#↷ vilem ꒰ interactions ꒱

[rewritingtales]

"careful  what  you  wish  for.  if  a  big  enough  group  bands  together,  you  might  have  some  actual  trouble  on  your  hands.  not  that  you're  going  around  seeking  trouble,  but  if  i  was  a  part  of  a  trio  of  brothers  that  you  attacked  i  might  be  cooking  something  up."  if  the  brothers  come  knocking  on  his  door,  he'll  actually  tell  them  to  leave  him  alone.  no  zeke  meant  no  help  for  rory.  the  old  man  certaintly  doesn't  know  how  to  raise  or  help  a  young  wolf  all  by  his  lonesome. 

he  needs  zeke. 

vilem  tilts  his  head  as  he  thinks  about  it.  on  one  hand,  it's  unfair  because  he  has  all  of  the  knowledge  that  he's  gained  years  later.  on  the  other  hand,  he  remembers  being  really  aroused  by  the  wolf  and  that  beating  out  any  other  sense  of  logic.  if  he  had  told  him  in  the  heat  of  the  moment,  during  foreplay,  perhaps  he  wouldn't  have  cared  too  much.  once  his  dick  is  hard  he  needs  to  release  somehow.  whether  it's  in  a  monster  or  human.  the  weakness  of  being  human!  “we'll  never  know.  i  never  got  the  chance  to  react  to  it  until  after  we  had  already,  well,  you  know.  there's  no  use  in  revisiting  that  anyway.  maybe  i  would've  just  fucked  you  harder  since  i  know  that  you  can  handle  it.”  he  chuckles  softly,  a  snort  slipping  through  his  lips  but  being  quieted  as  much  as  possible.  zeke's  right,  it  shouldn't  matter.  still,  the  farmer  has  his  faults  just  like  everyone  else.  “but  it  does.”  he  nods  a  bit,  not  wanting  to  get  in  between  the  man  and  his  respect.  “do  you  ever  think  there's  going  to  be  another,  at  least  in  these  parts?  maybe  someone  you  turn  is  going  to  be  even  bigger  and  badder  than  you  are.”  although  he's  really  not  interested  in  being  around  long  enough  to  see  that,  he  still  ponders  that  every  now  and  then.  “do  you  want  me  to  comb  my  fingers  through  your  hair  while  i  lay  you  down  on  a  couple  of  blankets?”  again,  another  half  joke.  apparently,  since  vilem  can't  talk  to  the  animals  nor  the  crops  his  part  is  quite  easy.  as  much  as  he  can  see,  they're  all  alright,  so  he  just  cuts  down  some  of  the  ones  that  are  good  for  picking.  there's  some  evening  primrose,  tobacco  leaves,  night  phlox,  and  moonflower  that  smell  just  good  enough  to  pick.  the  farmer  puts  them  all  in  the  basket  before  moving  over  to  the  fruits  and  vegetables.  some  corn,  broccoli,  tomatoes,  strawberries,  grapes,  and  peaches  are  also  ready.  he  brings  the  basket  back  and  notices  that  zeke  is  all  wrapped  up  too.  “if  you  think  i'm  picky  and  needy,  you  haven't  seen  the  half  of  it  yet  on  the  farm.  i'm  done  with  the  crops  though.”  vilem  leans  the  basket  over,  showing  it  to  zeke.  “thank  you  for  your  help.  do  you  want  me  to  make  a  little  basket  for  you?”  does  a  wolf  even  eat  fruit  or  vegetables?  “you  can  just  wait  here  for  rory.  it's  getting  late.” 

"my  victims  can  try."  there  ...weren't  many  alive,  maybe  even  less  than  he  imagined  given  that  knights,  hunters  &  woodsmen  were  out  for  their  hides.  he  may  be  able  to  protect  little  rory,  but  he  couldn't  protect  them  all.  protecting  anybody  wasn't  his  job  either.  nobody  protected  him,  so  why  should  he?  he'd  lived  a-many  years  in  this  forest  to  work  his  way  to  the  top;  he  wasn't  always  the  big  bad  wolf.  once  upon  a  time  he  was  the  tiny  bad  wolf  puppy  &  that  little  puppy  got  hurt,  so  it  learned  to  adapt  to  be  one  step  ahead  of  everybody  else  (humans).

zeke  doesn't  trust  humans.

or  anybody  really.

