Steven Johnson on Derrida
The author Steven Johnson has an essay in the New York Times today, I Was an Under-Age Semiotician, about his younger years as a Semiotics major at Brown. It’s worth a read for anyone who did or still does philosophy or “critical theory,” to use an annoying term. But I want to pull out a specific excerpt from Johnson’s essay:… read more
A tooth fairy tool for parents
When your kids lose teeth, they may be inclined to write extensive letters to the tooth fairy, making specific requests or posing questions. While this is an endearing act to be sure, you’ll want to stop short of penning a false reply. Instead, see this as an opportunity to educate your children about the era of universal corporate bureaucracy, cost-cutting, temporary… read more
An essay on flying
I will fly more than 200,000 miles this year. It routinizes, like an extended commute. The suburbanite knows every moment of the drive: on-ramp, lane-change, morning-show, cup-holder. I’m like that, but on a global vector: freeway, parking lot, door S-3, South security checkpoint, wallet, shoes, laptop, zip-lock, escalator, train, SkyClub, jetway, seat, jacket, bourbon, nap, tarmac, sky, sky, sky. We… read more
My contribution for airplanereading.org
Christopher Schaberg and Mark Yakich have written a lovely little book called Checking in/Checking Out, about air travel. It’s a two-sided book meant to be read from both ends. Schaberg’s side is about his experience working for United in Bozeman, Montana, and Yakich’s is about his attempts to overcome a fear of flying. It’s charming and as lovely to hold… read more
Garry Winogrand, circa 1974
Tod Papageorge shared with me a talk Garry Winogrand gave at MIT in 1974, which he (Papageorge) introduced. An audio recording from the University of California Riverside’s archive captures much of the lively question and answer period, which included a wealth of fantastic material. Here are two of my favorites: A photograph has to be rational. It has to be… read more
Tod Papagorge on the Ontology of Photography
Apropos of two of Levi’s recent posts about materialism and fictions, I thought I’d share this excerpt from an interview with photographer Tod Papageorge. He’s responding to a question about the need for photography to have a moral responsibility, something Susan Sontag had suggested. It’s always been puzzling to me that capacious minds like Sontag’s, to say nothing of those… read more
Leigh Alexander on my games
Popular game enthusiast site Kotaku just published an article by my friend and game writer Leigh Alexander, about my last two games, Cow Clicker and A Slow Year. My good friend Frank Lantz makes several appearances. I guess I’m not going to say much more about the article, except that I hope you’ll go read it.
A thought experiment
Lately I find myself talking a lot about contemporary “misuses” of computer media. That is, about trends that make partial use of the properties of such media, or that (in my view) mistake some less interesting, less promising, or less relevant set of properties as primary. For example: treating the microcomputer as a mere network appliance rather than as a… read more
Gamification and Operational Closure
Two seemingly unrelated things happened to me yesterday, which further reflection revealed to have surprising connections. First, I spoke on a panel at the Online News Association conference about games and news. Julia Schmalz (now of Bloomberg, formerly of USA Today) and Rajat Paharia (of gamification vendor Bunchball) were the other panelists. I presented my approach to newsgames and offered… read more
A Sony Pictures Imageworks recruitment video
Via University of New Mexico-based philosopher Iain Thomson, this recruitment video Sony Pictures Imageworks commissioned to help their Cali-bred brethren open up to the idea of moving to a new satellite office in Albuquerque. As someone who grew up in Albuquerque and worked with various divisions at Sony Pictures Entertainment, for me this video offers a strange blend of two… read more