posts tagged ‘books’
The obvious and the meaningful
7 September 2010 • out of context
tags: books, meaning, minimal, quotes
“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
Undo is not about love
7 September 2010 • out of context
tags: books, love, meaning, quotes
“(…) undo is not about love, but simply a relationship of convenience. Power is equally balanced between experience and user such that neither side has the upper hand. There can be no relationship of depth because every interaction can be completely rewound to the beginning. Thus commitment is rendered meaningless when for every action, there is a corresponding un-action. In contrast to the trusting relationship with a Master, the power of undo results in a feeling of simplicity that is rooted in not having to care at all. Although there is something morally sad about this interpretation, undo is not the enemy. Embrace undo as a rational partner in maintaining the many complex relationships with the objects in your environment. But put the undo button away when dealing with real people if possible.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
Readings
7 September 2010 • readings
tags: articles, body, books, capitalism, civilization, fantasy, fiction, found, history, liberation, minimal, music, novels, plagiarism, poetry, politics, situationism, vampires
• Medicina tradicional china [leer]
Daniel Reid. Ediciones Urano. 1999.
• Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction
Colin Ward. Oxford University Press. 2004.
• The Laws of Simplicity
John Maeda. The MIT Press. 2006.
• A User’s Guide to Détournement [read]
Guy Debord & Gil J Wolman. 1956.
• On Found Poetry (A FOUND INTRODUCTION) [read]
John Robert Colombo
From Open Poetry, (Ronald Gross & George Quasha, eds., 1973)
• A Day in the Life of a Musician [read]
Erik Satie
• Dead and Gone
Charlaine Harris. 2009.
The fundamental distinction between art and design
6 September 2010 • out of context
tags: books, quotes
“The best art makes your head spin with questions. Perhaps this is the fundamental distinction between pure art and pure design. While great art makes you wonder, great design makes things clear.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
The ultimate nightmare of democracy
4 September 2010 • out of context
tags: books, capitalism, civilization, language, quotes
“Indeed, why should there be any need for linguistic symbols, if everybody, rather than being locked into a “prison-house of language” (Jameson), will happily live in the ultimate nightmare of democracy — the single mental space which is shared by everybody, and where every communicative act is always ideal (Habermas).”
Aichaku
31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, consumism, etymology, love, perception, quotes, senses
“Aichaku is the Japanese term for the sense of attachment one can feel for an artifact. When written by its two kanji characters, you can see that the first character means “love” and the second one means “fit”. “Love-fit” describes a deeper kind of emotional attachment that a person can feel for an object. It is a kind of symbiotic love for an object that deserves affection not for what it does, but for what it is.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
The torturous experience of waiting
31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, perception, quotes, time, uncertainty
“When we see the frozen hands of a clock with a dead battery, and we sit there and watch it, we tend to have a sinking feeling. Something feels wrong. We like to see time flow, as it is only natural that it seek its natural progression forward. On the other hand, when a clock is completely hidden we tend not to question its flow and instead experience an unsettling sense of uncertainty as to what time it might be. Seeing a clock’s secondhand tick-tick forward is a reassuring sign that all is well. (…) A frozen computer is like a frozen clock, and thus ways to psychologically deal with this torturous experience of waiting emerged in the form of progress bars.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
How much is lost in waiting?
31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, consumism, minimal, perception, quotes, time
“The average person spends at least an hour a day waiting in line. Add to this the uncountable seconds, minutes, weeks spent waiting for something that might have no line at all.
Some of that waiting is subtle. We wait for water to come out of the faucet when we turn the knob. We wait for water on the stove to boil, and start to feel impatient. We wait for the seasons to change. Some of the waiting we do is less subtle, and can often be tense or annoying: waiting for a Web page to load, waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or waiting for the results of a dreaded medical test.
No one likes to suffer the frustration of waiting. Thus all of us, consumers and companies alike, often try to find ways to beat the ticking hand of time. We go out of our way to find the quickest option or any other means to reduce our frustration.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
Materialism
31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, consumism, perception, quotes
“The upside of materialism is that the way something we own feels can change how we feel.”
The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda