finally a new update, and this time it’s an essay about Supermodernity and non-places, it’s based on a small book/ article written by Marc Auge (and lucky for us translated to English in 1995) Find Articles has a good review on it, and you can order it on Amazon Although it’s not really an easy read, he makes some interesting points.

Short essay on Marc Auge

In this short essay I will try to answer the question as to whether the Internet can also be seen as a non-place; a place where ideas and concepts travel between real places and the virtual places of computers, Internet and the minds of humans sitting at their desk waiting for new information to come out of the gap. To answer this question I will use the ideas stated by Marc Auge in his book Non-places about and see if it can also be applied for this particular situation.

First I will write an account of the execution of my idea of a trip to Epping Forest, hereby using the London public transport to get there. Because I wanted to include some friends on this trip I had to share my idea first and let the group shape it into a workable plan. Therefore information had to travel through the Internet to reach different places where it reached certain people and let them work with it so we created a mutual plan to go to a place. I shall try to describe the path that this idea travelled from a virtual message on a screen to a real meeting in London

Secondly I will give a short overview of the ideas of Auge on super-modernity and see how these ideas can be used to understand certain details of my story.

Account of a journey

After seeing photos of a trip to Epping Forest on a friend’s Facebook profile, I sent him a message on how to get there. Next I discussed the idea of visiting that place with some friends I met in the kitchen. Because most commented positively about the idea I decided to create a group message on Facebook with a time and location to meet up. The idea hereby traveled from virtual space -the digital photos- to real space –the kitchen- to virtual space – the group message. On it’s way it both changed its information available online, as well as the people it met in real life.

The message on Facebook contained several links to other places of interest on the Internet. There was a link to the photo site Flickr displaying all the interesting pictures of the place: a link to the Wikipedia article on the area describing its history and its characteristics; a link to Google Maps with an overview of the area; and a link to the website of the City of London where a travel map on the area was available. All different links with different information about the same location, seen by different people on different locations but with one common connection - it was in front of a computer screen.

After my invitation was sent out, there were three replies from people who couldn’t make it and five from those who could. Very early in the morning (3 AM) on the day we would go a new reply came from one of the accompanying people: after a late night kitchen meet-up they had decided that 10am was too early and that eleven o’clock sounded a much better time to go. Again a message that came from a meeting in real space led to a message in virtual space that had direct implications in the real space and time: namely an hour change in schedule.

After I released my idea on the Internet it was no longer my own, it had became also the idea of the others who felt connected. The central overview thereby moved from a human to a computer network and got a bit lost. The people, who lived in the same real space of my house, had the chance to connect without using the virtual medium of the Internet. And although they responded on the original message with a reply of the new time, those who weren’t at that midnight meeting could run the risk of missing out on information, if that information would not manage to jump across the gap between real and virtual space. Luckily for them I woke up early enough to see this risk and check with the outsiders if we all had the same information. Hereby I used another screen based devise that was also capable of sending information, the phone. By using a second device I raised the possibility of information actually reaching its destination. And it seemed that it worked, for one person at least, who got the information and was able to respond to it by changing her original plan. A second person however did not reply.

This could mean that the second person got the Facebook or text message with the new time and had changed her plans accordingly but hadn’t replied, or that the information never left the machines and she was still acting on old information and would be an hour too early. The last solution left was that of a medium that only worked if there was an instant reply, namely the call and speak function of the telephone. When I tried that I indeed managed to get to speak to a very sleepy person that hadn’t heard of the change of plans but was able to adapt to it at that specific moment.

Half an hour later the idea that had only traveled through the minds of people by mail, instant messaging, spoken word, text-messages and telephone calls created a meet up in a real space, creating a group that was ready to move through space and time to reach a place where distance nor time was of first concern.

Critical Analysis

The next thing I will do is compare my account of this story with the ideas of Auge, but first let’s see what these ideas are. Auge sees four key points to believe we are now living in a time of super modernity (Auge, p.34)

1. Overabundance of the present. Although we are aware of history, we no longer have the feeling that we live in a certain time, we live now, and history is always on our heels. We try to see us of what we are in the light of what we are no longer (Auge, p.26)
2. The change of scale. Not only has there been an upward change in scale – the first travel to the moon, satellites that turn around the earth each day – the world has become smaller in the same time too – London to Paris in 45 minutes by plane, satellite television and Internet that allow us to watch events in real time while they happen on the other side of the planet. (Auge, p.31)
3. The proliferation of imagined and imaginary references. Famous people on TV become like relatives to us, we know where they live, how they are doing, what is happening in their lives, although we have never and will never meet them in person. The same goes for all the images we see around us, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco; we have a feeling that we know those places although we actually never went there. (Auge, p.32)
4. The acceleration of means of transport. Thanks to the airplane, we can go to places that were previously only a piece of information to us e.g. ‘that it is sunny’. Or we can take the tube and go underground in the suburbs only to go outside again in the middle of the historical center.