he  never  did,  but  every  time  he  went  one  step  closer  to  opening  up  to  the  idea  to  try,  someone  cut  him  &  he  pulled  away  further  than  before.  he  also  didn't  believe  humans,  including  vilem  telling  him  he'd  have  been  fine  knowing  what  zeke  was  back  then.  fucking  lie.  he  still  hated  his  kind  despite  a  loved  one  being  pretty  much  the  same  thing,  so  years  ago?  zeke  would've  been  kicked  out  on  his  ass  with  arrows  in  it  before  he  could  say  moon.  not  that  it  mattered  much  now,  especially  because  zeke  didn't  regret  it.  well,  the  not-telling.  the  hooking  up  he  definitely  regretted.  big  time.  "i  don't  believe  you.  easy  to  say  now,  but  you  chased  me  out  like  i  ate  your  dog's  puppies."  zeke  would've  been  on  his  way  home  before  he  took  off  his  shirt.  nah.  he'd  done  the  right  thing.  "besides,  shouldn't  matter  what  i  am."  because  what  he  was  didn't  change  anything  about  what  they  did.  eh  no  use  in  crying  over  spilt  milk.  "i  earned  the  title  and  the  rest  respect.  or  fear.  i  deserve  to  be  smug  about  it."  he  knew  he  was  different  from  most  &  if  you  asked  him,  that  was  a  good  thing.  he  was  sure  there  were  things  out  there  able  to  best  him  -  maybe  even  easily  so,  but  until  these  being  came  knocking  down  his  door,  he  pretended  like  there  weren't.  "comfortable,  huh?  who  makes  sure  i'm  comfy  enough  to  sleep?"  zeke  huffed,  eyeing  the  other  shortly  before  trotting  off  with  the  bag  of  food  to  do  as  told  &  promised.  feeding  them  was  easy,  but  the  comfortable  part?  he  wondered  how  vilem  did  that  daily.  the  wolf  made  sure  to  ask  everybody  if  they  were  comfortable  enough;  most  were,  but  some  had  very  special  needs  &  wants.  one  sheep  wanted  to  cuddle,  one  of  the  cows  demanded  a  bedtime  story,  two  of  the  chickens  wanted  their  bellies  scratched.  he'd  never  regretted  being  able  to  speak  to  animals  before  today.  when  everybody's  wishes  were  fulfilled,  he  returned  to  the  house,  empty  food  bag  with  him.  he  stifled  a  little  yawn  when  the  other  joined  him,  "thought  i'd  be  a  lot  faster  than  you,  but  your  animals  have  wants.  you  all  done?  need  any  help  with  the  crops?"

[genocidalfetus]

Brain Rot Thot

I think I have one more long photostory in me before I move on from Cyberpunk. I dread that I will be moving on, as this game has been great and my brain rot for two years....but I think I'm feeling the symptoms of burnout from it. I don't think I'll finish Kei's playthrough. Maybe I'll leave it and come back to it a year or two later when the itch presents itself, so his fic will probably go on hiatus. I won't abandon it, but it will be put on pause. I'll finish Vilem's and Vince's because they're almost done anyhow but yea....I feel like people don't really have as much of an interest in what I do as they used to. And I'm not holding it against anyone, even if it stings a little bit to have people unfollow and just not interact with what I do anymore for some reason or another. I get it, people get busy, interests change...maybe I said something once that rubbed someone the wrong way....still though, this fandom isn't what it was and it does sort of suck. But yea...one more big photostory for Vilem because I feel like I need to show people the conclusion to his tale. I didn't make an NPV of him and Kerry and Dino to have them just sit on my computer collecting dust.

I'm kind of ready to go back to my first love. Dragon Age. I hope I love this game, though some of the decisions the new devs have made have me worried, but I've waited over 10 years for this game and I intend to play it.

[consequencesofargentdawn]

The PCU love to zero in on targets they think they can bully without reprisal or without consequences. That is where CoAD came around from, to prevent groups of bullies from attacking and shaming innocent players.

Amidst the recent thread on toxicity, well known community figure and overall genial and welcoming Vaxir waded in on the debate only to be immediately lashed at by long time old guard PCU stooges of Teyha/Teyhani and Coalburnt/Vilem aka the compliant marionette and chief enforcer of PCU groupthink, Shewp.

Not only is Vaxir attacked for the mere act of reading blogs such as CoAD and others (not a crime we should like to add despite what the PCU think) they have a number of other blown up and completely false charges levelled on them, simply because they know they can attack Vaxir with material dredged up from almost a decade ago, not to mention their own fake and false accusations. Why? Because they choose those who will not actively fight back, like all bullies.

Between Coalburnt’s deluded conspiratorial accusations, of which he and his friends have on multiple occasions attempted to accuse Vaxir of the “crime” of “Being CoAD” and the general and casual transphobic sentiment directed towards Vaxir it it no surprise that Vaxir came out to defend themselves at last against these cruel and sick incel fascist bullyboys.

The CoAD team thought long and hard about the response to this.You do not need to excuse yourself, you do not need to defend yourself against hypocrites Vaxir. You have done nothing wrong that these mean spirited, disgusting Nazi praising bigots have not done worse, and in years of targetted harassment of you, they are viable to be reported and banned for their horrific bullying of you.

We stand with you Vaxir. There are members on our team who have roleplayed with you and interacted with you over the years and you have been nothing but welcoming, thoughtful and kind towards those who show the same to you. While it was some time since your last meeting with them, you may recall a Gnome Death Knight by the name of Boltis (their in character name that is) who would often frequent similar places as yourself and your friends. They would like you to know it was some of the best roleplay they have ever done.

So no Vaxir, never capitulate to the PCU. They of all people have zero right to judge anyone else, they are the worst of the worst, the bottom of the bottom. You are valued and you are a good person, as you said we all only human and so we can only improve. So we here at CoAD stand with you, encouraging and in support your efforts to better yourself.

[halseyhazzard]

Scrolling Utopia: Internet Interaction Design and the Posthistorical Subject

Halsey Hazzard, fall 2018

for a class on German media theory

Writing just before the internet threatened to take over the world, philosopher and communicologist Vilem Flusser has often been called a prophet of the digital age, based on his concern with then-nascent internet technology and the applicability of his theories to the so-called digital age. Certainly he did dream of a utopian society in which communications technology would engender a more egalitarian global society, but his optimism was far from idealistic. Rather, Flusser’s work contains a demand that we understand the way technology shapes human consciousness so that we might develop and use it responsibly. A sense of urgency underlies Flusser’s calls for responsibility, and this call has grown only more crucial as the internet has grown more pervasive and social networks have ascended to global near-hegemony.

