Ludwig Wendzich

11 Mar 2010

What is good without bad. 11th March, 2010

A recent uproar about the introduction of internet filtering in NZ follows on the heels of the great outrage at the Australian government’s choice to enforce internet filtering. In NZ, the filtering is optional and so far Telecom, TelstraClear and Vodafone have all opted in.

EDIT: Orcon is also working to implement this. And MaxNet CEO, John Hanna, says “Filtering out child pornography is also very much in line with our company values — our customers would be disappointed to hear if we weren’t participating. So participation for us has always been a no-brainer.” (source) Ask your customers if they want their internet filtered, not whether they think child pornography should be banned. - LW.

The reason we require internet filtering is because of the prevalence of child pornography in little old God’s Own apparently. Who can oppose this move without seemingly supporting child pornography? I strongly oppose child pornography almost as much as I oppose this internet filter. Child pornography is an evil that needs to be eradicated, sure, but it affects a handful of people and may never have an impact on most people’s lives. Do not read this incorrectly and think that I suggest child pornography is not a big problem and not one that seriously harms those involved because that is not what I’m suggesting.

Child pornography destroys lives. Internet filtering, and the bigger issue, a suppression of freedom and choice, destroys our society.

We all know and have read the dystopian novel by George Orwell, “1984” and we all know that one of the slogans of the Party is “Freedom is Slavery.” The idea that by restricting our choices to only good ones, removing all evil alternative choices, will lead to a better society. This idea is flawed in that it doesn’t understand that good can only exist where evil is an alternative.

Who is a good citizen if they never turn from a bad choice? What makes a good decision good, if there is no choice involved?

Freedom is the foundation of modern society. Yes, some people will abuse that freedom, but most do not. It is our choice what we do, what we see, what we hear and what we say and not that of our government. It is our choice to be good and not to be evil, for if the government take away that choice, then nothing can be evil, or good.

Today filtering is used to eradicate something we all agree is evil, but tomorow it may be used to eradicate something a little more grey, between obviously good and obviously evil. And the next?

Yes, freedom means some people will make the wrong choices, but it protects us from ignorance and allows us to choose to be good.

I wonder how the humidity/temperature changes will change how long a “day” lasts?

10 Mar 2010

Beautiful type, beautiful press. Educational and inspirational video.

09 Mar 2010

matthewb:

State of the Internet, a motion type presentation by the Jess3 agency of mostly mind-blowing statistics from the big social networks during 2009.

I stumbled across Neue (via Matthew Buchanan) where a city is expressed through type in each issue. My favourite (shown above) in their first issue, New York, is by designer Ivan Markovic.

Beautiful redesigns of these classic book covers (with process sketches and commentary!) Reminds me somewhat of the re-imagined covers in the Classics apps.

(via Matthew Buchanan)

A continuation of the journey of exploration of culture and understanding of humanity that I’ve been on recently.

If you understand the difference between ‘the world’ and ‘my world’ you understand the difference between logos and mythos. ‘The world’ is objective, logical, universal, factual, scientific. ‘My world’ is subjective. It’s emotional. It’s personal. It’s perceptions, thoughts, feelings, dreams. It is the belief system that we carry. It’s the myth that we live in.

Culture is a reaction to nature, and this understanding of our ancestors is transmitted generation from generation in the form of stories, symbols and rituals, which are always indifferent to rationality. And so, when you study it, you realize that different people of the world have a different understanding of the world. Different people see things differently: different viewpoints.

There is my world and there is your world, and my world is always better than your world, because my world, you see, is rational and yours is superstition, yours is faith, yours is illogical. This is the root of the clash of civilizations.

The power of opening up data.

Concepts we live by 9th March, 2010

How people understand and often misunderstand each other fascinates me. How is something that makes so much sense to me so completely misunderstood by someone else. Why is it so hard for someone to learn a new language, despite knowing the words, and even speak their own language in a different country.

When I go back to visit South Africa and speak Afrikaans to the people there, despite the fact that we are both speaking the same language, the way we talk is completely different and what I say is not understood by them and what they say confounds me as to what they mean.

Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. argue in “Concepts we live by”, Chapter 1 in “Metaphors we live by” that this is because our thought processes and understanding are largely metaphorical, metaphor is nor just a matter of language, that is, of mere words. We shall argue that, on the contrary, human thought processes are largely metaphorical. (Emphasis theirs.)

They use the example of the extended metaphor that our culture uses, Argument is War.

Your claims are indefensible.

He attacked every weak point in my argument

His criticisms were right on target

I demolished his argument

I’ve never won an argument with him.

You disagree? Okay, shoot!

If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out.

He shot down all of my arguments.

Without the understanding of the extended metaphor, our intentions are misunderstood. It’s not just about understand the language, the words, it’s also about understanding the society, their thinking, the extended metaphors they share.

In terms of design, this is also applicable. Just as we speak based on metaphor, we also design based on metaphor. Someone won’t understand your designs if they don’t share the same extended metaphors you have, so when you design for an audience it’s important to understand that market and how they think. Don’t be surprised if they don’t understand your work if you didn’t take the time to learn to understand them.

Nobody (save the other craftsmen) will appreciate half your skill. But you may spend endless years of happy experiment in devising that crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold the vintage of the human mind.

— Beatrice Ward, “The Crystal Goblet”, Excerpt from a Lecture to the British Typographers’ Guild

Commentary: Our work is to make someone else’s work shine. Whether we are typesetting an author’s novel, designing for a bands album cover, coming up with a billboard or a website for a company’s product. Our work, is to make our client’s work, stand out and be clear and understandable.

Modernist design ethics suggest that design should be invisible, form follows function. This view point on design is debatable, my favourite retort has been along the lines of “no one wants to drive an invisible Ferrari.” So what is design’s role? To disappear or to awe?

08 Mar 2010

Thinking for a Living

I love the interaction model here, utilising different planes for different ways to organise content. Might want to use this for the “issues” design for my theory journal.

07 Mar 2010

Photography by Burak Arikan that shows the importance of simplicity and uniqueness in flag design for recognition purposes. I assume the same can be applied to most logos with similar success.

06 Mar 2010

I love this miniature-making style of photography and to see it in motion is fantastic!

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Henry David Thoreau (via o-myriad-o)

Brilliant game design from Shaun Inman. The level of “power-up” is not indicated by the size of the character or in fact anything to do with the character itself but instead affects the game-world. A higher level of “power-up” produces a higher bit world. 2bit, 4bit, 8bit and finally 16bit power-ups.

This is something I can’t wait for!