He suggested that technology had created a lot of problems for advertising. He said that there was nothing wrong with advertising in general, but that it is a parasitical creature which exists around popular contexts and it is a tax on time. He talked about facebook and how it allows users to share data. he said that advertising has to be as good as the content it is trying to attract. He talked about something called the rumpus room and the link between creators and consumers. He suggested that people are into one brand - themselves, this idea of narcissism. He talked about the talk talk x factor adverts and brands celebrating their social spaces and this gardening approach. He came from a programmimg background which he describes as a craft about randomness and chance. He believes that people are waiting for their turn to speak and that the mobile phone is forcing a radical change which comes from existing oppurtunities.
The second speaker was Drew Hemmet, a curator, artist and researcher. He had spent the last 5 years as an art guide for a design lab, priop to this he studied at lancaster university. He talked about the Guternberg press. He doesn't think that we are in a linear history/time. He talked about how revoloution is related to timeand the standardisation of time. Emergance of the industrial revolution based around time. The idea that nothing is ever totally new anymore. Today everything is available. Time is fundamentally different in the way it works today. He talked about Paul Klee's "Angel of History." The idea of the angel looking forward at the wreckage of the future. There is an immense wealth of media and content today.
He talked about the notion of digital public space-about creating new interfaces to culture and knowledge. He asked what would happen if all human culture could be available? What can we design? What can we create?
He talked about a design company called Blast theory - I'd hide you which shows live feeds of video. Another project- chatter - what would happen if private conversations were leaked into a public space. Data visualisation project - where was the public response to a major event. analysed social media - created a real time database. created a data sculpture - permanent record for interesting stories. He suggested that the internet isn't a digital public space because it is made up of private gardens. There are open data cities releasing local government data. There are some positive things emerging for digital culture. Openness can disadvantage the independants- not simply a good thing - many losers.
The smart city - powerhouse big technology companies - we need empowered citizens not smart cities. Sustainable communities - get hub- an open source code depositary. James George - clouds- invented an entirely new art form- how you can create a film in a 3d space. People inventing the tools for which other artists then use. Graphs often used for prediction. Moore's law - curves tend to have an s shape. He ended it with "The future is what we make."
The Third speaker wass Laura Johnson from a company called Bambach. She has a history in design coding / commercial work. Everything I know I learned from the future. We need to step beyond what we are currently doing. Good/Bad what might happen. Ed shaunessy poet- We are the music makers. She said that Ray Bredbury got her excited about the future. We are communication experts. Imagining our future. We spend too long on the stuff thats already going on.google beach in cannes . learning about stuff thats already being digested. Is the world full of cyborgs? Google glass 10,000 people in the world already wearing them. Recording stuff for ourselves. Where will that go? Interesting. What is the nature of reality. Olivier Bell. There is a gadget that changes the frequency of your bodies electrical current - super senses which disney has made. can we put our trust in science. dna is now an open source - can order it online and create your own stuff. there is a genetically altered pigeon that poos soap. what is it to be human? a robotic engineer create a robot called data - how to make robots more human - stand up routine with robot - can read whats funny to make the audience laugh.
We're fucked as an industry busy looking at twitter. We need to change it.
The last speaker was Craig Oldham , a designer who can't code. He raised the question- what type of revolution is the digital revolution? He said that human race is miserable and shit at predicting the future. We can't control the past or future so why fucking worry. The Greeks had the basic model for the future. He talked about Guttenberg printing. He said that the internet whih was invented in 1990 was world changing. We are going so fast so far now. Revolution brings about change. The inevitability of change is compromise . So what has the digital change compromised in us? How we think is compromised. It is easy to be different not that easy to be better. Digital is killing information. Pure Fact. Knowledge is a fundamental understanding of everything from all angles. To forget is human. Everything is permanent now. We keep everything because it is easy. Society glorifies the collective. The internet is a commitee . Populus is a good thing at times . An individuals desire and work ethic pushes something forward. Information is not knowledge. We have eroded ability to edit. This glorifies the collective at the expense of the individual. Empathy and understanding is fundamental for a designer. He thinks that we just keep shit. Believes in people. individuals take you to an important place. Google is the law. Facebook is a glutton . slotted into a customisation. It doesnt make you an innovator just because you use an innovation. chickenonaraft.com pointerpointer.com the uselessweb.com digital revolution needs more thinkers.
As a designer you need to know whats good/bad. Its about doing new stuff, finding the right clients. Make sure you are doing well and have a proper partner ship phone thing makes designers question themselves. value for money. So much brilliant technology gets forgotten about. You need to convince clients to do the right thing. There is an interesting dynamic between new artists and media agents. There are many cases of an artist creating something then it being changed slightly. Design is about doing the right thing and salesmanship. A good idea isnt usually technology led. He talks about collectivism and how there is nothing better than seeing people enjoying your work. We need people that believe in themselves. There has been a big shift into new collaborative ways of thinking. Collaboration is good for somethings but not for others, a genius is someone who sees the potential in other peoples ideas. People think they have a voice because of social networking. We are constantlly under pressure to be controlled. facebook love/hate lack of privacy . We live in an irrational society where ownership and social media is such a powerful tool.
