Le goùt des bons moments
...more from Jean Paul Goude.
This last piece borrowed from the companion DVD to So Far, So Goude.
...more from Jean Paul Goude.
This last piece borrowed from the companion DVD to So Far, So Goude.
Seth Godin's The Dip ends with an acknowledgment that illustrates what seems to me is a global trend towards simplicity: "This book is really short. Short books are hard to write, but you made me do it. My readers are excellent correspondents, and this is something I've learned from them along the way: Write less."
MIT's John Maeda shared his views on simplicity in the shape of tens laws of which there is one that is actually THE ONE: "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful."
This video illustrates a short article about pecha-kucha, a new form of presentation that is "both art form and competitive sport" while contributing with the bigger simplicity push in an otherwise unnecessarily-complex realm: Power Point.
The video speaks for itself.
It is hard to say whether the copy producer behind this cinemax promo was influenced by John Oswald’s Plunderphonics [check out previous posts here], but one can certainly breathe the same air of irreverence and resourcefulness when experiencing the spot.
The craft of creating meaning from existing work is taken to an extreme [ironically] when promoting that particular piece of work, which becomes apparent when the trailer promoting the movie is better than the movie itself. In this case, the piece becomes something else, establishing its own pace and developing its own story as it builds excitement and curiosity.
At the end, the brand [cinemax] benefits from the energy and innovation of the promo spot which directly translates into added value [in the form of entertainment as opposed to plain information] to the people watching.
Thanks to my brother Miguel A. for the lead.
Young Dadinho (little dice) was, at 10 years of age, in his first formal job. Dadinho, at the gates of a suburban motel, was asked to shoot the motel’s luminous sign at the first sight of the police. Inside the motel an armed robbery was taking place. After a few minutes of boredom, Dadinho deceptively shoots the sign, his partners quickly flee the crime scene, and the audience of City of God [2002] is confronted with a 10 year old kid indiscriminatingly killing motel workers and middle class Brazilians while having a good time. A disturbing but very real scene in what is staged as the birth of gang violence in Río de Janeiro, Brazil.
Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund succeeded in directing a film that not only engages its audience with an interesting story and its fast-paced aesthetics, but also conveys “what happens inside the slums,” as Meirelles himself pointed out in an interview for the Atlanta Journal Constitution in January 2003. In the same interview, Meirelles also confesses being influenced by Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Robert Altman. It is certainly this influence, added to Lund’s experience directing some of the most influential and outspoken [Brazilian] rock and hip-hop music videos, that give City of God its unique visual language. Despite of being highly innovative, this style does not escape the hyper-real Latin American style and, on the contrary, might be even taken as an evolution of the urban-violent storytelling trend that is common among artists in the region.
The fact that urban violence is the focus of many Latin American films is no coincidence. Various cities in the area have been classified as the most dangerous in the globe, a situation that transforms its children in the easiest target of the apparatus of violence. Such is the case of Caracas, Venezuela, the capital of a privileged oil-rich nation [fifth larger exporter in the world], but one that nevertheless hasn’t escaped the wave of corruption that turned the region upside down in the past four decades. The opening of Elia Schneider’s Glue Sniffer [1999] bluntly denounces the situation in which Venezuela’s 600,000 homeless children dwell, most of them living in the roughest streets of Caracas while consistently being abused by police and drug lords alike. Schneider’s film, as most of this genre, flirts with fiction and documentary, driving the audience through a nightmare in which kids have powerful guns and no love. A sad situation that is getting worse [if that is even conceivable], since the government is determined to shut down as many sources of dissent as possible, limiting the ability of Venezuelan citizens to understand what is really happening in their own country: independent media is being replaced by state-sponsored propaganda (click here to read more).
Back to Brazil [where constructive and blunt criticism is possible], the creators of City of God came up with a line extension for TV [City of Men] that has been running for a while now in the US via Sundance Channel. The series is simply amazing TV, part drama, part comedy, part documentary; it certainly pushes the boundaries of intelligent entertainment and deserves your attention. Here is a preview of the first episode… enjoy.
