on the cover: Angie Needels www.adneedels.com
In the very same day I discovered both that DeviantArt.org is the largest online artist community, and that Al Gore’s new project is the website Current.tv, and these two great steps for our generation got me thinking. Connection with each other and currency is what we all want in general and from the internet. As the cliché goes, technology is cold and overwhelming without connection with others. Only when it acts as a conduit for human-to-human connection or voyeurism does it balance out the techno-loneliness that it otherwise breeds. We need to be able to see that not only are there thousands more people out there to emulate and idolize, but that there are millions who are in the same boat as you and billions who haven’t even gotten that far. And we want this information immediately, not just through our computers’ browsers and instant messengers, but through our cell phones and handhelds, and mp3 players. We have podcasting, blogging and online communities to pull the technology back to the grassroots way we feel best communicating. We want to pass our lives directly to others immediately, for better or worse, and have them pass it to us.
What we’re talking about, really, is the first wave of putting the power of content back into the hands of the masses, with their own distribution paradigm. Customization is just the first stage of something a whole lot more. When you have the ability to create the product itself, why do you need to customize it? Sure, corporations control the hardware interfaces now (though come the birth of nanotechnology things may change) but the days of needing corporations to control the content and the ways it’s distributed, marketed, packaged and planned are slowly disintegrating. In a sense the truest form of free market exists when you put the tools to create in everyone’s hands and let them all be the judges of merit. But this also shifts the definition of “good” into something less universal and more transient since the constant influx of new material is constantly making everything before it non-current much quicker. What becomes more important is the viewing experience, the commentary and interaction, rather than the actual caliber or type of the content.
Some might say that this sounds too much like creating strictly for its own sake, but this isn’t true. We are creating for the sake of communication, just as every other creature does; only humans have developed a much more complex need for subtler communication. We emote, we are lost, we are confused, and we contemplate the infinite and the finite. These higher cognitive processes cause a need for communication that extends beyond our verbal or written languages. It is gained through the subtler teasing of the senses, the representation of the human experience created by painters, dancers, musicians, and writers.
They communicate with their soul and create a language that can be understood on various levels by others, thus creating a connection. Is where technology is taking us any different? Now we have tools like Photoshop, GarageBand, and iMovie, which put the tools of creation into everyday experience and non-specialization. And the results are pod-casting, blogs, satellite radio, art, music & video online communities, open-source communities, and myspace. Even the software that creates these tools is its own act of creation now in the open source community. And the more powerful the search engines get, the more content is out there. Read a Wired magazine and tell me if you don’t feel overwhelmed and out of touch. Unfortunately this open market of ideas means you’re going to run into a lot more content that you don’t give a flying fuck about. But that is also part of the point; you have to seek out what you want, what you like. You have to find your friends just like they did in high school before the digital age.
Words by Rebecca Brock, Image by David Senecal
Here's a quick preview...
“Where are you going?” Sandy’s voice felt twisted in her throat, unnatural. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t you know?” Phil looked at her as if she were a stupid child, the same look he’d given her when they’d broken up. “Jesus, Sandy! How can you not know?”
Three blocks away, an explosion ripped through an apartment building. Sandy watched it happen as if she were millions of miles away. When people started jumping from burning windows, she looked away, back to Phil. He seemed hypnotized by the sight.
“I was transcribing Burroughs’ tapes all morning...” Sandy closed her eyes for a moment, shaking off sudden dizziness. “I don’t know what...what’s happening.”
“People are going crazy out there,” Phil said, finally dragging his gaze back to Sandy again. “The people on the news are saying that it might be some kind of terrorist thing, but I don’t think so. I don’t think terrorists have a weapon that makes people eat each other.”
Sandy looked down to the street again. Nearly everyone passing beneath her was bloody. Some of them ran. More of them shuffled, staggering along. As she watched, a fat woman with bright red hair jumped at a kid in a jogging suit, dragging him down to the pavement. Sandy thought she saw the woman burying her teeth in the kid’s cheek...no...no way that just happened...somebody’s going to help him...
And then other people were gathering around the pair, falling to their knees, overwhelming the kid as blood arced through the air.
“We’re going to make a run for it while we can,” Phil was saying, his voice faraway and tinny as Sandy watched the crowd of people tear the kid in the jogging suit apart. “It’s bad down there, but it’s not nearly as bad as it’s going to get. I think we can get out.”
“Is this...everywhere in the city?” Sandy pressed her forehead against the window. Her eyes burned with tears.
“I think it’s everywhere, period.”
Somehow, Sandy knew he was going to say that. Suddenly, she thought of her mom out in Michigan, her dad in Florida. She thought of her brother and his wife, expecting their third baby. She thought of all her sorority sisters, all her friends in grade school, all her old boyfriends.
