Emmanuel Quartey

On the idea of atmosphere and mood as information/narrative.

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:21:00 -0400

Grantland’s Tom Bissell interviews BioShock writer and creative director, Ken Levine:

Bissell: When it comes to atmosphere, your games are extraordinary. It seems to me that a lot of narrative stuff in games is put to better use as atmosphere than as exposition. Do you agree that atmosphere in games is really its own kind of story? I mean, if the atmosphere’s good, who gives a shit what the story is? The player’s already there.

Levine: When I was working on Thief with Doug Church, way, way back in the day, we always said that vibe was more important than story. I think that’s the same thing as what you’re saying. Put the player in an interesting world and make him feel like there’s interesting things around the corner. That’s way more important than specific details about what’s going on.

This section jumped out at me because it reminded me of issue 1 of Kieron Gillen’s ongoing run on Young Avengers. The title of the arc is “Style > Substance”

The assertion that what you say might be less important than how you say it might seem a little heretical, but Gillen’s writing and interviews about what he’s trying to do with Young Avengers, which he has often described as a pop song, helped me understand what he’s getting at here: that “body language” matters. That posture and presentation and attitude are information.

I think it also ties into Maya Angelou’s advice that “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did,but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Mood/atmosphere/vibe/attitude are information. I need to keep this mind for creative projects.

Prehistory of Fandoms?

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:05:00 -0400

marshak-ebooks:

I’m wondering if there are any good pieces that focus specifically on pre-20th Century “fandoms”, like the devotion to 19th century theater actors, or Byzantine chariot racing gangs. I feel like there is a whole rich pre-history of fan-like practices that could give us a lot of insight into the way in which contemporary fandoms are or are not organized, as well as the things that lead to them coming about. I mean, some of these were really *intense*—people killed over that shit. Clearly the phenomenon of peoples strong investment in popular culture is not new. However, it seems mostly untapped by contemporary Fan Studies, so someone should get on that.

Of course, I could easily be looking under the wrong rocks here. Maybe there *is* a big literature and I’m just bungling everything.

File this under “things I didn’t know I wanted, but now I really, really want.”

Possible places to look into:

The cult of personality around sumo wrestlers in Japan
Griots - nomadic West African oral historian/musician/royal advisor/storyteller. I imagine certain griots developed a following during their wanderings.
Were there fandoms around mercenary companies?

Anyone have other examples of pre-20th century fandoms?

Update: started a Quora thread around the question.

Yesterday was my last day at work, and this is one of the most...

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:09:00 -0400

Yesterday was my last day at work, and this is one of the most touching gifts I received from a friend. I had quietly admired it in his office, and I couldn’t believe it when I saw it in my bag.

I’m overwhelmed with gratitude, and thankful for so many things.

"As a founder, your job isn’t to make a great product. It’s to build a great team that makes great..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:02:04 -0400

“As a founder, your job isn’t to make a great product. It’s to build a great team that makes great products. You are who you hire…To maintain your psychological health, you’ll need to learn how to shift the fufillment you get from making to the fufillment of enabling a team to make. You’ll be making vicariously, not making directly. You’ll have to come to terms and internalize it or else your lack of emotional fufillment will trickle down to your team.”

- Psychological Pitfalls And Lessons of A Designer-Founder « Aza on Design

Great piece on the shift from creator to founder.

(via triciawang)

New avatar. Photo credit: Julia Myers.

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:59:55 -0400

New avatar.

Photo credit: Julia Myers.

dbreunig: colchrishadfield: With deference to the genius of...

Sun, 12 May 2013 19:15:00 -0400

dbreunig:

colchrishadfield:

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.

Huge thanks in the making of the video to the talented trio of Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran and Andrew Tidby, plus Evan Hadfield and all at the CSA.

Space folk songs of the future.

Sublime.

We can be so much more, you guys.

Google partners with Kenya's largest bank to launch payment card for public buses.

Sun, 05 May 2013 20:07:21 -0400

Google partners with Kenya's largest bank to launch payment card for public buses.:

What is Google up to in Kenya?

The news that Google is getting into the cashless transaction space in the country is no surprise, since Kenya is the home of M-Pesa, the most successful mobile payment system in the world (31% of Kenya’s GDP goes through the M-Pesa network).

Unsurprising, yes, but fascinating all the same. Very curious to see whether Google will import these experiments back to the United States.

