Monthly Archives: October 2009

3 second deity

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The scale of search

search In reverse order of scale: a man with a magnifying glass; the earth; information.

In the picture to the left, the header image for a search results page of an instantly forgettable global IT solutions company I happened upon while looking for something else, little cirrocumulus cloudlets of binary data float above the earth. They surround it like a blanket and cover it like a surrogate layer of ozone. Information is everywhere, omnipotent, part of the ecosystem – we breathe information! Information is big. It is not as big as search though. Search is bigger. Search is an enormous heavenly magnifying glass trying to zap through the clouds of information by concentrating the inquisitive gaze of a celestial corporate being onto each 0 and each 1, burning through them like ants.

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Human mirror

The familiar stranger as identified by Stanley Milgram, the American social psychologist, is someone who is recognised through familiar activity but not interacted with. Someone seen every day on a commute, in a coffee shop or at a supermarket. Experience has lead me to believe that there is an extension to this: the human mirror. The human mirror is the stranger you come into contact with walking down the street or along a corridor who, coming from the opposite direction, meets you at a point where neither of you can pass. You step to one side, so do they. Your decisions reflect each other. You meet at the same impasse. You shape to step to the other side, at the same time so do they, again you stand facing, blocking each others way. You hesitate and remain stationary, allowing them to make the first move, they hesitate too. It is an oddly choreographed dance.

I have a theory, it is untested and will remain so; my theory is that when you meet your human mirror, your first step is to your stronger side. If you are right handed you step to your right; you both step to your right and in most cases the waltz with your reflection is short. I am left handed, I invite you to dance.

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Advice from the dude

advice from the dude

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A conversation

A press release for a painting show contains the line: “crafting a new language to discuss female sexuality” in reference to the work. A conversation at the opening of the show reached the agreed conclusion that paintings populated solely by female characters in this and almost every instance can only fall someway short of this extraordinary linguistic challenge. Why, the conversation wondered, do press releases always allow the works to take the credit when they are the real craftsmen?

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Garden State

new jersey

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Sign without a sign

sign without a sign

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Tag

bsbutinteresting

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Hustle

On the towpath along the Regent’s Canal, close to Kingsland Road is a piece of graffiti with each letter stencilled in a differnet colour that reads:
ART
IS MY
HUSTLE.
Every morning I make a point of cycling over it.

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