The creativity of everyone.

Hey.
I was looking at the video from the mini HD camera I was using last night and the quality wasn’t great on the video (understandable, considering it was very low light), but the microphone in the little camera was not up to the task. What’s the state of enhancement software? or do you think there is there a way to improve the audio by hacking the microphone electronics in the camera? I know that there are better cameras, but I like the fact that they’re cheap and small. Maybe a better way to capture audio with a higher quality source and then cut video to the audio track.

But there’s also the sense that people’s individual stories are way more interesting than the ones manufactured for them. So, let’s as artists create beautiful containers for that creativity. The creativity of everyone. No judgement. No competition and commerce in beautiful experiences (Creme). But we have to live don’t we. Well yes we do need to live, but what exactly does it mean to live? We need to support ourselves, have the resources we need. But then there’s the other side that says. “Go for the most exquisite experience. How can you not reach for the best experince in the moment?” But what criteria do you use? The one you were taught in school, church, work? Or the one you have arrived at by yourself? And in that world, you thrive and your best qualities are at their most magnificent. How can you not follow that impulse.

Collaboration in Media

A quote from John Wilshire of the Guardian at PSFK’s Good Ideas Forum

“Moderating & curating is going to be a vital part of the Guardian’s future, which is an edict right from the top…Basically, newspapers are becoming open… working, data, info, even the new offices… all being built to be open…”

Culture Cycles

The anxious interval

This is a little speculation about cultural cycles of revival and neglect. This is about how the present feels about particular parts of the culture of the past. Have a look at the diagram below:

That’s a model of how I see cultural attention being paid. Let’s work backwards down the timeline. We start with the present.

The present: Not difficult to define. The present is now. It’s this year and last year and a couple of years before that. If you can look at a photo of yourself and not think “God, what a strange haircut I had, and what strange sunglasses I was wearing!” then that photo was probably taken in the present. If you read an old email and find you were talking about Friendster in a way you’d now be talking about Facebook — and catch yourself struggling to remember what Friendster even was — then that email was probably not written in what we’re calling “the present”. It was probably written in the next timezone on my diagram, and the most important one in this essay, the anxious interval.

The anxious interval: The anxious interval is the recent past. It’s long enough ago to feel not-contemporary, but not long enough ago to feel utterly removed. It’s at an uncomfortable distance, which is why I call it “anxious”. You could think of the anxious interval as the temporal equivalent of the uncanny valley, that place where robots are similar enough to us to give us an uncomfortable shudder. You could also say the anxious interval is a place, a style, a set of references we avoid, repress, sublimate, have selective amnesia about, stow away, throw out, deliberately forget.

If there’s a stock exchange of reputations, the people who made their names in the current “anxious interval” are on the skids. If they’re artists, they’re dropping on Artfacts.net and if they’re pop musicians they’re not charting as high as they once did. They’re the kind of people who make you say “Oh, I’d forgotten about him.” Oddly enough, the more these people were hyped during the anxious interval, the more you tend to have forgotten about them.

An example: Devendra Banhart and the scene that was called Freak Folk or New Weird America. The Wire magazine cover feature on New Weird America dates from August 2003. By April 2005 the San Francisco Chronicle is telling us that Freak Folk Flies High. By June 2006 the New York Times is telling its readers that “a music scene called freak folk is bursting up from underground” but adding that “it looked like a trend of the moment a couple of years ago”. By 2009, it’s safe to say that a reference to Freak Folk would be more likely to puncture your credibility than bolster it. Freak Folk is in “the anxious interval”. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it, just that we’re currently asleep to its charms. That particular pixie field is lying fallow right now. When the trump sounds and its time comes again, Freak Folk will return, stronger for the rest.

Let’s keep working back.

The battlefront: The battlefront is a terribly interesting micro-zone, but to talk about it we need to talk about the zone behind it too. The goldmine is the cultural era the present is currently reviving. I’ve put a picture of Buggles, because in general we’re reviving the 80s at the moment. You know, the guy from Hot Chip wears Buggles-like glasses, and so on. The goldmine is a goldmine for people who run secondhand clothes stores and have lots of stock from the requisite era, or people who are selling synths from that era, or people who’ve got a bunch of cheap Chinese Ray Ban copy frames. The smartest people in the present are remembering the goldmine and sifting through its waters like a crowd of panhandlers.