Also interesting: bus drivers are apparently working hard to undermine the system. They benefit from the inefficiency of the cash system, which allows them to double or even triple prices at will.

Alan Cohen: The Ad Man Who Molds Tech Startups

Sun, 05 May 2013 14:32:21 -0400

Alan Cohen: The Ad Man Who Molds Tech Startups:

Bloomberg Businessweek has a short profile of Alan Cohen, an advertising executive at OMD. Startups work with Cohen during product development in return for a slice of the $12 billion ad budget that his media agency controls.

While I understand the value to these companies of having the support of an industry insider as they inch towards profitability, it’s surprising to see the extent to which Cohen influences the product roadmaps of the companies he advises.

At OMD’s suggestion, the audio-recognition company Shazam expanded its mobile phone-based music-identification technology to TV commercials, enabling brands to offer users special promotions when they’re watching…News-reading app Flipboard added brand-sponsored content at OMD’s suggestion. “The relationship has really helped shape our business model,” says Christine Cook, Flipboard’s head of revenue. Before releasing Flipboard in 2010, Chief Executive Officer Mike McCue gave Cohen an early look, both men say. After OMD pushed Flipboard to develop catalogs that allow readers to buy the advertised products with a few taps, Cohen sank in money from Levi’s for jeans ads.

You’ve likely experienced the story where a much-loved internet product is ruined by intrusive, barely relevant advertising. My worry is that with the ad people given pride of place at the decision-making table, the motivating question will no longer be “How can we best delight our users in a way that helps us maintain a sustainable business?” but rather “How can we get more ads in here?”

Additionally, I wonder if the ready access to advertising dollars isn’t stifling ideas for non-ad supported monetization strategies. Is the answer to the business model question simply “More ads!”?

"I found out right after the war that if someone were discharged as homosexual, a notice of that fact..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 22:40:08 -0400

““I found out right after the war that if someone were discharged as homosexual, a notice of that fact was sent home to their local draft board, so that their whole community would come to know that they were gay. And this led indirectly to the formation of gay ghettos in the major cities, where people who couldn’t go home, because their sexuality had been revealed by the army, had to move into Greenwich Village or the San Francisco Castro. This was the beginning of the huge gay communities in the major cities.””

- Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men in the Military

"You’ll be fine. You’re 25. Feeling unsure and lost is part of your path. Don’t avoid it. See what..."

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:06:27 -0400

“You’ll be fine. You’re 25. Feeling unsure and lost is part of your path. Don’t avoid it. See what those feelings are showing you and use it. Take a breath. You’ll be okay. Even if you don’t feel okay all the time.”

- Louis CK (via dinocube)

mckelvie: #8. Wow. Wow.

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:14:57 -0400

mckelvie:

#8.

Wow. Wow.

nkadu: Delicate Most of the time, life seems very concrete to...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:33:17 -0400

nkadu:

Delicate

Most of the time, life seems very concrete to me. Everything is weighed down and well-supported with the immovable pillars of school and work and relationships. And then the breeze blows, and that which was is no more, and I am forced to consider how delicate it really all is.

May we learn to cherish every moment.

www.facebook.com/nkaduphotography

nkadu: photoelectricphotography: kojob: akatasia: garibage: ...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:20:00 -0400

nkadu:

photoelectricphotography:

kojob:

akatasia:

garibage:

My first short Film “GHANA” - A love letter to the place I was born and raised. Enjoy :) . #gyimahgariba

Talent!

This is amazinngg

Chale!!

HELLO there is magic running in your veins orr???

Oh YEAAA!!!

This is incredible. Extremely excited to see this quality of work about home!

"What do you make?"

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:49:15 -0400

"What do you make?":

ronenv:

“What do you make?”

Many people know this is the question I usually ask new humans I meet.

Often, they say “that’s a great question!”

I got it from a guy named Bre Pettis. We were videobloggers back in two thousand and whenever-it-still-made-us-weirdos, and this grey-haired bespectacled fellow in a black leather jacket had just arrived from the internet into New York City and he said “Hi, I’m Bre.” And I said, “I’m Ronen” and he said “What do you make?” with such genuine enthusiasm and curiosity and goddamnit, I just didn’t have a good answer.

What existed that wouldn’t exist if I didn’t?

What exists because of me?

What do I create?

I didn’t have a good enough answer I was proud of, that I could stand behind. And the conversation rang in my head, the question infecting me like a virus, that evening and the next and the next and goddamnit, if I didn’t have a good answer, I would make one.

