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28 April,
1999
A quote
from the essay on The Ethics of Linguistics on page
25 of the book Desire in Language:
"The
speech practice that should be it's object [that of the
study of ethics in linguistics] is one in which signified
structure (sign, syntax, signification) is defined within
boundaries that can be shifted by the advent of a semiotic
rhythm that no system of linguistic communication has yet
been able to assimilate. It would deflect linguistics toward
a consideration of language as articulation of a heterogeneous
process, with the speaking subject leaving its imprint on
the dialectic between the articulation and the process.
In short, this would establish *poetic language* as the
object of linguistics' attention in it's pursuit of truth
in language."
And, by
a less than habitually convoluted free association of ideas:
les
oeuvres de Stéphane Mallarmé (unfortunately all in French).
Whatever
happened to that site that I used to know about that had images
of paper 20th century currency from just about every country
in the world? I can't find it anymore. I forgot the url. It
was beautiful. Organized by map and year.
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27 April,
1999
Everybody
hates French critical theory but me. La la la. I don't care.
I worship Kristeva.
I wish I could find her essay, Sabat Mater, online.
It gives me chills just thinking about it. I just got Desire
in Language. It is dense and yummy. I have to reread
almost everything. In that respect, French theory is a good
investment. I won't spend money on books for at least a week...
Google
is amazing. It's the best search engine in the universe.
The other
day during an interminable staff meeting, I invented a superhero
based on my muse, Pink (next to whom I was sitting). The superhero's
name is Space Girl Pink. I'm meditating on a picture at Pink
at about age four for inspiration.
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26 April
1999
Good girly
products at Sabia.
Mmmmm. I accidentally spent a lot of money there on Saturday.
Skinceuticals
also makes nice things, although their name is a bit embarrassing.
Sort of along the lines of Egg McMuffin. My Dad never could
quite bring himself to say the latter. He would always ask
for "one of those egg sandwiches." Anyhow, It's
always more fun to do that sort of shopping in person.I love
to go to Sephora
and play with all the pretty colours.It's better than going
to a paint store because you can touch the colours. After
an hour or so, I end up with every bare inch of skin covered
in colors. Then there are the smells at places like Sabia...
It's all so stimulating. It makes my hair stand on end.
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23 April,
1999
I keep
referring everybody to this page documenting the Futurist
Manifestos. It's interesting to consider the different
disciplines through which people approach a collection of
ideas such as the Futurist movement. I started with the work
of Sant’Elia.
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20 April,
1999
Some interesting
studies
on personal space.
I'm nearly
done with Susan Blackmore's The
Meme Machine (check out this review).
It's a fascinating extrapolation of a concept that Richard
Dawkins proposed at the end of The
Selfish Gene. I'm not fully convinced yet of the scientific
veracity of the idea, but the idea as a metaphor is so beautiful
that it's worth a book-length exploration. Unfortunately she's
not a very good writer. I have to consciously try not to let
her marginal writing skills discredit her ideas. So I won't.
Read the book. It's worth it. And while you're at it read
everything Dawkins has written.
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15 April,
1999
As soon
as I have some money, I'm going to buy Sir
Ernst Gombrich's The
Uses of Images. It looks exciting. Especially the
attention he spends on information graphics. Yum.
I reread
Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry at the same
time as I reread T.S. Elliot's Four Quartets. Do it.
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14 April,
1999
Here's
what I'm looking at today:
--Some
pretty illustrations at Udon
Theatre
--Danish
furniture
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12 April,
1999
An interesting
interview
with Jared Spool on the collection and interpretation of user
data...Very interesting.. and wildly subjective. He seems
to consistently miss the point. For example, his dismissive
attitude toward graphic design indicates an essential lack
of understanding about the hierarchical display of information.
Grrr.
This morning
I got my finger caught in the elevator doors. I couldn't get
it out until the doors opened on the third floor. I howled
in pain the whole way up. And it wasn't very funny. That's
all.