The battlefront is the area right at the edge of the goldmine — the place where the acceptable and lucrative revival era meets a time which is currently repressed, neglected, and a-slumber. What’s so interesting about the battlefront is that the process of reassessment is so visible here, and the revaluation is so daringly and consciously done. An elite of taste-leaders and taste-formers unafraid of ridicule are hard at work here, foraging for bargains, bringing an unacceptable era into fresh acceptability. There’s a kind of shuddering repulsion for long-neglected, long-repressed artifacts, and yet something compellingly taboo about them. Their hiddenness makes them fascinating — it’s as if their very sublimation has given these cultural objects some kind of big power over our unconscious. The best curators and fashionistas are to be found at the battlefront, battling for the fascinating-repellant things they find in that twilit zone between acceptability and unacceptability.

I’d say the battlefront is currently the early- to mid-90s. I’ve noticed Facebook friends posting old photos from this era and tagging their friends, partly to embarrass them by showing how uncool they looked in high school, partly to initiate hipster-style reassessments of this era’s styles, and confirm themselves as advance-party warriors in the vanguard of style.

Before the battlefront, before the goldmine, there’s the anxious echo. The anxious echo is simply an era that has been revived by a more recent era which has itself been forgotten and repressed. In the mid-to-late 90s, for instance, the 70s were being revived. This means that if we’re forgetting the mid-to-late 90s, we must also forget the 70s, which become an “anxious echo” of a time we wish to forget.

Even further back, there’s the historical past, which is vast, and contains many fainter echoes of the present’s revived and reviled periods, all cluttered up as in a junk store or museum. Before the historical past (not shown on my chart) is oblivion. Oblivion is simply what we can’t remember, because we’ve lost records of it. Oblivion is very different from the anxious interval because it’s not consciously forgotten. We never had to banish or repress oblivion because we never knew it in the first place.

I’m sure this is all laid out neatly somewhere in Google Zeitgeist. Unfortunately, since Google Zeitgeist was invented in 2001 and peaked in 2005, I’ve completely forgotten what the service was, or where to find it. No doubt its time will come again some day.

78

Social Media

Top Ten: Brands and Social Media

4 comments

February 9, 2009

It’s no secret that social media is a driving force in the way big businesses are marketing themselves to consumers. These networking tools create open channels of communication between companies and customers, giving a face to formerly impersonal corporations through employee blogs, Twitter updates and playful Facebook applications. Customers are able to engage with the brands they buy in meaningful ways never before thought possible (or allowable) by sharing their experiences in a variety of ways ranging from feedback and innovations to photos and video.

But simply saying your business uses this methodology doesn’t guarantee instantaneous success. The demographic that is reached in this manner represent a savvy audience of users that value authentic interaction and thoughtful use of these technologies or they’ll choose to opt out of the loop. With that in mind, Samir Balwani, blogger and social media marketer, has assembled an insightful list of ten big brands that are effectively using web 2.0 tools, along with the lessons to be learned from each example. We have included the abbreviated list below:

1. Blendtec on YouTube
2. Burger King’s “Whopper Sacrifice”
3. Starbucks asks customers for their ideas
4. Sun Microsytems CEO blog
5. IBM employee blogs
6. Zappos on Twitter
7. Comcast on Twitter
8. Ford’s Public Relations
9. Graco on Flickr
10. Dell’s multi-platform approach

Mashable: Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media

[image via hulag]

For our previous posts on ways businesses can effectively use social media read here and here.

Focus Management

E-mail, voicemail, “got a minute?” interruptions, multiple projects and competing priorities. Whether it is in work or in life, we all understand the importance of “seeing the forest for the trees.” But with so many “trees” competing for your attention, it’s tough to find the forest, never mind spend much time there. The challenge today is not so much time management, but focus management. In other words, if you want to focus on the big picture, you need to manage not time, but focus – yours.

Here are seven Focus Management® best practices that you can begin using today:

1. Plan for success. Do you spend more time preparing for a two-week vacation than planning important aspects of your work or life? If so, take time out to do some short- and mid-range planning of your current goals and projects. Long-range plans are useful for setting a direction. In terms of taking action though, 60-day plans tend to work best. Ask yourself: What high-impact, multi-step goals or projects do I need or want to begin this month and next?

