Blank (Media) Slate

Perhaps it’s the way my brain is wired, but I can’t help but see synergies everywhere. In this case, it’s in some of the books I’ve been reading and how they include nuggets that seem to speak to other stuff I’m doing.

Take, for example, “Thuderstruck ” by Erik Larson. Part of the story is about Marconi and the development of a functional wireless communication system. While I have to admit I haven’t cross-checked the facts in the book, Larson lays out an interesting interplay between the “practical” and “theoretical” research into the technology.

The connection I see is in the playing out of a similar debate within the Data Portability camps. On the one hand there’s the theory of portability from the semantic web, linked data and identity groups. They are similar to Sir Oliver Lodge and his research into wireless from a physicist’s perspective. On the other hand are the members of the DataPortability Project who are working toward a practical solution using existing research. It’s by no means a perfect comparison, but interesting to read about history and consider how aspects of it could be applicable to understanding what’s happening today.

The other book, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow, talks about the action happening within the context of a future culture of adhocracies. The story is a hilarious discussion of how open, collaborative development can be taken to extremes (along with some amusing lines like “The first time I died, it was not long after my sixtieth birthday.”). While reading it I couldn’t help but imagine how the DataPortability Project would fare under this light.

BTW - It was while reading “Thunderstruck” that I was able to put the labels “practical” and “theoretical” physics in context as they were similarly applied to the term “magic” in “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell“. Great use by Susanna Clarke of contemporary terms being applied to historical fantasy.

NOTE: Even though the links to “Down and Out” above are to Amazon.com (for you wanna’ buy it now junkies), you can also download free versions Doctorow’s site.

Other Books I Recommend:

If you find yourself walking along Newark Avenue and First Street in Jersey City, NJ, look around. In one of the barren fenced corners you’ll see an interesting installation of guerrilla art. They are glass spheres made by wiring the necks of discarded bottles together in series, each about 2 to 3 feet in diameter.

OK, that’s intriguing enough… but I got some of the back story when talking to Peter Wasinger, the artist responsible. He apparently got the idea for the installation as he walks past the space to and from work each day. Using bottles from a local bar, he then wired the spheres together in his studio and installed them at night (well, actually 4am).

During the installation, he said that passersby made some interesting comments. A group of men walked by and said, “You go Pappi! This is SO New York”. In response, Wasinger replied, “It is now Jersey City too.” They then said “Keep it going, Pappi. You rock!”

You can check out more photos of the installation in my Flickr stream. He’s already working on other installations, and trying to figure out how to light them up. While that’s in progress, you can check out some of his other artwork available on his Cafe Press site.

Keep it going, Pappi.

UPDATE: 2/15/2008 - I just heard from Peter Wasinger (the artist) that the installation was removed by the Jersey City Parking Authority. Bummer setback.

I can’t remember how I found out about the Radio Lab show produced by WNYC, but since I’m in Boston I was pleased I could snag the podcasts from the second season (the first season being tied up in rights issues preventing their distribution as MP3s).

What really caught my ear was the “Musical Language” episode. There was a great segment on audio illusions in which they interviewed Diana Deutsch, a professor of the Psychology of Music. Specifically, they were talking to her about an audio clip she’d accidentally created of her speaking which, when heard as a loop, sounded like music. It has to be heard to be believed: WAV | MP3.

NOTE: The track begins with Deutsch speaking the full sentence, followed by a few loops of the “singing words.” Listen to the entire track, then play it again to hear the sentence again.

I was intrigued enough to pick up her two CDs (Musical Illusions and Paradoxes and Phantom Words, and Other Curiosities) to hear more. I’ve only sampled a few of the tracks so far, but they’re incredibly interesting. Especially with my interest in Beispiele paranormaler Tonbandstimmen I was keen on the “Phantom Words” tracks. What they seem to show is the incredible power of our brains to try and sift through apparent randomness in an effort to impose order (in this case turning beeps into words).

… I hear voices.

I turned up an interesting video clip while researching the behavior of spiders the other day. I was pleasantly surprised by it, depsite the fact it wasn’t precisely the type of content I was hunting.

This got me thinking about pleasure and surprise. It seems that the two concepts are joined in that pleasure is often derived from surprise. Good jokes, for example, seem to be based on the fact that the punch line is unexpected. On the other end of pleasure, horror movies (primarily of the twitch-flick) also capitalize on pleasing the surprised audience. Then there’s the increased enjoyment of a book or movie about which you had no prior expectations (as opposed to one that’s hyped to the gills and fails to hit the mark… but you would have enjoyed had you found it yourself).

Many marketing campaigns also seem to use the surprise/pleasure combo to grab the interest of customers. A number of TV ads draw the viewer into a story, while the advertised product is only revealed at the end. This balance must be carefully managed, though, to hit the right mode without spoiling the feeling of it’s customers discovering the product themselves (feeling like they’re in on the joke). Since active discovery seems to run counter to genuine surprise, the marketer needs to carefully seed their message with all the pieces while encouraging the consumer to (easily) complete the puzzle. The trick is setting the expectations to preserve the pleasure of surprise, while not making it so difficult as to confuse the audience (like so many ads that leave the viewer wondering what product was on offer).

If this post was a fable, perhaps the moral would be: “Never underestimate the pleasure of surprise… but beware its cousin: confusion.” Then again, perhaps the surprise of this post is that it’s totally devoid of any deeper meaning beyond my random thoughts. Let the audience be the judge.