In many of his essays, Flusser argued that historical consciousness, engendered by linear writing, was giving way to a new, posthistorical consciousness as a result of changing technology. Now, nearly thirty years after his death, it would appear the new consciousness Flusser both dreamed and warned of has arrived, ushered in by the digital technology we call, not insignificantly, “social media.” In this paper I hope to deploy Flusser’s theory of humanization to understand one of social media’s most quietly pervasive design elements—infinite scrolling—and its relationship to the so-called posthistorical consciousness. Infinite scroll, I argue, is a key example of how technology shapes human consciousness and how its effects demand that we pay attention and take responsibility for the ways we are constructing ourselves as human subjects.

Throughout his work, Flusser articulates a definition of “human” that depends heavily on technology, and communication technology in particular. He is concerned with an apparent shift that took place with the appearance of apparatuses, which he defines in Toward a Philosophy of Photography as something that mimics a human capability and which merges with a human operator. The human is profoundly affected by its interaction with the apparatus, and because technology is constantly changing (being changed by humans), what is “human” is constantly in flux. What is constant, however, is communication. Humans distinguish ourselves from the “non-human” by our need to store and use “information,” defined as negative entropy. Flusser makes frequent reference to the second law of thermodynamics, arguing that humanization is thus the process of fighting against inevitable entropy through the creation of information technologies. He puts it succinctly in a 2003 interview with Patrik Tschudin: “a person becomes human to the extent to which he figures out which of one’s functions can be mechanized and then delegates those to machines. What remains, that which cannot be mechanized (for the moment, anyway), is that which becomes human” (“The Lens is to Blame”, 6). Taken together, these statements define humanity as a process of endless becoming, driven by the human drive to communicate and the responsibility to one another (and, as a result, agency) communication entails.

If humanization is a process of endless becoming, one should probably wonder what the human is becoming now. In “Humanizations,” Flusser illustrates the status of the human with reference to the “little brain man,” a model for how the brain perceives the body borrowed from neurology. In the linear era, the little brain man is a “tongue-thumb man,” but Flusser hypothesizes that in the telomatic future, “The fingertips, which will touch the keyboard, will doubtless be the most important organs, and it will become apparent that the purpose of the Brain Man’s entire body will be to support the fingertips” (“Humanizations” 190). While he is certainly right that technology has shifted the focus from the tongue, he was perhaps too quick to predict the shrinking of the thumbs.

In recent years, so-called “social media” has saturated Western culture, with Instagram in particular reaching one billion users worldwide (Carman). Much of this growth has occurred concurrently with the rise of smartphones, expected to be in 2.5 billion hands by 2019. While much attention has been given to the content on such platforms, this impending ubiquity demands an analysis of how the material apparati of apps like Instagram are shaping what it currently means to be human. In 2013, at the dawn of Vine, writer Chris Baraniuk situated the then-new (now defunct) video-sharing service in a long history of visual loops. Like the gif before it, the Vine video takes a moment—no more than six seconds long—and repeats it ad infinitum. Hypnotic and without a true beginning or end, digital loops are “uncanny” and “disturbing,” for, according to Baraniuk, ‘the complete absence of teleology and catharsis within the loop destroyers our sense of self, our idea of progress, our intention to accomplish anything.” (Baraniuk). The logic of the loop, he claims, is built into the very languages that make up the digital world. A similar “narrative dissonance” can be found in in “infinite scrolling,” a design element that, alongside the rise of digital visual loops, has quietly achieved near ubiquity as a feature of websites, in particular those considered to be “social media.” Infinite scrolling might at first appear to be the anti-loop. Where gifs only have one frozen moment to offer up for eternity, the infinite scroll seems to promise endless variety. Yet it shares with the visual loop a lack of teleology thanks to its lack of a clear beginning, middle, and end.

When one loads a page on a website that employs infinite scrolling, one is dropped into a seemingly-endless stream of modular pieces of content, known frequently as posts. These can be images, short texts, video clips, or a combination thereof. Scrolling is particularly popular in app design for smartphones which, with their small, vertical screens, replace the horizontal thrust of traditional text with a relentless vertical pull. The promise of new content just beyond the bottom of the screen draws the eyes down and the thumb up. Pagination, a holdover from the pre-internet days of bound paper books, presupposes a hierarchy of information, an order that requires a linear progression. Page one must come before page two, page four follows page three, and so on. Entries on sites like the search engine Google that still use this skeuomorphic setup, when not bound to a linear progression, are often algorithmically sorted by relevance. Posts on infinite scrolling sites, however, are typically arranged chronologically, which gives them all the same importance. Yet the constant updates endemic to social media mean the chronology of the infinite scroll is essentially an eternal present. It is impractical, if not impossible, to reach the end of the scroll, yet if even one were successful, one would have to find one’s way to the ever-extending beginning, and start the process all over again. The only way to read everything is in real-time. The infinite scroll thus begs to be constantly checked, foreclosing any possibility of action.