Overabundance of the present can be found in the fact that the reason to go was not an historical interest in the place, but more digital photos only one week old, which in the end resulted in new digital photos only a few weeks later. Another point can be made of the way the trip was organized; no longer did people have to wait for the time information had traveled from the sender to the receiver. At the moment the sender had sent the information is was already available for the receiver.

The change of scale can be found in the way that Internet changes communication even more than the letter, telegraph and telephone did. Not only does it allow for real time communication, it also gives the possibility to communicate with a group, in different times and different locations. The subject that is worked on –in this case an idea to go somewhere- can be changed, altered and moved by any of the group’s members from any location (if Internet connection is available) at any time.

The proliferation of imagined and imaginary references can be found in the information that was available about this place that none of us had ever visited. Photos from people we knew that had already been there gave the possibility to imagine how it would be to be there. This together with the available historic data of the area, the satellite images and the other available photos gave us so much information that it felt like we had lived there all our lives.

The acceleration of means of transport meant that we didn’t even need to come together to share information and ideas. The ideas and plans of one person were available for all others at the moment one was capable of formulating these ideas in written text. The transportation of ideas with the speed of light, literarily removed the distance between sender and receiver (although one could argue that the change of the medium from oral to text also caused an altered perception of the idea itself, distance was removed at a certain cost).

As we can see here, if we modify Auge’s idea about super modernity from real space as tubes and highways to virtual spaces as computers and telephones (and also telegraph and mail) his ideas can still be useful. However as my example in the last paragraph of my story states: the miscommunication of the idea through different forms of media states has to remind us that if distance, space and time get close to zero, old problems might disappear but previously non-existent problems can arise.

Biography

Auge, Marc

Non Places – Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity

London: Verso 1995

Enormous media hype around the “jesusphopne” proved it once again, there is only one leading company in consumer technology, and that is Apple. In current time there is probably no other company that is more capable of selling a piece of the future than these Californian dream-weavers. Once bought, however, the great promise turns out to be quite a normal thing - certainly not as good as the futurists promised you. But it is already too late. So, why do we keep forgiving them for selling overpriced products than are just not quite there yet?

To get some answers on that question, I will talk you trough three ways of how the future is often used as an excuse to manipulate us.

• First, the future is used to force us to change our habits for own benefit. To be able to live in the future they say you’ll have to change the way of working and living.
• Second, future is used to keep us from complaining: although the current is not that good, it will better get once the future will have arrived. So - be strong, keep on going, on and everything will be all right.
• Third, the future is used as a shared dream of mankind: one day we’ll all be united, so if you want the best for the world stay with us.

As you can see all reasons have some overlapping and can be found in both business and governmental ways of explaining their choices for the future.

An example of changing our habits for the best is the different way the iPhone uses for text input. David Pogue of the New York Times writes: “Text entry is not the iPhone’s strong suit. The Blackberry won’t be going away anytime soon”. Not only that iPhone is slower than the Blackberry, it’s also different. The multi-touch interface of the new iPhone is a good example of getting something new, and losing some good features from the past. On one hand, you get a larger screen and a more flexible interface to operate your phone. On the other hand, you lose a way of feeling with your fingers what you are doing. If asked, many 14 year olds are capable of typing text messages on their phone without even looking. This mastered skill is mainly based on the fact that they can actually feel the shape and location of the buttons they are pushing, and without any physical buttons to hit this skill will soon be one of the past.

Later on, Porgue even falls for the “In the future everything will be better” dogma. After writing about some errors and flaws he ends his article on the iPhone concluding that things may not be so good at the moment, but the will get better soon. “On the other hand, both the iPhone and its network will improve. Apple points out that unlike other cell phones, this one can and will be enhanced with free software updates. That’s good, because I encountered a couple of tiny bugs and one freeze. A future iPhone model will be able to exploit AT&T’s newer, much faster data network, which is now available in 160 cities.” Just beyond the horizon lies a land of milk and honey, where Internet is fast, photos are sharp and interfaces are workable.

Apple is not really selling you a product that is created for the current times. When you buy it, you merely get a beta version of the next model and pay Apple for their research and development. My point, however, is not that Apple makes bad products, but that we should judge them (just as almost any other product) on their value for money on this moment, and not how good they might become someday.

Than again, if you look at it from a more sociological perspective, the use of the future concept can also have a positive side. Historian Allan Nevis wrote in his research on American history that we are, although also bound by history, even more bound by our hope for the future. And despite the fact that Apple is not keeping up with their promises in present-day, it does succeed however in structurally promising us a better future.

What leads me to the following conclusion: if we would not believe in Apple’s branding strategy and judge their products like most other products, we would have to live without the shared hope for a brighter future for all. Quirks saw it already coming in the last century. Whenever the future failed, as it often did during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, appeal was made to yet another new future patching up the miscarriage op previous predictions. (Quirks, 1989, p.178)

resources:

Nevins, A., 1971:398 in Quirks, J.J. The history of the future

Pogue, D. “The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype”, 2007
www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/technology/circuits/27pogue.html

Quirks, J. J. “The history of the future”. in Carey, J. W. “Communication as a culture”, 1989, Unwin Hyman

iPhone video: Lenart J. Kučić

through the years you save a lot on the Internet, just because its so easy.. But what is the use of saving when it becomes so much that you can’t find it back anymore.

The solution is to spent each day a few minutes in trowing away stuff. Delete those saved posts on Bloglines that aren’t interesting or relevant anymore. Throw away all your old received newsletters. Cancel your subscriptions on Flickr streams of people who turned out to be more in to cats than great pics. Remove your read articles from toread in del.icio.us. Free yourself from the clutter… start working on it now! here is my howto guide!

twitter: check your twitter stream, the persons who you are following and you don’t know as a friend have they said anything useful the last ten post, if not, check them to shut up

Flickr Check your Flickr stream, the contacts you are following and don’t know from real live, have the post anything useful the last month, and why where you following them.. If not remove them (i would like to be friends with Flickr people without having their photos on my front page, please Flickr hear my call)

mail Check your mailbox daily, for the following weeks with every mail from a few days old ask yourself shall I ever search my mailbox for this mail, if not, probably remove it. Check your newsletters do you read them at all? if not, just remove them..

Feed reader Order yourself that you have to delete one post every time you save. And never more than 100 post from one feed, in the end you should end up with a list of 100 quality posts that reflect your interest perfectly.. (If there was an end)

Bookmarks check your bookmark site (like Del.icio.us) just check some links at a random page, follow them all and decide which to keep and which to trow away. With Del.icio.us you can visit the page, click right (if you have the plug-in installed) and delete the page from your bookmarks.

Digg Last time I checked my digged pages, I found out I had more that 15 pages! But deleting stuff in Digg goes slowly and painful, not sure how to fight this system yet..

more to reads
Master Your Information Manifesto: 21 Tips to Deal with Info Overload
Coping With Information Overload & Keeping Up with Your Profession
The Cure for Information Overload
Information Overload

Anyone any more tips on fighting information overload?

Sometimes I come across people who use Photoshop in a different way than me. So I decided to tell a bit more about the way I use it. Although Photoshop puts almost any shortcut in the action-menu, you might not have made it a common habit to use them all. If you are serious about Photoshop, I would recommend learning the shortcuts for the actions you use on daily base (write the things you have to do down and practice it a few times, within minutes you’ll never forget it again). Not only it save time, it also reduces the time you use the mouse, and thereby the change you get RSI.

I hardly use Photoshop for photos though, it’s all webdesign. So if you are planning to do a lot with photos you might want to look at an other list of shortcuts. Here I focus mainly on the keys I use for webdesign. So lets assume you want to make prototypes and wire-frames of websites with Photoshop, In order to plan ahead, and make clients happy without actually having to code.

Trough the years I learned some shortcuts to handle Photoshop much quicker, many you probably already know, but some might come in hand.

first the single keys (just push the key to select the function)

V move tool, first push V, than keep the cntrl pushed down, and than click with the left mouse button on any object to select it, and move it around. Knowing this shortcut increased my Photoshop speed by 40% I think, you never need to look things up in the layer-pallet anymore.
A (arrow) Comes in hand to change vector objects, make sure it’s the white colored angle, so you can change vector objects)
M (marquee) make a selection
W (wizard) make a selection based on the colors
F push f and you switch to another view of Photoshop (push F four times and you are back where you begun)
Tab hides the pallets (push 3 times F and one time tab, and you have an empty screen)
T selects the text edit function, push T, click on a text field and you can edit it. Push cntrl+T to get yourself out of the text field again.
B brush (click anywhere in the document with the right mouse button to change the properties)
I eyedropper-tool - to select a color.
G fill bucket - most used by me in the combination of I (select a color) V + left click, G + left click, to fill a layer with the color of an other one.
Z - zoom use it in combination with ctrl + = or ctrl + - to zoom in and out quickly
Spacebar - keep the spacebar pushed down, click left, and move your mouse to move to the document.

