Rule 2. Create a plausible reality basis.
Namely, where there exists fact, there also exists “red herrings”… On television and in film, much of what we take for granted is removed for reasons of engaging the viewer’s focus, and helping to present the director’s vision in a single arc with minimal distraction. With an on-demand, or interactive basis for a web puzzle, […]
Rule 1. Observe how people play.
As we unroll new pieces, we observe how others are playing, and ask: • How did they play last week? • What are they saying? • What do they expect? • How do we best stay out of their way? • What story are we telling? • What’s the bigger, over-arcing picture…a cohesive, or underlying […]
First things first… Where's my reward?
On ALIAS, Jack Bristow is SD-6’s principal Game Theorist. He consults in the hour of need when a strategy is possibly at risk of being undermined by hasty evaluation of the odds, or when a chief decision maker is potentially likely to underestimate the movements of the players. The science of game theory is as […]
The Revolution has been preempted by tonight's re-run of "The Bachelorette"
Let’s never assume we don’t yet know our audience, or that if we demand less from them, you can f*** it up too. Another angle is the influence of “impartial” thought in televised rhetoric. Apparently, most people are confused, lost, and increasingly wary of expressing a solid opinion, especially if it might make them look […]
Functional art.
Beyond aesthetics, there’s that ‘correct’ definition for anything that suggests that all other appropriations are kind of missing the point. Like Eno with Ambient music – not just a music that you can do other things in time to, but music that serves only its function, to be ambient. With aesthetics, we also have commerce […]
Spontaneous laughter.
It’s more important to get people to be light. It works on so many more levels. Forget everything else I’ve said. It’s really all about laughing, and about lightness. And probably, even more so, about deliberately distinguishing actual laughter, from the kind of moment when people say things like “Too funny!!” but also forgets to […]
Please – don't say that about me.
What’s the difference between censorship and editing, really? I guess it starts with intention, like everything else – when it’s someone wanting to control someone else’s behavior, it’s that “c” word. Whereas self-editing is always acceptable; it forms a grey area for some as an element of the artistic process; some artists just can’t handle […]
Post-literacy.
I remember raising this question, in a meeting with new clients – “How will we factor in the natural tendency of visitors to this new website, to not read what we’ve written for them?” Stunned, uncomfortable silence, for about five seconds. Given that there are tendencies for people to treat screen-based reading differently, this was […]
Whelm.
OK. Let’s just start with that, let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet. How is whelm – to cover with water or to submerge; an abstract measurement of new-information overload –useful to us? Is whelm practical or effective for anything, or does it just describe an obstruction to learning? I believe it to be a […]
Notes from sleep (upon awakening).
I wake up, and now suddenly, this is what’s on my mind. Why? Who knows. First of all, it feels important that we not get preoccupied with, or confused over, which medium (or even multi-medium) that we create or use. It’s too easy to blame the messenger, and in this case, you can’t blame television […]