09/06/2004 06:37:54 EST • tags: scintillating_bullshit
so yeah I never got round to talking about that whole fusedspace thing, which I did not win in any way, shape, or form (although I did come close enough to make me pretty happy indeed). people in general had very nice things to say about my proposal, with one notable exception, which I will address (and perhaps whine about) right here.
so yeah. sally jane norman, a tech theorist who does performance art type stuff, left the longest comment:
Amongst the numerous, well assimilated interactive possibilities offered by digital technologies felt as increasingly lacking in the physical world, are possibilities to annotate virtual spaces of various kinds. While it is easy to critique virtual constructs thanks to non-invasive, non-destructive editing tools, similar behaviours in the physical world generally deteriorate the original (writing in books, on walls, etc.). OP:FIX proposes a web-based system to discuss design issues raised by physical edifices and locations, generating useful material for the architectural and urban planning community. By implementing a database to foster critique of public domain undertakings, the project proposes to use new media to constructively articulate requirements and recommendations with respect to public space. The fact that much organisation and reconfiguration of the public domain today occurs outside the general public arena is explicitly and constructively critiqued by the OP:FIX community system. Users who take issue with certain aspects of public domain management can print out barcode labels and affix them to the corresponding physical objects, thus flagging the URL housing critical discussion for other interested parties. This simple strategy is designed to cut through closed political decision-making regarding the public domain. The confrontation of real objects and environments, with virtual forum and database functionalities, provides potentially rich cultural engagement in the digital and physical public domain, apprehended as a reflexive, continuous entity. Parallel exploitation of physical and virtual “mark-up” languages is likely to generate a more holistic vision of the public domain, and of the ways it is structured and organised by and within the city.
… emphasis is mine. I truly appreciate the fact that someone such as ms. norman was able to extract this particular point and paraphrase it thusly. I don’t like to bandy about the concept of “intervention art”, cuz these days anyone who cuts the eyes out of a picture of george bush and subsequently tapes the image across their face is an “intervention artist”, but yeah I was looking to inject a little good ol’ fashioned punk rock into “public space dialogue” with this thing. erm. I would be curious as to what ms. norman thought about the variable city cite, or whether it was at all clear that I was even citing that biznass, cuz I had to butcher the bibliography to fit it all into the little textbox on the fusedspace site. yes.
so yeah. monica narula, a media tactician who co-founded sarai.net, had this to say:
An excellent proposal. The way it combines the possibility of leaving traces, comment and a way of critiquing architecture and design objects (I like the way it highlights public signage as an object of public criticism) is quite remarkable. Also, the fact that it envisages a publicly accessible archive of ‘architectural and design’ criticism by random members of the public is very salutary. The combination of stickers, bar codes and GPS tracking makes for an interface of continuous public interaction and annotation.
… which frankly made me smile big, cuz her work seems to be pretty on, and so it’s just nice when people whose shit is on say nice things about your shit. yes. so far so good. people seem to be grasping what I am talking about here as regards annotation. sure. ok.
a mr. joachim sauter, founder of ART+COM (english site here) broke it down as follows:
OPFix is a suitable object based critique system that enables immediate confrontation with the opinion and perspective of participants. In its unobtrusive and intelligent way it creates awareness of the social and aesthetic responsibility of all creatives who leave their trace in public space.
this was a lovely and poetic comment, I thought. he is able to distill the project proposal down to these two sentences, a key part of which is the bit where you leave the trace. yes. yes!
derrick der kerckhove, director of the mcluhan program in the university of toronto, says simply:
This should be a public service in Toronto…
… to which I can only say: if I can make it happen, good sir, it will indeed be available to you in toronto as well as elsewhere. I’m still going through with the project (ignoring the fact that the opfix site is gratuitously covered in glocks and has been since I bought it in february 2002), and in fact there will be other related sub-projects and whatnot, all in a transglobal, networked, super-tits type fashion. yes.
my favorite comment was by this guy john thackara, founder of ‘doors of perception’ and the motherfucking director of the netherlands design institute:
I got distracted for two hours by the links - but because I was still laughing at the end of that detour, I give this infrastructure my top mark. None of the technical elements is unique - so it will work - and it doesn’t mention Foucault or meeting starngers [sic] on trains - so i want it to succeed. In a perfect new world, architects, planners and developers would get cold sweats at the sighht of a tiny barcode stuck to the wall of their building or site.
