas?
Gift cards. Delay the decision to later!
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Nerdist » Making It podcast with Joss Whedon →
This is one of the most fantastic things I have heard about the creative process ever. Even though I don’t make films, the idea of coordinating something at a large scale that taps effectively and deeply into people’s personal creativity, that inspires them to do things that surprise them, and to carry a vision of what it looks and feels and smells that do that for yourself as well as...
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“Our relevance as western designers and design critics will ultimately be...”
– David Stairs reviews “Design with other 90%:Cities”: Change Observer: Design Observer
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“The purest expression of rebellion is joy.”
– Joss Whedon (accepting the award for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in the “short-format action entertainment wetotallymadethisup” category…and if he was quoting someone else, Google wasn’t forthcoming)
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“The Internet is at exactly this phase. The same channels that carry our emails,...”
– Jonathan Zittrain, “Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet.” Presentation, 2009. The oven-mitt approach to the Internet as a tool. This is the best articulation (albeit, long, in that way that academics can be sometimes) of the fears expressed around the time the iPad was...
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» Putting the Future Back in the Room Alex Steffen →
The problem is, the children of 2050 will look at that future world, with all its problems, and see home: and they’ll look at the choices they have in front of them, and see the future. And since the choices we make in the next forty years will decide what choices our descendants are left with — a thriving society engaged in centuries of restoration and planetary repair, or a gradual desperate...
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“How do you handle the negative response?” asks Penny.
“I want my...”
– Carolyn Ellis, “Ethnographic I.” (Replace “autoethnography” with “blogging,” and this is a very effective response to why I don’t write more often at my actual website.)
November 2011
12 posts
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Recipe: Baked Squash with Shitake-Rice-Lentil...
OK, so I accidentally made what I think may be the yummiest thing I’ve ever made. (No pictures, alas, because it didn’t turn out all that presentable.)
Writing this down for future reference. This recipe is more “what I would do next time” rather than “what I did this time,” because the truth is, this time I opened the fridge and went, “Ooh, I’ll...
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“To me, claiming that Pictures Under Glass is the future of interaction is like...”
– Bret Victor, A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design (via stoweboyd)
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“There are a lot of examples of big data and analytics that were previously...”
– Column 2 : Sal Vella on Technologies for a Smarter Planet at CASCON2011
(Sharing this mostly as a reminder to myself to write more about Sandy’s comments and where I sit on this…)
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“Because there is an operating company that is responsible for transit, people...”
– Jarrett Walker of Human Transit, in conversation with The Buzzer Blog. (Hear, hear.)
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Reader redesign: Terrible decision, or worst... →
I think the biggest loss for me personally, which no one really has talked much about, is the fact that there were people in my life who used Google Reader who refuse to use anything else — no Twitter, no Facebook. One such friend titled himself a “conscientious non-adopter.”
And now that they’re not using Google Reader, I don’t think they’ll replace it with Google...
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The Post-Industrial Designer and Open...
From vimeo.com (link):
design mind chatted with Pop!Tech 2011 Social Innovation Fellow and post-industrial designer Dominic Muren who founded The Humblefactory, a design lab in Seattle that develops tools and technologies that helps makers make more exciting things. Muren started Humblefactory when he became very concerned with the consequences of fabrication.
originally posted to my Google...
October 2011
41 posts
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MoMA | Talk to Me
From moma.org (link):
New branches of design practice have emerged in the past decades that combine design’s old-fashioned preoccupations—with form, function, and meaning—with a focus on the exchange of information and even emotion. Communication design deals with the delivery of messages, encompassing graphic design, wayfinding, and communicative objects of all kinds, from printed materials to...
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Sense of Patterns
From visualcomplexity.com (link):
Sense of Patterns is an on-going project, a series of printed data visualizations aiming to depict the behaviors of masses in different public spaces. The visualizations have a focus on the patterns of moving entities in public like commuters, cars and public transportation vehicles as well as the interaction between these entities and physical structures like...
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As I See It: Still Work to Be Done 同志仍須努力
From jasonyng.blogspot.com (link):
In his will, Dr. Sun wrote his famous last words: the revolution has yet to succeed, there’s still work to be done. A century after the day that changed China forever, the twin political goals of democracy and constitutional reform still elude our country. In this global climate ripe with revolutionary zeal, I have a dream that when history calls, Hong Kong...
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“Designers also need to undertake further investigations to enrich their...”
– Guerrilla Wars in Everyday Public Spaces: Reflections and Inspirations for Designers. An academic study of Hong Kong public spaces for designers.
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Iain McGilchrist: The divided brain | Video on...
From www.ted.com (link):
TED Talks Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist describes the real differences between the left and right halves of the human brain. It’s not simply “emotion on the right, reason on the left,” but something far more complex and interesting. A Best of the Web talk from RSA Animate.
“We have created a society that honours the servant, but has forgotten...
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“In culture governance, just as civil society loses it innocence as the bearer of...”
– Henrik Bang, “Governance as political communication,” 2003, page 20. (In this quote, he seems to pretty much lay the groundwork for tying together service design/co-creation/co-production and governance.)
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“To interaction designers, the word architecture describes technological...”
– Malcolm McCullough, Digital Ground (p. 153-4). (Emphasis mine.)
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URBANPHOTO: Cities / People / Place » A Place for...
From www.urbanphoto.net (link):
“Cycling is the most convenient, efficient mode of transportation known to man — and it’s just right for the harbourfront, which we want to be peaceful and well-connected,” says Martin Turner, a member of the Cycling Alliance. “I can see a family going there and hiring bikes for an afternoon. And commuters won’t have to sit on a bus for 45 minutes at the start of...