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09 April,
1999
A Short
Rant: Mathematically correct 3d renderings are not evocative
of human perception. We simply don't understand spaces in
terms of vanishing points and geometric handicaps. The harder
we try to replicate an environment, the more eerie it feels.
3d artists need to appreciate and exploit the bizarre quality
of mathematical perspective more often.
Nintendo
and Playstation
get it. So does San
Rio. Check out the new playstation Hello
Kitty Cube Frenzy game! I can't wait. I also love the
spiffy little spherical creatures that FutureFarmers
does. They have a pleasantly confounding piece in Hotwired's
RGB gallery.
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07 April,
1999
I've been
looking at the work of Albert
Frey lately. I recently bought the new book put out by
Princeton Architectural Press, Albert
Frey, Houses 1 + 2. The book is a beautiful object
in itself, as well as an excellent portrayal of Frey's two
Palm Springs houses. It full of evocative site photographs
taken by Frey.
Right
now I'm really interested in visual conceits for presenting
hierarchical information simultaneously. I'm researching like
a mad woman and I'm asking everybody smart for reference material.
Steve told me to look at some of the work of Robert
Indiana and James
Rosenquist (spec. Look Alive (Blue Feet, Look Alive) 1961).
I'm also looking at comics, specifically anything that plays
with aspect to aspect relationships within a single frame.
There's lots of classic stuff to reference for that, as well
as some of the frames from The
Matrix storyboards . I think that's why I enjoyed
that movie so thoroughly-- I'm saturated with comics right
now. Of course, I've been reading Scott
McCloud's Understanding
Comics. I can't believe everyone else knew about that
book and I didn't. Was I just not listening?
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05 April, 1999
Ha! I watched The
Matrix this weekend! It was super. The fight scenes
were gorgeously choreographed. It was like reading a comic
book. There is one scene in which the protagonists are carrying
about a billion guns tucked in their shiny leather trench
coats. They run up the walls and do aerials as they mow down
armies of (ambiguously) bad guys. Then they throw their guns
away and grab fresh ones-- all in slow motion. I tried to
run up the outside wall of the theatre afterward. I also briefly
entertained the idea of getting a shiny black leather dress
and some fishnets… We'll see.
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04 April, 1999
I started the one
book by Margeurite
Duras that I have not yet read, C'est
Tout. It is an exquisite final work, published just
before she died. The language is pure, elegantly minimal.
It translates well, as do all her works. The book comes with
the original French text along with the English translation.
As always, the language is simple and clean enough that one
can read the French text without being particularly proficient
in that language.
C'est Tout is a
meditation on sex, death, and memory.
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03 April, 1999
Fowler's
Modern English Usage, edited by Sir Ernest Gowers, is
addictive. I opened it to research (again) the correct usage
of which and that, and I ended up reading about the etymology,
pronunciations and correct usages of the word zither.
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02 April, 1999
I sat
through several programming lectures at this years GDC.
The most interesting and provocative sessions were designated
for Programmers. However, I waltzed in anyhow and proceeded
to take notes. Most of the time, that policy wasn't so bad.
It got me into Craig
W. Reynolds' well organized and beautifully presented
lecture on Steering Behaviors for Autonomous Characters. However,
on a couple of occasions I ended up squirming for an hour
while some sweaty, long-haired automaton stepped through yards
of C++ code. When that happened I found the best thing to
do was to detach myself and just listen for interesting, decontextualized
phrases. I am starting a collection: ethereal void, exception
throwing, cascading doubt…
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01 April,
1999
Consider
the difference between products developed by researchers in
order to strategically exploit a market niche, and those designed
by artists and aestheticians. The goals of the latter are
focused on the product and the process. The creators are not
constrained by a glut of sticky assumptions about What the
User Wants. Instead, they revel deliciously in making.
Visual
stimuli: I love the work of Eileen de Kooning. Especially
this 1946 self-portrait.
On a completely different note are the illustrations and cartoons
of Jim
Flora. Free (but never obvious) association of ideas…
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31
March, 1999
I
made a promise to myself in December, that I would get this
thing online by the end of April. I'm early. However, it's
going to be a long time until I tell anyone to look at it.
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