According to Baraniuk, this process--or, rather, lack of process--threatens our sense of self. He may be right, if what we mean by the self is the form of human consciousness that has for so long been constructed in and by linear writing: “historical consciousness”. In “The Future of Writing,” Flusser writes

“Writing is an important gesture, because it both articulates and produces that state of mind which is called “historical consciousness.” History began with the invention of writing, not for the banal reason often advanced that written texts permit us to reconstruct the past, but for the more pertinent reason that the world is not perceived as a process, “historically,” unless one signifies it by successive symbols, by writing” (Future 63)

For Flusser, writing is associated with logic and reason, with the sort of scientific thought that thinks of things in terms of cause and effect. History takes a narrative form, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The consciousness created by this kind of thinking is historical. The posthistorical consciousness, on the other hand, begins with the photograph. In contrast to the linear, logical thinking of alphabetic writing, images encourage formal thinking, and make it impossible to understand the world as “becoming.” Linear reading “has the sense of going somewhere, whereas, while reading pictures, we need to go nowhere” (Line 23). Images contain denser messages than linear writing, and demand to be thought of structurally rather than linearly. Images preceded writing, yet in their current iteration as photographs serve to explain written text, hence their post-historicity. This begs the question: if “[n]arratives make history” (On the End of History 143), does the narrative-less infinite scroll and its attendant digital consciousness make posthistory?

The infinite scroll, lacking finitude, has no historical sense of causality. In the scroll, things simply occur. The infinite scroll, then, with its lack of teleology, would seem to be a departure from linear, historical thought. Yet Flusser explains in “The Future of Writing” that in a world dominated by lines, “everything...follows from something, time flows irreversibly from the past toward the future, each instant is lost forever, and there is no repetition” (64). This sounds awfully like the endless streams of content on social media, signalling that the shift between history and post-history is not so cut-and-dried. In fact, the infinite scroll could perhaps best be compared to films, which, according to Flusser, “incorporate the temporality of the written line into the picture, by lifting the linear historical time of written lines onto the level of the surface” (Line 26). We still fail to grasp the posthistorical surface quality of films and TV programs, reading them as we would written lines. But Flusser suggests that “for those who think in films, it will mean the possibility of acting upon history from without” (25). This will become key, particularly if we understand the infinite scroll as a technology that allows us to step outside the procession of history.

Shortly after making this claim, Flusser calls attention to the distinction between immediate experience and the necessarily mediatized fictions of images and concepts, and further, the distinction between conceptual fiction (“line thought”) and imaginal fiction (“surface thought”). The relationship between these two forms of thought is at stake for our understanding of how media shape thought and thus impact humanization. Surface fictions, he claims, are not only advancing due to technological developments, but becoming more and more indistinguishable from reality, which linear fictions are becoming more and more abstract. Ultimately Flusser claims that “[t]he synthesis of linear and surface media may result in a new civilization” (31). The infinite scroll, by extending surfaces indefinitely so that lines may be followed forever, might perhaps be the very technological development that ushers in this new civilization.

This new civilization could ostensibly take two forms. The first, in which imaginal thinking fails to incorporate conceptual thinking, would lead to “the totalitarianism of the mass media” (34). If imaginal thinking does succeed, however, leading “to new types of communication in which man consciously assumes the structural position,” “a new sense of reality would articulate itself, within the existential climate of a new religiosity” (34). Flusser concedes that neither outcome is inevitable, and that the shape of the posthistorical future depends on choices made in the present. The infinite scroll could be a harbinger of either outcome. It is easy to see how the mass distraction and loss of teleology engendered by the technique could lead to totalitarianism.

On the other hand, the destruction of hierarchies it seems to encourage gestures toward a much more egalitarian future. Flusser, who often wrote urgently of the need for dialogue, might see this as a welcome step toward a classless, networked society.

The society Flusser has in mind is one where “dialogue and discourse balance each other out. If, as we see today, a discursive form dominates, which prevents dialogues from taking place, then society is dangerously close to decomposing into an amorphous crowd” (Stroehl, xvii). Media that encourages discourse imparts information from the top down, such as mass broadcast media like television or radio, whereas media like telephones encourage “[d]ialogue as a noncoercive relationship of mutual respect” (xviii). According to Andreas Stroehl, Flusser “believes that dialogue is the purpose of existence. The sense of responsibility inherent in the dialogic relationship between speaker and addressee offers the speaker an opportunity to give his or her own life meaning in the face of entropy and death” (xviii). To be human is to act on this responsibility to the other by communicating, and the technologies humans design to communicate impact the ways in which we become human.

Digital interfaces are no exception. Social media, by virtue of its “social” nature, can perhaps be seen as a step toward this telomatic networked society of mutual responsibility. Still, infinite scrolling is a key example of how it is not free from being determined by the political and economic contexts in which it was developed, contexts which impact the very interaction design of the internet. According to Chadwick Smith, for Flusser, “since objects impact the lives of others...and are a projection of some designer’s decisions, they are thus situated in a relational field, encompassing not just aesthetic and political dimensions but, given their infinitely intimate scale, ethical ones as well” (“The Butterfly and the Potato” 48). The infinite scroll, though a feature more than an object, is a prime example of this dynamic. In 2006, software engineer Aza Raskin developed infinite scroll as a way to maximize the time users spend on websites, eliminating the natural stopping points at the end of pages that inspired users to navigate away. This habit-forming tendency was conceived in the service of websites and advertisers that depend on keeping eyes on screens, indicating a motivation behind the design choice other than intersubjective goodwill. Even Raskin is critical of the scroll’s anti-human tendencies: “It's as if they're taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface. And that's the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back” (Hamilton). When we situate the scroll in the context of the rise of technocratic totalitarianism with which Flusser was concerned, it becomes part of the tradition whereby “The Enlightenment has overshot its mark,” causing extreme rationalism to turn irrational, thus barbaric.

