Month: April 2019

Etymologies are often revealing, but WTF?

Twitter’s  decision to double its character count from 140 to 280 characters last year hasn’t dramatically changed the length of Twitter posts. According to new data released by the company this morning, Twitter is still a place for briefer thoughts, with only 1% of tweets hitting the 280-character limit, and only 12% of tweets longer than 140 characters.

Critical making implies self-awareness during the process of creating, but what about the how of arriving at appropriate responses to communications challenges (message, voice, aesthetic, etc.)? Modeling may represent a way out of the quagmire, but how to manage the process?

Reflectivity vs. reflexivity.

Situational awareness & muscle memory. Tactical forces are trained to rely on series of rote procedures in life threatening situations.

Twitter’s  decision to double its character count from 140 to 280 characters last year hasn’t dramatically changed the length of Twitter posts. According to new data released by the company this morning, Twitter is still a place for briefer thoughts, with only 1% of tweets hitting the 280-character limit, and only 12% of tweets longer than 140 characters.

One of the chief benefits of play is behavior modeling (provided the model is on their best behavior).

Why contrive to re-create labyrinths and instead simply acknowledge that the information torrent within which we find ourselves is one already? All that need be done is to foreground the reality of this familiar context. 

Rather, how about acknowledging and leveraging the labyrinth within which we already find ourselves? Course shells and other human interaction are labyrinthine enough. The task is to ascribe meaning to their myriad manifestations.

In Letter to a Future Lover, Ander Monson creates a labyrinth in miniature, composed from the human amendments (errata, underlines, tears, hairs) and any bundle of pages he encounters. This includes library books from shelves as far-flung as Biosphere 2, to the tossed manuscripts of a well-loved professor, to a card catalogue repurposed as scrap. These are biblio-rejects—books that smell of loneliness, books that flop open like happy pups at the touch of Monson’s hand.

via http://brooklynquarterly.org/review-letter-to-a-future-lover/

Life affirming insight doesn’t come without effort.

Serendipity is always welcome, but directed work is far more likely to yield results— especially if repeatability is your goal (as it should be).

If we accept that human communication is closely related to the uniquely human habit of and, perhaps, need for storytelling, it is particularly useful as a lens (and measuring stick) through which to consider many contexts and scenarios human beings encounter in day-to-day life interactions. Given that education and the practice of teaching is inherently reliant on transferring information from one party to another, it would also appear to be applicable to the profession as well.

The Valdosta School method v1 [alpha]

1. Framing: articulate the challenge and identify the driving question then draft a “big ideal” that defines how you plan to approach it (and inspires others to search for creative solutions).
2. Discovery: search (keywords + operators + iterations), collect (take photos, sketch, etc.), and document (create domain taxonomies, etc.).
3. Interpretation: contextualize, curate and map what you’ve learned, converting it into tangible form (shot selection, image systems, etc.).
4. Ideation: identify opportunities and generate ideas, pushing past obvious solutions to get to breakthrough ideas about what to create.
5. Experimentation: apply concepts, tools and techniques (assembly edits, etc)
6. Evolution: iterate, revise and refine

meta methodology. Assuming uncertainty, confusion, disillusionment is a built in facet of professional media practice, what can be done when it happens? To “get unstuck” consider asking questions, trying something (relevant), etc.— by engaging, NEVER going underground, flying under the radar, etc.

Research methodologies facilitate structured, rational thinking tailored for their intended context of application, but regardless of flavor all methodologies are predicated on active looking and listening to identify and analyze the relationships discovered. Those not looking for connections are certain not to find them. Distinct from looking for something already known or selecting pre-defined things from a field, a research mindset is sensitized to emerging patterns and relationships wherever and whenever they happen to occur.

Despite the fact that voyeurism, spying, and staring are generally considered bad things, introduce the lens between the looker and subject and it’s acceptable and often even preferred by both parties. Cameras essentially sanction looking, which is interesting. This is interesting in terms of its connection with media and also media research looking and digging for details.

Thinkering

Mapping out how to go about telling your story

Design Thinking. A newer permutation of this approach is described as: Empathise, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype, and Test. 

1. Discovery (gather inspiration): Inspire new thinking by discovering what people really need.
2. Interpretation : *contextualize discovered info perhaps?
3. Ideation (generate ideas): Push past obvious solutions to get to breakthrough ideas.
4. Experimentation (make ideas tangible): Test and learn in real contexts of use including building rough prototypes to learn how to make ideas better.
5. Evolution: Iterate and revise to improve solutions for the intended audience/users.

Introductory comments

General

https://www.onlineuniversities.com/articles/students/how-to-begin-basic-academic-research/

Three ways research helps communication

UX

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/15-guiding-principles-for-ux-researchers

Writing

How I Did Research For 3 New York Times Bestselling Authors (in My Spare Time)