The Flicker Blog and Podcast

Three talks from the TED Conference that I’ve recently listened to, all with an underlying theme of the impact of choice on happiness.

Malcom Gladwell talks (literally) about the perfect tomato sauce being the perfect tomato sauce(s) - i.e you need many options to satisfy the many differing tastes of consumers.

Dan Gilbert talks (metaphorically) about how you can believe that you’re happy with any tomato sauce providing any concept of choice is removed.

And finally, Barry Schwartz does his ‘Paradox Of Choice’ talk - claiming that all of the choices that we are presented with in contemporary society are the principal cause for unhappiness in our lives.

All of the talks make entertaining and compelling arguments, but I do remain more convinced by the assertions of Dan Gilbert and Barry Schwartz. Malcolm Gladwell’s talk indirectly equates business and marketing success with happiness - that a succesful product automatically means happy consumers. Nonetheless, three great talks that are well worth a listen.

An incredibly motivating, but entirely depressing talk by former US Vice President Gore on the effect that we, the human race, are having on the planet. There’s a rather lengthy and sycophantic preamble/introduction that the less patient may want to skip (10 minutes 20 seconds to be precise) but I’d recommend listening nonetheless.

He mentions a distinct possibility that within 50 years, the polar ice caps will melt completely during summertime. Despite the obvious effects that this would have on sea levels, I had not realised that the ice is also responsible for reflecting around 90% of the sun’s energy back into space. Water on the other hand, absorbs it! A Tipping Point indeed!

To think that this man so nearly became President!

Celebrated (if that’s the right term) my birthday yesterday. My tendency is towards depression on the aging process, but I find a comment made by Graeme Gibson on IT Conversations helps me regain a sense of perspective and pull myself out introspection and reflection: ‘It’s better than the alternative.’

Louise (being fabulous) ensured that I had a very lengthy and entertainment packed day:

1. Jeff Wall at Tate Modern.

2. A guided walk through Central London (found out many interesting things about the history and architecture of Central London that I’d previously been wholly ignorant of.)

3. Drinks, meals and to finish, King Kong at the amazing Electric Cinema in Notting Hill.

As my determination to blog more frequently is also matched by a desire to keep posts relatively short, I won’t go into too much detail, but… the Jeff Wall show was truly amazing, and inspirational. The scale and composition of many of the works, coupled with the presentation (huge transparencies on custom built lightboxes) created an uncanny illusion of space - many of the scenes conveyed the illusion that they could be stepped right into. If Graeme hasn’t already seen this, I’m going to force him to go!

Beer, Sellotape & Gareth, originally uploaded by Paul Crowley.

This is what happens when you mix Gaz, beer and sellotape.

(7.00am)
Considering that I flew into Boston late last night after a long (and 5 hour delayed flight) I’ve had way too little sleep.

Am I a freak? As I awoke (naturally but characteristically early) I found myself pondering the Wired article on digital images and automatically added meta data I mentioned recently. - and before my eyes had even opened!

In the analogue v digital camera marketplace, I realise that the tipping point has already been reached for the consumer market. I’ve held off to date, but I suspect that my personal resistance is weakening.

Maybe I should first explain my reservations:
I’m a perfectionist and a designer. My trusty Nikon FM2 yields me incredible sharp, beautiful images.
I use transparency film for the added crispness and color definition.
I am very attached to the polarising filter on the Nikkor lens that gives even greater crispness and colour saturation to my photos.
I like TTL (Through the lens) monitoring of my compositions, focus and filter adjustments.
I like depth of field, and making decisions for myself about shutter speed.
If I ever wish to ‘use’ the images in a design, or digital context, I can always get professional, super high res scans for my use… right?
I’ve always used digital cameras, but for personal or work related stuff, analogue has always been my preference.

However, packing for this trip I became aware that a shift had started to occur:
My lovely, dependable camera is built like a tank, but incredibly bulky and heavy.
My life is increasingly digital, and the photo CD offer at time of processing does very little justice to the quality of my images. If I want to use them in a digital context, expensive(ish) pro scans are the only option for this perfectionist.
Meta data! Coming back to my waking thought, I’ve started to appreciate how valuable this stuff is. Using iPhoto with Louise’s digital camera, I’ve a new found appreciation for discovering when images originated. Ask me when one of my slides was taken and I’ll be luck to guess the year. Ask me where some of them were taken and I’ll often have no idea. Maybe it’s the obsessive in me, but I do like the change in context you can get from a thousand random images - just by ordering them by date taken. You can’t get that from a random selection of a thousand slides.

With the cost of the pro-ish high resolution digital cameras falling, I’m beginning to wonder if a change is coming, and… if the view from my hotel room of the beautiful curved steps below me covered in snow would be an appropriate addition to this entry.

Met with Mazi at Plastic People last night to go and see Francois K play. This was before Mazi himself had to go and do a set at Fabric with Jay Tripwire.

Being as I’d been awake since 6:45am Saturday and didn’t get away till 6:30am this morning, I don’t think that today will be one where I make a great impact on the world - more likely the sofa! Still, you’ve gotta do it every now again!

I was sent a link to a highly entertaining site today - what can be best described as an mp3 archive of the weird and wonderful (wonderfully bad, generally) recordings of the past. Contains such classics as: ‘Michael Mills - Hidden & Satanic Messages In Rock Music’
and ‘Picking Up Girls Made Easy - The Women’s Clothing Store Pick-Up’

Psychological profiling at work aimed at identifying my personality type (thankfully I’m not all bad!) followed by a panel interview for a fairly senior position at work. No idea how it went - but typically I’m assuming the worst.

Louise sent me this item on branding which looks very interesting (and fits with some of the things I was discussing in my interview) - brands are more than logos:
Building Brand into Structure

Many thanks are owed to Ian Forrester and in particular Neil Charlton for their help in setting up PHP based RSS parsing on the site for me. I’ve quickly built a page (mainly for personal use) where I’ll add new and interesting feeds to as I discover them.

Just spent lunchtime at a very interesting seminar at work - ‘Dis-United States?’
The speakers were Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian) Doctor Robert McGeehan (Institute of US Studies, and a self-proclaimed Republican) and Jane Little (BBC World Service Religious Affairs).

The main thrust of the debate was about the supposed ‘50/50 nation’ (referring to a USA divided entirely in half by it’s political allegiances), and to what the signifiers were. Jonathan Freedland suggested that the Democrats and Republicans had such distinct views on things such as the UN, abortion, gay marriage and gun ownership that politics had become very black & white to most US citizens. He cited many cultural references as evidence, including the recent US bestseller list - two of the most popular books of the day being non fiction, politically focused, and extremely right/left in their views:

Ann Coulter’s ‘Treason.’
and
Michael Moore’s ‘Stupid White Men.’
About as polemic as you can get!