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Time flies: digital collages illustrating observations about “psychological time”
Flashback 1993: As part of my Masters thesis at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach, Germany, I created a set of digital collages, which I recently came across while looking for some papers. Rediscovering these illustrations made me realize how much has changed in the world of technology for designers over the past 18 years.
I also realized how very much the idea of ‘time’ still resonates with me. We can’t turn back the hands of time, which is in opposition to our inner experience of time. How we perceive time is very much based on our current situation, and our way of seeing the world around us.
Obvious phenomena of the subjectivity of how we perceive time—like “how time flies”—are juxtaposed against the phenomenon of melancholia, where time often seem to move very slowly. Or how experiences from a week ago might slip our mind, while others—good or bad—linger seemingly forever.
Illustrating those observations was a challenge, but also lot of fun—and yes, the trying times are almost forgotten. Equipped with my own Apple Macintosh Performa (now vintage!), a scanner, and an inkjet color printer, I was experimenting and discovering all the features early Photoshop had to offer. I quickly learned how to use the program to create the image I envisioned. I researched and collected anything and everything that might have made good source material: various books, magazines, fabrics, papers; even objects set on my scanner (this was, of course, long before your everyday household owned a digital camera). So I scanned and scanned and scanned… one could say I actually became kind of a “digital hoarder”.
Unfortunately my Bernoullis became obsolete, which is why I no longer possess the digital source files for these collages.
What I do still own is my final bound theses with 22 illustrations that accompany the written part of my thesis. Here are some of my favorites…
“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”—Bertrand Russell
“When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered—the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls— bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory”—Marcel Proust
“Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.”—Neil Armstrong
“At times everyone must go through a place where everything is temporarily called into question (the reason for all of our depression), the passage over the swinging mountain bridge. The new is not yet, the old is no more; you pass over an abyss between two walls of rock. Solid was the rock behind you and secure once again will be the new. But now emptiness lies under your feet.”—Ludwig Hohl
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”—William James
all illustrations copyright Joerg Dressler
Categories: Design, Digital Media, Outside the Square
Living messages and Living Walls
One of the challenges we are called upon to tackle most often is helping large organizations with diverse activities (and equally diverse constituent groups) to coalesce around a unified and mutually reinforcing set of messages that can live within all of their communications.
Earlier this year, Roger and I traveled to Atlanta for an on-site messaging workshop with a diverse cross section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra staff. Working with representatives from the performing and presenting sides of the house, their community and education programs, and their institutional advancement team, we conducted a series of exercises designed to identify the unifying messages across the organization — messages that also have the power to speak to multiple constituent groups.
Our day-long workshop produced great conversations, and, more importantly, a host of great ideas we’re now helping the Orchestra bring to life throughout their organization.
Fortunately, I had a little time around the workshop schedule to do a little exploring around the art scene in one of my favorite cities. (Full disclosure: I went to Emory University for my undergraduate degree).
One of the ‘sites’ my friend and former roommate, Josh Phillipson of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund showed me was a series of street art installations.
Part of the multiple-city Living Walls Conference, these installations are scattered around the city, transforming and punctuating otherwise nondescript or abandoned walls.
Some of the installations we saw were still in progress; I’m looking forward to returning to Atlanta to discover more of these extraordinary works. And perhaps, one day, Living Walls might just come to Boston.
I can certainly hope!
Categories: Design, Nonprofits, Outside the Square
BREAKING NEWS: Joerg Dressler on an expedition impossible?
REPORT (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION): Joerg Dressler was transported to an undisclosed location Sunday morning, making his second visit to a secret spot with stunning views.
Dressler arrived under not-so-tight security wraps in an area where the forces of nature are battling unabated: the weather promised cloudy skies and temperatures, and perhaps a chance of heavy snow storms throughout the day.
He was slated to meet with friends at an elevated platform to embark on a long walk, according to a close source traveling with the designer.
“There are two main purposes to his visit,” the source said in a secret briefing to reporters Monday. “He wants simply to experience nature at its best and to escape the hectic, overcrowded, and noisy city life.”
THIS JUST IN: The location of Dressler’s expedition has been revealed: the “High Line” in New York City.
Categories: Design, Outside the Square
Resident Canadian defends metric system… story at 11
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to guest post at the Radian6 blog on the topic of measurement in social media.
Here’s a quick excerpt:
“There are two sides to the power of measurement for achieving social media success: first, the way it helps you track, tweak, and re-jig your social efforts to ensure you’re meeting goals. It’s up to you to define what success looks like, and what your goals are, but by actually paying attention, you’re already headed in the right direction.”
You can find the whole post here.