2. Differentiate the forest from the trees – in writing. You make lists and lists of trees. But where do you keep your forest activities? Committing the big picture to writing gives it a fighting chance. Label a page in your organizer or a screen in your PDA: Current Goals & Projects. As you prepare your list, be careful not to mix the forest in with the trees. Doing so forces your subconscious to choose between “develop strategic plan” and “send e-mail.” Given the choice, the higher pay-off activity will lose every time. That’s because the brain skips the “big verb” activities (e.g. plan, coordinate, develop, research, revise, etc.) associated with the forest in favor of smaller, more manageable verbs like “call,” “e-mail,” or “buy” that make up the trees.

3. Put a stake in the ground. The timeline for completing some goals and projects are clear – the new network must be up in two weeks, taxes must be filed by April 15th, the sales report is due at month’s end. Then there are the goals and projects that languish for lack of an externally imposed deadline. Giving each of your current goals and projects a target date to shoot for not only helps you create a plan to reach it, but is motivating as well. Bonus benefit: When your boss throws you yet another big project, use your Current Goals & Projects plan as a basis for clarifying priorities and renegotiating due dates.

4. Keep your list visible. With so many trees competing for your attention, you need to make the forest as conspicuous as possible. Seeing your goals every day also helps make them real. If a goal isn’t “in your face every day,” says Drew Carey, “it’s a wish, not a dream.” Force yourself to tune into the big picture by making your Current Goals and Projects list the first thing you see when you open your paper or electronic organizer.

5. Begin the day by scanning the forest. Use the time while your e-mail is downloading to reflect on your Current Goals & Projects list. Then apply this Big Picture 80/20 Rule which says that 80% of our results – in work and in life – come from just 20% of our efforts. If your goal or project requires concentrated time – for example, connecting with key clients or staying in shape – block out 20% of your day to spend on these activities. If the project requires juggling lots of small steps, make sure that for every 10 trees you fell in a day, at least two (20%) relate to the big picture.

6. Use the Next Actions approach. When you’re juggling five different initiatives, each with anywhere from 10 to 100 steps – it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Yet no matter how large the undertaking, one simple reality remains the same: There may be many steps, but there is always only one “next action.” Say you have to manage a major software conversion. The next action might be to create a project plan. Can’t make a plan until you talk to Fred? Next action: Call Fred. As an ancient proverb reminds us: “To move a mountain you must begin by carrying away small stones.”

7. Manage mental interruptions. Ok. You talked to Fred and have all the information you need to start writing that project plan. You set your phone to roll to voice mail. You turn off email notification. You even post a Do Not Disturb sign by your door. You settle in at your computer ready to go. Twenty minutes into it you’re making real progress. Now imagine that with absolutely no prompting from you, three totally unrelated files suddenly pop up on your screen. How easy do you think it would be to stay focused on your original document? Yet, that’s exactly the way your brain operates! You’re in the middle of one thing when your subconscious pops in to remind you to do something else – like “email Juan.” Here’s a better idea. Rather than risk distracting yourself from your high impact project, address the mental interruption by taking a few seconds to add, “email Juan” to your list of next actions. Or as we like to say, “If you think it – ink it!”

The trees are a constant and sometimes relentless part of life. If you find that the trees are overtaking the forest, the key is to manage your response to the big picture and the details through more effective focus management. Gain control over your attention and you gain greater control over your life.

©2006 Time/Design. To learn more about Time/Design’s Focus Management tools, training and coaching, call 800-637-9942 or visit www.timedesign.com.

Genius Cycle

I was checking out Meredith Medland’s Living Green podcasts (cool) and decided to look at other titles in the Personal Life Media series she’s part of. In the process I found some podcasts by Mark Michael Lewis in a group he calls Money. Mission and Meaning. There were three episodes called the Genius Cycle that I listened to and these are the basic principles:

1. Focus attention
2. Study your experience and look for patterns
3. Recognize (re-cognize) the pattern and make it distinct (separate out from other aspects of the experience).
4. Name it.
5. Experiment with the distinction through conscious choice (choose a specific behavior).
6. Deliberately act on your choice
7. Test the results with observation (focus attention again)

Like the podcaster mentioned, it’s the epirical method (observe, isolate, try something different, observe and modify). So, since I’m interested in developing a new and profitable business to balance the non-profit side, I thought I’d apply it to my own personal challenges. When I focus my attention on what seems to block attempts like this (and there have been many business ideas that have been experimented with and later abandoned–maybe the nature of things), what came up was difficulty with the first step. There are so many competing ideas and demands for time (none of which seem willing to defer to others) that it’s difficult to focus attention (or enough attention) on any one to make substantial progress. So, if I apply the method to that here are the results:

• Focus attention

I focused attention on the issue of manifesting something that I want (to make money enough to support myself, do work that gives me an opportunity to learn and grow, travel often to Europe)

• Study your experience and look for patterns

When I looked at my experience, I find that distraction causes me to switch frequently from one project to another (looking for inspiration, maybe feeling that there are too many obstacles to overcome and that I don’t know where to start).