She’d never see any of them again. And that understanding came with a pain that squeezed her heart, an agony of hopelessness that seeped through her body like a cold draft.
“Come on, Sandy...now or never. You coming with us or not?”
...continued..
To learn more about Brainchild, a collection of artifacts, please visit www.omnibucket.com/brainchild.
TESTIMONIAL OF THE MONTH
“Travel Tips for the Genetically Deficient” by Giuliano Fontanez
or... (That’s this guy...and this ain’t no joke.)
One of our dear contributors recently shared a freelance experience of his with us and we thought it was just so damn skippy that we’d reprint it right here for everyone to enjoy as a lovely example of unprovoked bigotry and slander.
“Giuliano Fontanez of Phase 28 Productions contacted me and then hired me to build a website for his company. The job was begun under contract and had been underway for about 2 months, with about 8 hours of time on my part completed. As a professional designer I do my best to fulfill contractual obligations of providing timely updates on hourly work estimates before doing the work. This prevents the client from being billed without his knowledge. A conversation took place where the client expressed his excitement about a design I had sent him and requested additions. We then told that we'd let him know how much time such revisions would take before billing him. A day or so later I received the following email from him.”
From: Giuliano & Claudia Fontechiara <fontebusiness@yahoo.com>
Date : Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:54:36 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Scott, I’ve given our phone conversation some thought. I would like to emphasize the following. I don’t want to hear any more talk about money, unless you feel I am exploiting your generosity, until the project is completed. I understand this is difficult for you, being a Jew, but this is not the way I conduct business.
You have to make a decision now: either we work on this properly, the way traditional Europeans do it, emphasizing efficiency and ingenuity, or you are free to call it quits like I had offered in my previous e-mail. If you can do this, good, if not, it’s best we not delve any deeper. Thanks for your courteous attention to this matter.
“After conferring with my team on this we decided that this sounded like the tip of the iceberg and that it would be a good idea to fulfill his request of terminating the contract early. So, we replied thusly:”
Hi Giuliano, I absolutely agree that now would be the time to decide the future of this project. As a result of the requests for additions to the latest design it was our belief that we were successfully providing for you a solution to your issue of content organization & design on a website. You have made clear however that there are certain issues on your side, previously unknown to us, that remain to be worked out.
Therefore at this time, I respect your decision to terminate this project. In order to provide full closure, please sign and fax to me the attached document which just states that our obligations to each other are fulfilled, that no liability remains, and that your non-refundable payment has already been made for the total hours worked thus far. Once I receive the signed document I will provide for you the latest files that were created in the development of your website. Thank you for your courteous and prompt attention to this matter.
“Within a day or two the contract was indeed faxed back to us and signed, stating though it was accompanied by the following glowing endorsement.”
Horrible Celebrity Anagrams
1| Howards Tern; 2| Duff Paddy; 3| El Brucee
Answers: Howard Stern; Puff Daddy; Bruce Lee
Movie Reviews... of the Future !
(or...I have seen the future, and it is crap.)
Wonder Woman - Joss Whedon writes and directs? Excellent! Evangiline Lilly in the title role? Wow! A kick ass invisible (stealth) plane? Fun! She’s wearing regular clothes instead of the star-spangled boostier? GO TO HELL, MOVIE!
Defining moment: Wonder Woman ties up her enemies with her golden lasso, then reads aloud from “The Vagina Monologues.”
Ghost Rider - In order to save his dying father, young stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) sells his soul to Mephistopheles and sadly parts from the pure-hearted Roxanne Simpson, the love of his blah blah blah blah blah…. It’s a movie about a freakin’ flaming skeleton riding a motorcycle. Why did they weigh it down with a story? The movie should be Ghost Rider running over people and jumping over buildings on his Motorcycle of Fire for two hours.
Defining moment: Cage asks the Devil if he knows Elvis.
i B10gg3d J00r M0m (read from the bottom, just like an email string)
-----Original Message-----
From: Otis Baltrics MD
To: Fernando Weatherall
Ah, the apple falls far from the tree.
Anyway, the difference is that unlike your mother, a brand new coffee maker isn’t a filthy stinkin’ whore. ZING!
-----Original Message-----
From: Fernando Weatherall
To: Otis Baltrics MD
Uh...ok, I’ll bite...what?
-----Original Message-----
From: Otis Baltrics MD
To: Fernando Weatherall
Hey, I just thought of something. Do you know the difference between your mother and a brand new coffee maker?
-----Original Message-----
From: Fernando Weatherall
To: Otis Baltrics MD
I got a brand spankin’ new coffee maker over here now if you have the inkling. Well, it was in my truck for 3 months, but it’s new to you so shut up.
Please fill out the form below and we'll give you something for free.
No, it's not pneumonia...it's something better.
Why are there so many damn songs about rainbows?
We don't know, but what we do know is that you take care of the people that take care of you, like these two.