Courtesy of Advertising Age’s Agency of the Year comes this short clip of Terence McKenna on Marshall McLuhan [below], uploaded to You Tube exactly one day after The Wall Street Journal published, in his Five Best book column, Steve Cone’s top five books on “the secrets of selling” [including marketing, advertising, etc], of which McLuhan’s Understanding Media is the top choice.
Steve Cone, author of “Steal These Ideas: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star,” describes McLuhan as a “genius who understood why mass media holds us in its grip and never lets go,” similar to the effect of drugs, if you will. Which is precisely McKenna’s point, who compares media with drugs with his usual eloquence.
The bottom line, and running the risk of becoming repetitive, is that the thorough understanding of the effects of media is essential to navigate the modern world of communications, for which McLuhan seemed to be preparing us four decades ago. Understanding media under McLuhan’s vision oftentimes stands at the opposite end of the traditional view focused mainly on reach and frequency [advertising, marketing, etc.] or on the effects of particular genres i.e. violence [academia]. We should welcome all points of view about McLuhan’s work because, regardless of whether it was right or wrong, it pointed towards an important direction as agreed in this case by two professionals coming from two radically different camps.
If you have a few more minutes, check out Wired Magazine’s May 2000 article on Terence McKenna, a truly amazing piece.
Speaking of lying, here is an excerpt from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, in which Alvy sneaks out of a very highbrow cocktail party to catch up the Knicks game in a random bedroom:
Alvy sits on the foot of the bed watching the Knicks game on television.
TV ANNOUNCER
(Off screen)
Cleveland Cavaliers losing to the New
York Knicks.
Robin enters the room, slamming the door.
ROBIN
Here you are. There's people out there.
ALVY
Hey, you wouldn't believe this. Two
minutes ago, the Knicks are ahead fourteen
points, and now ...
(Clears his throat)
they're ahead two points.
ROBIN
Alvy, what is so fascinating about a group
of pituitary cases trying to stuff the
ball through a hoop?
ALVY
(Looking at Robin)
What's fascinating is that it's physical.
You know, it's one thing about intellectuals,
they prove that you can be absolutely brilliant
and have no idea what's going on. But on the
other hand ...
(Clears his throat)
the body doesn't lie, as-as we now know.
That might be precisely why most humans are obsessed with sports and it might also be the reason why we are increasingly looking for physical ways to express ourselves. Parkour offers a great example, we could think of it as the corporeal manifestation of street art. A relatively young discipline, born and raised in the streets of France (where unrest among youths is well known and became evident these past few years), it is considered more than a sport, frequently compared with martial arts and seen as a way to express some kind of acknowledgement of the urban environment at the same time that it has been confused (like street art) with vandalism.
Pop culture has been slowly absorbing Parkour in the past decade, not always with a clear understanding of what it is or what it means, but surprisingly open to include it in anything from mainstream films (Casino Royale being the latest) to advertising.
Here are two examples of Parkour in advertising, no especial effects added.
The tools that we use at work tend to define [in both literal and abstract ways] an important part of who we are. Marshall McLuhan’s “extensions of man” metaphor [applied to media as tools in their own right] seems to be more and more relevant these days, with computer-intensive work environments proliferating in the great majority of urban areas causing an overdependence on CPUs of all shapes and sizes.
Today we have a symbiotic relationship with these chameleonic machines that is intensifying as the amount of time that the average knowledge worker spends with them increases. The ubiquitous Microsoft Office, king among spreadsheets, memos, emails, and sales presentations, has created an environment in which cut and paste, more than an operation represents a lifestyle.
Microsoft defines the suite as “productivity and information management tools” with an aura of efficiency very much inline with the corporate environment. The users of Office would probably define themselves in the same terms, at least in the professional context. This might be why the limitations of the medium end up becoming our own. Proof can be found not in our obsession to fit ideas within the confines of PowerPoint, but in the fact that, whenever anything goes wrong, most people tend to blame the software rather than the person behind it. Edward Tufte provides great insights on this matter, his essay “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching our Corrupts Within” is probably the best place to initiate any reflection on humans versus this software.