Thanks so much, Radian6 team, for the opportunity to share my thoughts on strategies for tracking social engagement… and for giving me a chance to rant about the Metric system.
And feel free to share your thoughts here or there about social measurement — even any questions you might have. We’d love to help out!
Categories: Digital Media, Outside the Square, Strategy and Management
Sametz Blackstone is proud to partner with “Let’s Talk About Food”!
“Let’s Talk About Food”, an initiative launched in partnership with the Museum of Science, is the brainchild of local writer / editor / passionate foodie Louisa Kasdon… who just happens to be a longtime friend of the team here at Sametz Blackstone.
The Festival is dedicated to encouraging and facilitating conversations about what food means to our society, culturally, scientifically, and sociologically. How we approach the growing, production, distribution, preparation, and celebration of food in our culture (and cultures across the globe) speaks volumes — and Louisa wants us to open our ears to what those messages might be.
So when she stopped by to tell us what she was dreaming up, we knew we wanted to get involved.
Our Design Community gave LTAF a powerful tool with which to launch their marketing efforts with the creation of LTAF’s identity (which is all over Cambridge, MA, as we type) as the anchor of their visual system:
… and here’s an example of this evocative identity at work in LTAF’s communications materials — also Sametz Blackstone-designed (Louisa’s business card is pictured below):
(Louisa reports that she’s been handing them out by the stack already.)
Make sure you stop by the “Let’s Talk About Food” festival this weekend (all the details are here) to take part in some of the exciting conversations people are having about food, including cooking, farming and ranching, sustainability issues, science issues, health issues, and much, much more.
Categories: Design, Outside the Square
MIT FAST Light: clouds go away… so I can see the stars
As a fan of Otto Piene’s work, there was no way I was going to miss the launch of his SKY Event, in conjunction with MIT’s FAST Light project Saturday night (scheduled for 7pm.)
Although it was still pouring rain at 6:45pm, I nonetheless made my way over to MIT with some of my friends. Eventually the rain stopped, and together we witnessed the rising of large-scale, brightly lit stars flying over MIT’s Killian Court.
The FAST Light event had many more cool installations to offer beyond that spectacle, some of which are pictured below:
Absolutely worth braving the threat of rain, I’d say!
Categories: Design, Outside the Square
Liveblogging the Radian6 “Social 2011″ conference
If you’ve been active in the social business space for longer than a minute, you’ve heard of Radian6. They’ve set a high bar for social media monitoring, listening, measurement, and engagement — and their client list includes some of the biggest, most well-known brands in the word.
Now they’re bringing their team to Boston to host the “Social 2011″ User Conference: an information-packed, two-day event with an expert lineup of guest speakers and panelists from a wide range of industries.
We’re (Tamsen and Meg) excited to take part in this unique event as “livebloggers” and “livetweeters” during the conference sessions. If you’re planning to attend the event, make sure you come say hello — and if you’re not able to join us, be sure to keep an eye on the conference site for blog updates, and on our respective Twitter streams (linked above) for full event coverage. You can also search on the conference hashtag — #social2011 — to get the latest from all the conference participants, including Radian6 staff.
The program is designed to give attendees a glimpse into the future of social media and social technologies — as well as valuable insight into the trends that are changing the way we do business right now. You can check out the keynote speaker list here.
We hope you join us there — or follow along online!
Categories: Digital Media, Outside the Square, Strategy and Management
The Community Roundtable releases the “2011 State of Community Management” report
As more and more organizations begin to embrace social business technologies, the role of community manager is rising in importance every day.
This “front lines” role interacts directly with customers and constituents, and is tasked with providing an open ear and a responsive voice over public channels — and with crisis communications, should a problem arise.
It takes a unique type of person to engage on behalf of an organization for better or for worse, which is why The Community Roundtable was founded: to offer support, resources, and (fittingly) a community for those who foster community elsewhere.
This week, “The CR” released a report based on data and feedback culled from their members over the past year: the 2011 State of Community Management:
“Last year social business came of age as organizations got serious about executing in a new, more interactive and collaborative way. These organizations understand that using social technologies successfully requires both business process adaptation and people that understand how to manage these new social environments – at both a tactical and a strategic level. The conversation is no longer primarily about technology but about doing business effectively in a new communications environment. Community management is a critical element of managing networked environments effectively.”
From best practices to recommended tools to key strategies, the report delivers the kind of down-to-earth, straightforward advice and ideas that anyone working in community management or social business need to do their jobs more effectively.
Congratulations to Rachel Happe and Jim Storer, founders of The Community Roundtable, on the release of this tremendously useful resource.
Here’s to another year of building community and trust — and supporting the folks who support others across social networks every day!
You can find the full report here.
Categories: Digital Media, Outside the Square, Strategy and Management
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