If that is the case, what can we do to rescue humanity from this path? Flusser may give us, if not a plan, then at least a set of guiding principles. If being human is about communicating with each other to stave off impending entropy, and if humans have the agency to create technology to do so, then it is imperative that we take seriously our responsibility to each other in our efforts to design the future, especially considering the anti-human tendencies in what we’ve already built. As Smith writes, “Flusser’s concept of design is not about building a better world, but rather of eradicating from it everything that makes it worse” (“The Butterfly and the Potato” 53). That may not necessarily mean doing away with infinite scrolling, but taking seriously the dialogic potential within it when considering the effects it will have and is already having on collective human consciousness.

Luckily, if Flusser is to be believed, the posthistorical consciousness is giving humanity the means to step out of the stream of progress and look at structures, to critically assess our own history in order to fully take advantage of the opportunities the present presents. As long as technology like infinite scrolling threatens to pull us further into our future selves, we owe it to each other to know who those selves are, and who we will become.

Works Cited

Baraniuk, Chris. “‘The Wheel of the Devil’: On Vine, Gifs and the Power of the Loop.” The Machine Starts, www.themachinestarts.com/read/2013-01-the-wheel-of-the-devil-vine-gifs-idea-of-loop.

Carman, Ashley. “Instagram Now Has 1 Billion Users Worldwide.” The Verge, The Verge, 20 June 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17484420/instagram-users-one-billion-count.

Flusser Vilém, and Ströhl Andreas. Vilém Flusser - Writings. University of Minnesota Press, 2005.

Hamilton, Isobel Asher. “Silicon Valley Insiders Say Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter Are Using 'Behavioral Cocaine' to Turn People into Addicts.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 4 July 2018.

“Number of Smartphone Users Worldwide 2014-2020.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/.

Smith, Chadwick T. ““The Butterfly and the Potato: Vilém Flusser and Design”. artUS. issue 26, 2009-1, 46-53.

Smith, Chadwick T. “The Lens is to Blame”: Three Remarks on Black Boxes, Digital Humanities, and The Necessities of Vilém Flusser’s “New Humanism” Flusser Studies, vol. 18, http://www.flusserstudies.net/sites/www.flusserstudies.net/files/media/attachments/smith-the-lens-is-to-blame.pdf . Accessed 18 December 2018

[rewritingtales]

some of that might not even be a wolf thing. genuinely, vilem believes that a part of all that energy is just a rory thing. takes after his mother that way.

“you've always had a lot of energy, so i'm not surprised. has that man taught you any ways to get your energy out?” 

for a brief moment, he watches his grandson chow down on the food. at least that means that it's a good meal. then, vilem focuses on his own plate in front of him. he eats much slowly, taking his time and properly cutting the pieces before they go into his mouth, but still above average for a human.

Rory blushes. He has to admit that running naked in the woods is actually pretty fun. Freeing in a way he doesn't feel too often anywhere else.

"Well, I guess my night was good. Honestly, I'm still amped up for some reason. Still got a lot of energy."

He's going to blame that and the leftover adrenaline on why he's sporting a stiffy at breakfast. Speaking of, he dives in, famished. He grabs his fork and stuffs his mouth, barely chewing before he swallows and puts more in. Fuck! His grandpa is such a good cook. He moans loudly.

[samwestonhonoursdesignproject]

‘Imperfect Information: The Prospect of Material Thinking’ by Nancy de Freitas

Freitas explores a number of theorists whose ideas closely link to the Paul Carter’s ideas regarding material thinking. Freitas identifies that, “material considerations” are of most importance in-regards to theorist Paul Carter’s ideas around “material thinking”. Freitas makes a number of intriguing and pivotal statements. The first being, “Designers aren’t necessarily attentive to the way they make and remake the material world in order to adapt it to living in the future” (Freitas 2). “Through creative attention to the material processes which shape our lives, they make material, new forms of and for living.” (Freitas 2). 

Section: Imperfect In-formation

Within the section ‘Imperfect In-formation’, Freitas draws parallels between ideas presented by Vilem Flusser and Paul Carter in-regard to materials. Flusser, proposes that, “

Section: Material Action

Section: Living Material

Freitas states, “Designers need to take account of how social and cultural relations are today, more than ever, mediated through material artefacts and further changed over the lifespan of artefacts. We adapt through our use of artefacts and we also adapt artefacts to our changing needs.”

Although, stated on materialthinking.org that ‘material thinking’, “is an awkward term that resists simple definition” (Materialthinking.org). A number os practitioners have formed their own interpretations of the term. Freitas refers to a number of theorists and practitioners whose ideas draw similarity to the core value of ‘materials’ and ‘material thinking’. Similarly to theorist Braudel, I may could consider the everyday moments of interaction between both the person and the material and the take this further by identifying the sort of relationship this may generate. 