… not only did this fellow get my idea, but he was amused by it. that fucking rules, you axed me. overarchingly, I aimed for my idea to be as tongue-in-cheek as one can make such a thing, as well as something that could be fun to do in practice (after all, the concept was informed by my successfully bacchanalian subway postering parties). plus if the guy who runs the fucking MCLUHAN INSTITUTE is circuitously flipping off the type people who go on and on about foucault, you know that shit’s a bit tired.
but so yes. the one negative comment was this one by none other than max bruinsma, the former editor of your favorite graphic design periodical, eye magazine:
A laudable attempt at creating space and opportunity for public debate about design issues. Or about any issue, at that, because the system proposed can of course be ‘tagged’ to other aspects of public discourse as well. On the other hand, when you can use a digi.cam to photograph the circular barcode, you can also use it to take a pic of the building or object in question and publish it on your blog or site, including your critique and an invitation to comment. So why not just provide an online interface that connects these criticisms on the basis of standard coordinates (name of object, address), and forget about having to print out labels? In terms of interface design, this is a fine example of confusing priorities and ending up with a product rather than a service.
hrrrrrmmm… so I confused my priorities, did I? first of all, products and services are not mutually exclusive. I would expect that if you edit a magazine as fascinated by globalism and branding as eye appears to be, you would know this. furthermore, I fail to see how the ‘labeling’ facet of the project makes it a product. also mr. bruinisma’s fellow jury members all seemed to grasp the instrumental role the labels would play in my nascent concept. without the labels, the project is just a communal design/arch blog, and remains accessable only to those with internet access. the labels serve to extend the criticism outside of that realm, to where they (hopefully, wishfully) could actually do a spot of good.
see but yeah. I can take criticism. I love an honest, engaging critique, really I do. I just have this one stipulation: that the criticism actually MAKES SENSE. ok? ok!
yeah. when I found out I didn’t win fusedspace, I sort of shrugged, cuz I didn’t expect to win it anyway. I was overjoyed to have made it to the finals, to be honest. I never even come close to winning stuff like that, so it felt great. then I found out I actually did pretty well, pointwise: I tied for fifth place, with a pretty respectable score. When I read the crits, I was positively overjoyed that respected artists, designers, and theoreticians had not only understood but enjoyed my big idea.
I didn’t think much of mr. bruinsma’s comment until I went to typecon. there was this AIGA event called “double dutch” a day or so before the conference began in earnest, so we went and saw a whole lot of gorgeous examples of dutch typography and design. we also bore witness to mr. bruinsma give a talk about - WAIT FOR IT! - globalism and branding.
at first, I did not associate the guy speaking onstage with the purveyor of the lone invective in my fusedspace crits. I thought the guy was a total fool, though: at one point he showed a slide of a woman in a burqa drinking a coke, and said how it was “a great example of a local culture clashing with a global one”, or some words to that effect. the fact that he’d come to california from the netherlands notwithstanding, he needs to get out more if he thinks islam is at all some sort of quaint “local” phenomenon. he said a bunch of other dumb shit as well, but that once comment stuck out. I stopped taking any sort of notes after that, and I wouldn’t have even recalled that if I hadn’t realized that this was in fact max bruinsma, the self-same fellow who had clumsily knocked my shit.
so yeah at that point I got annoyed about the whole not winning fusedspace issue, which really hadn’t been at all under my skin until I saw that this blundering nincomoop had been one of the ones deciding my fate. that 10,000 euros wouldn’t have hurt at all, you fuckass. it also pisses me off that people like that are INVITED to spew that kind of bullshit. mr. bruinsma and the general public are all welcome to completely detest my proposal, but I beg of you: detest it in a non-stupid way. we’ll all feel much better about the whole sorry affair in the morning, if you do, yeah.
anyway yeah. so to sum up: I lost the fusedspace contest. and in conclusion: max bruinsma is a tard. please excuse this entry as it’s basically me ranting and getting this crapola off my chest. more to come when I get my computer situation unfucked en extremis. wordup.
-fish