• Recognize (re-cognize) the pattern and make it distinct (separate out from other aspects of the experience).

It seems like when I get to this point I procrastinate. Just put the problem aside and pick up something else–which leads to more distractions. The truth is that more projects, more research, more ideas turn into more distractions.

• Name it.

If I had to choose a  name for this pattern it would be procrastination which is usually about putting off the inevitable to give me the sense that I have control, when in fact I often don’t. I can postpone paying a bill, but will eventually have to pay it and the more I procrastinate, the more it will cost me. Some things I have control over and some things I don’t. I can control when I pay, but not whether I pay.

• Experiment with the distinction through conscious choice (choose a specific behavior).

So, in this case, I decided to stop procrastinating to avoid distraction. This reminds me of the Insight time management course I took. The premise was that you dump all the unfinished business out of your head where it is a constant distraction and first prioritize (what are the critical needs) and then act on the highest priority tasks first.

• Deliberately act on your choice

I’ve been experimenting with paying bills on time. I keep a file ordered by due date, open my mail and sort it immediately so I don’t get caught unaware and pay on the last possible date (to keep some semblance of independence) that avoids penalty. Now I’m trying to deal with all tax penalties to get that anxiety out of my consciousness. The twisted logic is that I procrastinate to maintain control (when I don’t have it) which results in action by government and creditors that actually reduces my control (they kidnap your assets which reduces control further).

• Test the results with observation (focus attention again)

The results have been good. I have more control rather than less. When I finish with the tax payments, I’ll have much less financial distraction which has been much more severe lately. So, how else does procrastination affect me and accomplishing what I want? That’s the next step.

State of Fishbon 2008

Since it’s Spring therefore the time to think about rebirth and renewal, I thought it would be a good time to review where we’ve been, what’s changed, and where we may want to go next. Here’s the executive summary:

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

The Pescadrome
We’ve occupied the building for two years now and it feels like it has transformed from what was originally an institutional-feeling shell into what seems more like a timeless former nightclub with a scene shop in the basement and a secret lounge on the third floor. Lighting and sound systems have improved greatly, there have been many cool events, few failures and an interesting audience. The challenges ahead center mostly around improvements of the basic infrastructure so that we can produce even better events within the context of the available space. If we are able to pull off the aerial grid, it would be a major new feature and open up new possibilities for future skill development and performance.

Cells
Cells seem to be stable, but the potential is still yet to be realized. We now have a Performance Cell and a Meditation Cell, talk of a Healing Cell. The New Music Cell produced an event in March. Martial Arts and Doc Film cells are still operating. The biggest issue from my point of view (having now taken on leadership of a cell) is the ongoing maintenance of the meeting topics. It’s like continuously monitoring the product to keep up attendance.

Classes
Alan taught an initial series of electronics classes that was well-attended and drew an enthusiast audience. The next step may be group projects that introduce additional techniques in the form of practical applications. Dominique also taught Stilt Skills and there has been interest in sewing classes.

Event Lab
The Event Lab has continued as a Wednesday night staple, with a variety of programs and hands-on evenings. Attendance varies but has trended downward somewhat in the past year.

Mainstage Events
We’ve continued with a three-per-year season of themed events with music, performance, immersive decor and special installations that have been well attended and successful. Participation in the building has fallen more to core-group members than in the original events a year ago. Theatrical interludes have become a staple with live music, cabaret and dialogue.

Electronic Media Arts Conference
We talked about sponsoring an Electronic Media Arts conference that would provide a showcase for artists working in this area both local and international.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES?