By making things. I would make things all the fucking time and have a great answer to that question next time someone asked. Something I could show and be proud of.

It’s funny, because he’s moved on— he now asks a different question when he meets people. But I’ve kept the meme. I like it. People can be like Necker Cubes: they have lots of different sides, depending on how you look. “What do you make?” lets you very quickly connect with their Creator side.

Anyways, just posting this to give him attribution for the rad question folks seems to like.

Oh, and he’s on the cover of this month’s Wired:

justin:ciwi:zadi:ericmortensen:scottbeale:

MakerBot co-founder and CEO Bre Pettis on the Cover of Wired

Yeah. Now he makes robots that makes things.

Thanks for helping me evolve, Bre.

So: What do you make?

Thanks! Reply in response to this.

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:58:00 -0400

Thanks!

Reply in response to this.

"Camus said that to commit to a righteous cause in the face of overwhelming odds is absurd. To not..."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:49:00 -0400

“

Camus said that to commit to a righteous cause in the face of overwhelming odds is absurd. To not commit to a righteous cause in the face of overwhelming odds is equally absurd. But only one option offers the possibility of human dignity.*

Going down fighting is not a bad way to perceive yourself, and not a bad way to be perceived, and not a bad way to waste your time. If your time is wasted anyway, you might as well scream a bit on the way down.

It requires making a choice. Not everyone can be everywhere … but pick something that matters, that is bigger than yourself, that isn’t for your own gain, and commit to it, and see what happens.

If for nothing at all, the bastards will not be able to say that they didn’t know.

”

- David Simon, The Audacity of Despair

* haven’t been able to confirm the accuracy of this Camus quote. Every reference I’ve seen online references Simon. Jed thinks it might be from Camus’ “Myth of Sisyphus”.

slavin: Blogging this midway through, to tell you this a great...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 17:04:34 -0400

slavin:

Blogging this midway through, to tell you this a great use of an hour of your time.

Even if you’ve never watched The Wire, even if you don’t care about newspapers, it’s an extraordinary talk.

In a moment that’s 100% what the what — here’s an hour about the why of the why.

David Simon: “The Audacity of Despair” (by UCBerkeleyEvents)

This was difficult to watch in all the best possible ways. Well worth an hour of your time.

“The Audacity of Despair” is an apt title.

It’s the little things. Read-later app Pocket recently...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:47:00 -0400

It’s the little things.

Read-later app Pocket recently announced a suite of tools for publishers, including the ability to ”add a custom text footer message that will appear at the bottom of any article saved from your site.”

I saw it in action for the first time on this great article on The Awl that celebrates the invaluable work that editors do, and bids a heartfelt farewall to departing Awl editor Carrie Frye.

This is the message at the end of the article:

Thanks for reading The Awl! We appreciate you. Hey, do you like reading on your iPhone? You could test out our app for free and see if you like it.

I know that this message is being displayed to everyone who is reading The Awl inside Pocket…and yet I can’t help but be completely charmed.

The Awl isn’t one of my most visited sites (I think the only other Awl story I’ve read is Jeb Boniakowski’s magisterial We Must Build An Enormous McWorld In Times Square, A Xanadu Representing A McDonald’s From Every Nation. Read this now. Seriously. Right now.) but in four short sentences The Awl:

quickly communicated something about their culture. I now associate them with warmth and friendliness.
got me to check out their iPhone app.
got me to check out other articles on their website.

Thumbs-up to Pocket for making these intimate moments between publishers and readers possible, and high-five to The Awl for the great execution.

"The nurses put all scheduled surgery on hold and began readying eight rooms. They ordered equipment..."

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:04:00 -0400

“The nurses put all scheduled surgery on hold and began readying eight rooms. They ordered equipment trays for vascular and orthopedic procedures to be brought up from stock supply. They called an orthopedics-manufacturer representative for extra hardware to be mobilized. They got in touch with the blood bank, which was already securing blood from other states. They communicated with other operating rooms around the city to make sure they had enough supplies of equipment, too.”

- Why Boston’s Hospitals Were Ready

I am deeply envious of this level of organisation.

I want this, for everywhere, and particularly for my parents and siblings back home. Systems that can be trusted not to buckle when (not if) the worst happens. Resilient systems that work.

One day.

Casey made a gif of me.

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:38:00 -0400

Casey made a gif of me.