David Byrne also offers an excellent example of PowerPoint in the hands of the artist, which can also be seen as a realization of McLuhan’s vision of the artist as a technological leader in modern society, helping us understand technology while technology itself is literally running over most of us. The work of Byrne started as an exploration of the medium, more to condemn its limitations than to really use it for artistic purposes. That initial approach changed dramatically as the artist realized PowerPoint’s potential beyond its traditional use, a great account of this early stage can be found in a 2003 Wired article titled “Learning to Love PowerPoint.”
Two years ago Byrne published his experiments with PowerPoint in a book/DVD set ironically labeled “Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information.” By breaking the imaginary “limitations” of the tool, the artist pushes us to confront our own approach to communicate ideas, adding significant value to corporate life in the process.
Other artists have been a lot more daring, going beyond PowerPoint [that could be considered the low hanging fruit] and into a more hostile territory. Detroit-based Danielle Aubert discovered the joys of Excel from the point of view of the designer; the result is a web exhibition and a book titled “58 Days Worth of Drawing Exercises in Microsoft Excel.” The January/February 2007 issue of I.D. reviews Aubert’s Excel work defining it in the exact context of Microsoft’s own description of the software: Personal and Productive.
Art is leading the reinvention of corporate software, which far from depending on further [inevitable] technological breakthrough, seems to depend on a broader understanding of the same tools. The answer to better PowerPoint won’t be found within the software itself but rather within the people behind it.
Excerpt from “Four and Half Months of Daily Drawings Made in Microsoft Excel.” See the full video @ danielleaubert.com
Wikipedia.org explains what seems to be the sad reality of the infamous practice of dubbing: “Foreign-language films and videos are often dubbed into the local language of their target markets to increase their popularity with the local audience by making them more accessible.” The article peppers the technical definition with criticism and defense, including some references to its use as a tool for censorship.
Beyond any deep judgments, dubbing offers an interesting experiment on the semiotics of cinema. By breaking the medium into an awkward combination of body, voice, and language, dubbed films present themselves as some kind of visual lego to be assembled in the spectator’s mind.
There is noise in the assembly process of dubbed films, the communication does not flow seamlessly and is interrupted by unavoidable errors derived from cultural contradictions, physical limitations (e.g. trying to fit lengthy Spanish-language dialogues in the swift modulation of American actors), and the substitution of the voice.
When confronted with Tom Cruise speaking perfect Spanish, the audience is inevitably forced to deal with a huge cultural incongruence that is amplified by the fact that Cruise’s voice might be too similar or even the same as Brad Pitt’s (dubbed) voice. Two or more real actors often times share the same dubbed voice, charging the substitute voice with intense connotations derived from the actor it represents. The end result is a constant reminder of the film per se that contradicts the very nature of cinema.
The dubbed actress, stripped from her voice, brings back the medium to a strange limbo between silent films and the modern era. The actress is not real; her acting is not complete without her voice. This situation transforms her into a container ready to receive the wealth of meaning embedded in the dubbed voice. She becomes the host of an alien element that redefines her as a person as well as an actress, distorting the character that she represents in the process.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante deals with dubbing in one of his essays published in Cine o Sardina. His excellent prose lets a very sharp argument cut through our intellect leaving a strong bias against dubbed films. The author exposes the politics behind dubbing rendering the need for translation as a mere excuse to ensure proper government control (via censorship). In Cabrera Infante’s eyes, dubbing also exposes stereotypes and plain racism, which can be easily uncovered by just listening to the voices that dub black actors in certain circumstances. The essay is rich in anecdotes and has a unique way of educating us on the nuances of dubbing, confirming its importance as a semiotic experiment which, at the end, might very well justify its existence.
Here are some dubbed clips from Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting to illustrate the point while celebrating the film's tenth anniversary.
Robert Park clearly explained in The City, how urban areas are essentially the cradle for “reason and reflective thinking.” Modern society organizes itself in cities that are the product of the rationalization of our own needs, which are then classified and “reduced to measurable units, and even made objects of barter and sale.” The city is an accurate reflection of the needs of its inhabitants and for that reason a mirror image of themselves.