“Designers need to take account of how social and cultural relations are today, more than ever, mediated through material artefacts and further changed over the lifespan of artefacts.” (Freitas 9). 

After reading these articles, consider how they inform your project’s current approach to materials and material thinking. Come with a collection of ways to really push that aspect of your project further.

[calumdixon]

UX School - Master Apprentice - Citadela App

The next post I found to create a master apprentice from was a dribbble post by an interaction designer at google named Vilem Ries. The original post shows a carousel of cards that when tap on expand into a fullscreen image. From this fullscreen image the user can drag down to reveal an article, clicking on the images in the article will also move into a fullscreen display that gives some extra information on the image.

To create this post I set up an auto-animate trigger between a screen with the location card not expanded and a second in its expanded form. To create the effect from the downward drag leading to the article content I created a invisible layer that would have a drag trigger applied to it. this would use auto-animate and lead to an art board with the article content. The reason I chose to use an invisible layer is because it meant I could use a drag trigger without moving any of the on screen content. Lastly to create the expanding image effect I used three art boards. The first was the original article content screen. This screen would have a tap trigger applied to leading to a second art board showing the image in its expanded state. Then a time trigger would start leading to a new art board where the same content would be displayed by the new art board would be shrunk to the to the viewport height so that the art board could no longer scroll. The reason for the two art boards for this effect is because using only a single transition results in the image moving upwards and the viewport position suddenly changing because the image being clicked on is under the fold.

Original post  

[countofthreefoldedness]

review

There is often a strange resistance I find with recently defunct technology, lacking the nostalgic pull of older devices and the seamlessness of more integrated usage of contemporary technology. In this state of purgatory there is no seduction pushing it in becoming a prosthetic, outsourced functionary to daily life. Thus I found no easy use for this Olympus digital voice recorder. As an amateur sound recording device, its market would now have be entirely usurped into the smart phone, one touch, one pocket, one glass, one button logic.

The only way I could then find a way around using this Olympus was through shaping an encounter with it. Vilem Flussers in his writing on the cultural artefact wrote about an apparatus as that “lies in waiting.. it sharpens its teeth in readiness”. The Latin word apparatus is derived from the verb apparare meaning ‘make ready for’ or ‘to prepare.’ This stage of waiting can have different status’: one that’s ready at hand, one that requires a total resuscitation from a different time or in this case one that is entirely situational.

The readiness unfolded itself after a week of carrying the object in my backpack. Amounting to one occasion of use, this was to record a meeting of collective I am in Brussels. Around this device we start to sing. To form songs out of loose ends of archives and our own collective writing pursuits. The device shaped the occasion, shaped the form of how we would interact, that we would depend only on the expression of our voices . With this occasion and around the what this object prepared we have decidedly formed a choir.

[genocidalfetus]

Vilem met Dino when he was trying to find a venue for the band he was in to play. He found the rockerboy intimidating, but tried not to show it when he asked him if the band could play the stage. Dino saw Vilem and was like "who's this little shit and why's he buggin me?" due to having one of those days as a Fixer. However, the kid laid on the charm and managed to get Dino to agree to let the band play there that evening. But things built from there, where Dino found himself attracted to Vilem after awhile and vice versa, as he came around more.

Kerry thought "cute kid, weird circumstances." when he met Vilem himself, rather than Johnny talking through Vilem's mouth. Vilem thought "fuck, this ain't a dumb crush." when he was actually meeting Kerry rather than watching Johnny interact with him through his eyes. For Kerry, he wasn't sure what he was feeling. At least not at first. Thought Vilem was cute, had gorgeous eyes, but wasn't sure if the attraction was due to Johnny, but then realized it had nothing to do with Johnny after the reunion show. For Vilem, he thought it was a dumb crush as he found himself drawn to Kerry after experiencing Johnny's memories, but the more he learned about the guy through reading stuff online, and then actually meeting him, he realized there were legit feelings. The same feelings he had for Dino, which weirded him out cuz he never had a thing for two guys before.

Dino and Kerry had a brief fling a few months before Vilem came back to Night City. It started with two musicians talking music, getting a little high, developed into a little thing, then fizzled out. But the two still thought about one another from time to time, and it got rekindled due to their mutual feelings for Vilem.

Tell me things

I'm goin back and doin a lil VP around when Dino and Zayn met the first time and how both were pretty pissy/snarky with each other due to the circumstances. Not like, hate kind of pissy, but the understandably irritated and annoyed kind given the context.

But it made me curious.

How'd your shippy characters feel about each other when they first met? Did they hit it off right away? Did they low key or very high key hate each other at the start? Was it a slow burn?