Funding
We’ve made little progress in the funding area. I think this is still primarily because the principals are entirely focused on creating the product (the experience) and have much less interest in the marketing and business side of it. To date we’ve been able to function this way, but is it viable for the future? How does it affect our choices and opportunities? We’ve talked about finding an executive director to handle this area. It’s too bad Hillary wasn’t interested, but maybe finding someone should be a priority. There’s also the possibility that we can find other, non-Santa Barbara focused solutions. I’m still interested in investigating web-based and touring solutions.

Shifting from Entrepreneurial to Management Mode
Fishbon has been going for almost five years and we’ve progressed from an exciting concept and very informal meetings at my studio to all of the elements mentioned above. The staff (us) hasn’t grown and we’re still doing it for the love of it. It’s starting to feel a little like endless bootstrapping. We’ve all done this many times and it’s probably the most exciting phase of any organization. But, I think that we’re now needing to transition from the early days of shooting from the hip (I know its a cliche) to an organization that, to grow and prosper, needs paid management, budgets, plans and a whole lot of other stuff that falls into the category of administration. This is not my personal best skill set. But at the same time, I feel like I want to be compensated for all the hard work I’ve put into this project. The way that might happen is to shift responsibilities from day to day management to R&D, new project development, new products..I’m not sure how it would be described, but the point is that if we have a director who gets it funded and then in turn sets aside funds for creative direction and future projects, that’s where I want to be.

Planning and Logistics
One of the biggest challenges at this point is managing detail. There are Wednesday night event labs to schedule, cells to coordinate, mainstage shows to plan, book and organize, website and email newsletters to design, write and execute. We’ve delegated some of this stuff in a very limited way, but the amount I’m doing right now is keeping me from working on vital new stuff which I think is essential both for me personally and Fishbon as an organization. We’ve talked about an intern and I checked into it It’s possible, but yet another thing to add to the to-do list. Finding an executive director is a major entry on the list. Ultimately, I think it’s time to open the circle and include more people.

A Curatorial Model
Since we’re an arts organization, I’ve been thinking for an art-related metaphor for a way to maintain creative/aesthetic excellence within the framework of a more inclusive model. I was talking to my son about it last night (he’s a sales manager for cars.com and he reminded me that business has almost entirely completed the transition from top-down, to distributed management. Businesses can’t find people who will work for outdated hierarchical companies any more. They work in teams and manage networks. I think this needs to apply to us too. We need to include our members in the process of generating ideas and concept. At the same time, everybody hates the town meeting, democratic style with endless debate and votes that do more to increase recrimination than smoothly manage the group energy. So, I propose we broaden the participation by establishing a curatorial model like the one museums and galleries use. For example, what if we were to offer Ethan the opportunity to curate the event lab and one mainstage event for 3 months. He’d present his ideas to us. We’d discuss them with him, make suggestions and then be available as resources in his process of implementing them. Of course, we may decide to curate one or more quarters ourselves, but we wouldn’t be on the hook for every event and lab. New blood would be introduced and Fishbon would benefit. This could also work for outside curators. What if an artist from Holland was doing cool stuff and we approached them to curate an event or series of projects? I think this process would preserve the quality of Fishbon offerings (it’s still not democratic committee-run art projects), but it also gives us some slack to begin looking ahead.

Research
I’m feeling the need to do more research, online, onsite in SF and LA, etc. We’re doing a cool social experiment which is edgy, but there’s a lot of cool stuff being done out there and I feel like I haven’t had time to investigate. This is essential, I think. It would be a very good project for an intern.

Public Venues
The Pescadrome has been an invaluable asset for prototyping (which is the most important use for a studio facility). But it is very limited as a final performance venue and if it is our only showcase, prevents us from moving to full awareness mode. Is it time to begin to look for and experiment with public venues again? Our studio will always be the incubator and secret gestation spot for Fishbon magic, but I think it’s time to get the results out there without having to worry about alcohol regulations and the building inspectors. The truck also opens up the possibility of touring productions.

Time
The biggest issue is time. There are a lot of cool, necessary things to do and a very limited amount of time to do them. I feel like I’ve got a full time unpaid job managing details and not enough time left over for important future oriented stuff that is critical for success. I’m not sure what the solutions are, but I think curation and delegating major administrative tasks may be a good start. Let me know what you think and lets talk more about this stuff.

First Page/New Era

This blog is about both Culture and Theatre in the way that the two have been combined in my 3+ year experiment with Fishbon. This is the place for my personal thoughts as opposed to official Fishbon stuff. It doesn’t always reflect my partners views, so don’t take it as approved, since it isn’t.