It is not surprising that there are so many different areas of knowledge devoted to understand the city, from urbanism to social anthropology; humans have been mildly obsessed with the structure, health, and future of urban environments. The latest version of the Venice Biennale, focused on “Cities, Architecture and Society” as its theme, is acknowledging the fact that over 75% of the world population will live in cities by the year 2050, and we should therefore keep paying atttention to this subject.
The event ended last Sunday and was visited by over 130,000 people. This year’s biennale was accompanied by a SuperBlog, a media experiment that left us with an interesting souvenir that lets anyone interested in this topic to access interviews, multimedia reviews, and most importantly, honest accounts of the event.
One relevant example of the city as a reflection of its inhabitants and as a symbol in its own right is Desktopolis, a project by London-based architect Tomas Klassnik that was exhibited as part of the RCA's contribution to the biennale. The project focuses on one of the measurable units described by Robert Park: the work space. Klassnik proposes an evolution of the modern work space that merges living and office areas in direct “opposition to positivist principles of transparency and progress.”
The bizarre world of Desktopolis offers the perfect tool to review the modern city in the context the work-life struggle and corporate fixation. Civilization grows into a chaotic [dis]order in which the benefits of safer, friendlier metropolis (like New York and London in the past few years) make cities a possible environment for families without loosing their quality for answering our needs in other areas, this force us to constantly wrestle with work-life balance, sometimes finding ourselves confusing one area with the other, which leads to monotony, inconformity, and certain sense of claustrophobia. At the end the solution might not be far away from Klassnik’s proposition.
What happens when street signs are brought to life? There is certainly an element of surprise that always aids in the quest for attention. The message gets a natural amplifier: movement. The information flows regardless of whether you want it or not, street signage becomes a powerful medium.
Whether it is used for art, propaganda, or advertising, movement adds a certain level of interactivity to the message, bringing it to life in a context in which live itself converges (public spaces). An Adweek article (subscription required) in the November 6 issue explores the emerging medium of interactive out-of-home, laying out an extensive menu of options that range from user-generated digital billboards (i.e. Nike ID’s Times Square experiment) to video jukeboxes that can give a better use to the almost obsolete phone booth.
Street art can teach a lesson or two to those of us in the communications industry, the simplicity and ingenuity of some artists demonstrate that interactivity doesn’t necessarily mean “user interaction” in the literal sense, it doesn’t depend on the latest technology, and it can be austere and unpretentious while still driving home a clear message that engages its audience.
Most importantly, street art challenges the assessment of those experts that attribute the development of the "new" medium to technological advancements when in fact it has been around for quite some time driven by ideas and imagination.
That is how the Wall Street Journal announced yesterday’s improbable win in the race to the top of the US Box Office. The figure corresponds to last Friday, Saturday and Sunday and represents a $6.4 million lead versus the second place (The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause).
We consider this a semiotic triumph in its own right. Borat's existence is composed of the most open stereotypes, he does not have to lose time explaining himself because he already exists in the collective mind brought to you by the same people that created the European police car (small, noisy, slow, white, annoying, ineffective, vintage).
Because he already exists in our minds he can focus on the joke, which is carefully designed to uncover stereotypes, prejudices, fakeness, as well as honest misconceptions. Borat represents real serious parody; he makes us laugh to tears in the most literal sense possible.
Brooklyn-based Martha Rosler created this piece back in 1975 as yet another look at everyday life to denounce everyday life. Meaning develops by contrast, by disassociating familiar objects from familiar roles.
We should thank technology for making this piece easily available because it offers a number of relevant, current lessons to those of us dealing with communications.
Leveraging stereotypes in order to shatter them so objects, places, and people are freed from any unnecessary baggage of associations is probably an obvious one. If regarded without too much intellectuality, this can translate into a simple method to initiate an intelligent conversation with your audience. In the context of the attention economy, intelligent conversations add value to people and in some cases represent that token of appreciation that public communication must offer these days.