Share 🤲

[amodernpieceofglasswork]

Notes: Waste Time on the Internet by Kenneth Goldsmith

20 August 2018 On archiving Our archiving impulse arises as a way to ward off the chaos of overabundance. Joseph Cornell’s boxes – stockpiling and collecting of ephemera, organising them by arcane and precise system. Management of information _ downloading, cataloging, tagging, duplicating and archiving. Cornell’s boxes are similar in constructions to computers. An interior voyage. Each box an interface, with its own operating and navigational systems, like browsers. Desktops resembles Cornell’s boxes – a time before multimedia is coined as a term. Cornell’s prediction that this is how we interact with vast multimedia formats. Multiple windows. A distraction, but a life training for a distracted world. Not always a bad thing. Instead of destroying our concentration, the distracted is attracted by a rival interest. Dream machines and eternidays Jacques Lacan - mirror stage. The image of oneself as a whole person is intoxicating which can explain why we are hooked on external representations of ourselves (as in the myth of narcissus). We enjoy seeing ourselves being tagged or retweeted, we can’t leave Facebook or Instagram. Mcluhan’s theory that insertion of the self into the media is a basic precept of electronic media. Humans are fascinated by an extension of themselves in any material other than themselves, which is why people have interest in social media apps: it’s interface is designed such that when you log in, you are greeted with likes etc, an accumulation of social media capital, a symbolic currency for which ‘I’ is the social media’s metric of valuation. Compulsive ��instagram it’ behaviour Vilem Flusser’s description of such a phenomenon in 1983, writing about the analog camera: Flusser’s view is that the content of the cultural artefact is completely sublimed by the apparatus. The camera app, instagram, robotise all aspects of our lives. Coerces us and we obey. Instagram: we think we document our own memories, but these are just memories for the app. Once we buy into it, it’s hard to leave it. Your cultural artefact is locked within that system. Personal notes Not too sure about the effectiveness of Goldsmith’s argument about how time spent online is not wasted. I enjoy this book for some of the references to modern art history and some interesting examples of artworks. I think his class Wasting Time on the Internet (and the list of how to do so at the back of the book) can all make for a kind of performance art. Goldsmith’s point of view, as an artist/educator, is worth reading, especially since my interest in this topic stems from my own art practice. I think given his position and background, I do not doubt that his time spent online is wasted at all. That might not apply to most people.  Kenneth is his own example of this theory – he is interested and focused on this subject, he is adding value to this conversation about our relationship with media, devices and information consumption. But I suppose he agrees to some extent: ‘not everyone is as focused, distraction might mean missing the main event, but what if nobody knows anymore what or where the main event is?”. Works mentioned 1. Black Box – Jennifer Egan (2012) 2. Joseph Cornell’s boxes 3. The Clock – Christian Marclay (2010) 4. Finnigans Wake – James Joyce

[rewritingtales]

tag dump

[genocidalfetus]

Brain Rot Thot

This site will forever fill me with both joy and frustration....

Also, I miss Kerry. I like seeing my old posts of him and Vince popping up here and there and am quite happy that people still interact with the post of mine where I wrote him being all emotional in Vince's voicemail, along with those emotional shots of him. I feel like that's my 'thing' when it comes to VP. Creating emotional shots that tell a story of some sort and bring the viewer into the character's head. Can't wait till Vilem falls for the rockerboi and vice versa, then they both decide to bring Dino into the mix and they become The Three Of Strings. Posing and taking shots of three people is going to be a challenge, but I think I can do them justice.

don't mind me...just rambling

[rewritingtales]

"   you two are some of the most curious brothers that i have had the pleasure of meeting.   "          vilem can't put his finger on it exactly, but both kit and florian intrigue him. after this night, he's going to have one of them higher up on his list too. maybe. 

there's a small smile that plays on his face as his tongue darts out to lick his lips. he lets his legs be spread, not finding a reason for why he can't let the man sit on his lap. he has worked had for what he has, which is a good thing. someone should tell him that he doesn't have to overwork himself though. someone should show him the pleasures of just siting back and relaxing a bit. maybe that's what the summer can do.

"   you say neglected, but i just see someone that has worked hard for everything that he has. not just someone that was born into nobility.   "   even if the twins were born princes, they clearly earned their titles too. vilem moved his right hand up, supporting florian by holding onto his back. there's no reason to do it, he knows the man can lift himself up, but it's nice to have an excuse to be this touchy with someone. for a moment he's silent, just looking up at the beautiful blue eyed man. he almost forgets where he is.

he moves his other hand over to grab florian by his chin, bringing him in closer. then he steals a quick kiss, facial hair rubbing up against soft skin, but he quickly pulls it back. doesn't want to seem that eager.   "   i don't want to force myself on a younger guy, so that's enough for me.   "   as he speaks, there's an innocent smile on his face. although vilem's tone hints to him wanting more.   "   plus, you might not even like kissing me.   "   

"   only with kit. and judging by the sounds i hear through the walls, i think they are well aware of how lucky they as well.   "           florian says with jest, on the ridiculousness of it ... not on spending the night with kit. they truly were lucky with that one.

at the man's answer, he was quiet for a moment, his eyes drifting to the space between them and the little gesture he did with his hand. he was hoping to keep this facade for far longer than this, maybe perhaps when they're finally in the privacy of the farmhouse again. but then again, he did say he was kind and modest. and pretty, and smart, and loyal, and just ... so who is he to say no to his invitation.

and he was also raised to make sure to show gratitude when he can, in any way that he possibly can.