Those where the key’s I used more often, you can check the whole alphabet if you want to know the secret behind every key. Now lets move on the the shortcuts

Shortcuts

shift + cntrl + alt + s save for the web, my most used combination saves your file for the web
alt + I + I changes image size
cntrl + A select all
cntrl + shift + C copy all layers
cntrl + V past image in new layer
cntrl + D deselects the selection again
cntrl + N and cntrl + v gives you an image in a new document
cntrl + R gives you rulers around the document (in properties you can set the distance in pixels instead of inch)
cntr + ; show the line guides, you can create and move them by pushing V and start dragging from the ruler to the document
in the view menu you can change if objects should snap to rulers
cntrl + T transform the object; standard on making it smaller or bigger, but if you click right on the object, you’ll get more options to change the object. Use cntrl+ Enter to do the transformation, or esc to escape it again.
cntrl + E merges to current layer with the one bellow
shift + cntrl + J cut out the current selection and put it into a new layer

This is about it, if you know more handy photoshop tricks, please fill me in on the comments. Thanks!

Some months ago I got an idea for a blog only about t-shirs. I took me some months to work it out (and weeks to find a .com name). But now it’s online and I’ve filling it with shirts for the last couple of weeks. Now I think there is the right amount of posts to test it a little. Go check it out: shirtlog.com - tee site for t-shirts

So what do you think, every comment about every tiny little detail is welcome

(And yes you can help me, save it to del.icio.us, add it to your favourites on technorati, write a blogpost about it, or a small post on hyves, everything to get the word out, thanks in advance)

After working on the new website for almost 6 months. My first big after graduation project came online. It’s a webshop that covers almost a 1000 items in many categories. We tried to give the user as many options to find products as possible; by clicking, by search, horizontal browsing and related items.

We tried to make more room for user generated content; At the product page there’s now room for product reviews and experiences. Also we tried to push more customers to the help forum, as we hope that many questions are already answered, and customers can help each other.

And a last goal, is our attempt to do more besides text, there is now the possibility to show multiple pictures of a product and even a zoom-in option. And perhaps even video in the future.

For inspiration I want to thank: Threadless, Wehkamp, Bol, Amazon and Bakker Hillegom. Also a big yay hooray for Fabian who drew all the great illustrations. And all the great people at Azarius (besides me) who made it all possible

So tell me, did I do a good job as a designer, or do you see things that could use some improvement?

My story on Digg, made it to eKudos! Although I’ve been sceptical about eKudos for a long time, I now at least have the feeling it’s alive and something is happening there

The days of the in-browser favourites where long gone and replaced by the online bookmark site such as del.icio.us. At-least that is what I thought two years ago, when I first started using del.icio.us. But these days I notice that I use computer-related bookmarks again, for the obvious reason that they are computer related, my del.icio.us account is over-filled with bookmarks, my tag-cloud is exploding (I should really start a project to tag words in my tag-cloud with more general tags - something like sub-folders) and it takes hard thinking to find something back again. So why use del.icio.us when I can save the bookmarks right on the pc where I need it the next time, and in the browser I’m probably going to use. I have to admit that I do work with different computers and have to test websites with different browsers, so for me its more logical to save work related internet explorer bug-fix related bookmarks on my work pc in internet explorer.

And not only I keep my browser and computer related bookmarks out of del.icio.us, I notice that I find it much easier to de-central some of my other bookmarks too, I like to favourite pictures in Flickr, to favourite video’s in Youtube, to digg site’s in Digg and save interesting blogs in Bloglines (not knowing if i ever going to read them again). And the same thing is about friends, and people I know, I connect to completely different people on LinkedIn as on Hyves, and Myspace I mostly use to bookmark bands that I should listen again. My Gtalk has other contact person than my Msn and so on..

For me it helps to get me focussed, just as the multiple desktops in linux (and upcoming OS X) I only see those bookmarks and friends, when I’m in a surrounding where I’m open to see it/them. Perhaps this is my solution to not be drowned in data.

So how about you, do you keep all your bookmarks central, and do you like it that way, or do you think decentralising is the way of the future. Or do you have perhaps other ways to keep track of your past media consumption?