"   more so the neglected brother, who found love and belonging in his own self.   "    florian stood finally, walking over until he was in front of the man. with a knowing smirk and a chuckle, he used his knee to nudge the man's own to the side. making him spread for him, to give him more space when he finally straddled his lap. soon enough, he was staring down at his eyes, his light blue's against vilem's light browns, his breath was hot in the space that remained between them.

biting his lip, he adjusted his position so he could lower himself and their lips could meet.    "   just one kiss?   "    he asks. but instead of kissing him on the lips, he decided to tease him a little more. he let his lips fall into the man's cheeks, purring a little when he felt the rough beard against his smooth cheek.    "   that enough for you?   "

[genocidalfetus]

WIP Wednesday

The second part of a chapter I'm working on. It's an interaction between Vilem and Dino the night before 'The Heist'

[rewritingtales]

even  the  tail  and  ears  wouldn't  have  been  weird  for  vilem.  maybe  five  years  ago,  sure.  now  though?  rory  has  made  him  feel  like  a  lot  of  the  supernatural  is  normal  now.  although  he  doesn't  want  to  say  that  out  loud,  mainly  because  it  would  go  against  his  anti-monster  propaganda.  he  can't  let  zeke  think  he's  growing  soft  with  old  age.  at  least  not  yet.  tomorrow's  a  new  day,  but  for  tonight  he'll  keep  holding  onto  his  old  justifications.  “at  least  not  yet.  who  knows,  maybe  all  of  your  victims  are  going  to  band  together  to  make  one  big  monster  to  finally  challenge  you.”  rory  won't.  he  knows  that  much,  but  he  wonders  about  those  three  brothers  that  he  heard  stories  of.  hmm…  maybe  he'll  need  to  have  a  talk  with  them.  “well,  it  did.  that  was  were  you  thought  wrong.  if  i  had  known,  i  could've  handled  the  truth.  or  maybe  i  couldn't,  but  making  an  informed  decision  is  better  than  anything  else.”  now  he  knows  that  he  can  handle  the  truth.  although  it's  after  everything  that  happened.  for  example,  if  he  ever  decides  to  zeke  again,  he  knows  that  he's  doing  it  with  knowing  what  monster  he  is.  it  won't  be  so  bad.  “you  have  a  healthy  ego  on  your  shoulders.  i  guess  at  least  that's  normal  about  you.”  he  laughs  softly.  there  has  to  be  someone  that  can  at  least  challenge  the  wolf,  but  maybe  vilem  isn't  aware  of  his  real  strength  just  yet.  “just  feed  the  animals  and  make  sure  they're  comfortable  enough  to  sleep.”  he  hands  zeke  a  bag  of  food.  “i'll  handle  the  crops.”  he  heads  out  with  a  basket  and  a  pair  of  clippers.

the  fangs  -  he  felt,  should  be  normal  by  now.  zeke  no  longer  hid  them  when  he  spoke,  hadn't  ..for  a  long  time  now.  but  he  understood  it  was  strange  to  humans.  he  got  that  by  now.  he  didn't  know  why  he  tried  to  blend  in  in  the  first  place,  but  it  was  instinct  when  his  brain  chose  to  stay  among  humans  for  a  while.  he  could've  unpacked  the  ears  or  tail,  but  he  got  the  feeling  that  may  make  what  he  was  too  obvious.  pup  steps.  maybe  he'd  show  him  next  time  if  there  was  a  next  time.  "not  in  this  kingdom."  or  they  were  hiding  from  the  one  known  monster  the  kingdom  had.  the  big  bad  wolf.  "didn't  think  it  mattered  what  i  am."  little  shrug.  in  a  way  he  knew  it  mattered  to  most,  but  part  of  him  wished  it  didn't,  because  he  had  needs  &  wishes,  too.  not  all  of  them  involved  a  slaughter.  "don't  think  you  could  handle  the  truth."  maybe  it  was  a  challenge  he  thought  won.  "been  to  other  places,  i'm  still  the  baddest  around."  a  few  he  met  may  prove  actual  competition,  but  vilem  didn't  need  to  know  that.  "you  been  to  another  realm  yet?"  somehow  ...he  didn't  seem  the  type  to  portal  jump.  he'd  have  to  leave  the  farm  in  rory's  hands,  too.  "you  got  it,  boss.  just  tell  me  what  you  need."  claws  retracted  &  eyes  back  to  the  normal  brown,  zeke  stood  with  a  little  stretch,  shirt  riding  up  just  a  little.  being  full  after  a  good  meal  was  ...  bliss.  it'd  been  surprisingly  good  for  cooked  food.  maybe  ...even  better  than  his  usual.  hm.  not  easy  to  decide.

[rewritingtales]

friends seems to be important to them, so vilem nods along. “yes. friends we shall be. you seem nice enough.” and a person of their word which ultimately means everything to him. he laughs softly. people from other realms clearly age differently than those here. although the big bad wolf is technically older than him, so many it's just anyone that isn't human… “i'm a little older, but don't worry i can still keep up.” older at least in the physical sense. unless jeb just has amazing skincare. he looks over at the monster that's now closer to him and shakes their head at them. “not quite. come here.” vilem pulls them along with him, plucking one of the apples from the trees. “something red. your turn.”

Jeb hums, "connection. We like that. We want to get to know you. Become friends." Despite their nature as a monster, or perhaps because they are a monster, Jabberwocky cannot exist without people. A monster is only a monster when people call it a monster... So of course Jeb wants to connect with people. With humans. Even their carnivorous desire stems from the wants to become one. "All the games! We want all the games, don't tell us you're already tired?" They grin as they wrap their arms around Vilem, clinging to him. And then they look around, looking for anything red but their mouth is already saying "Heart! Rose! Lips! Blood! Cloak!"