IDEAS
OK, so I'm coming pretty darn late to the party(what
else is new?), but I've started my own sort of blog. More accurately I'd
call it an online journal. With some almanac-like time and weather information.
I started mid-January, 2007, and as of February
4th I'm still working on navigation, layout and other issues. It's got
a long way to go. But if you're curious, check it out: Al's
sort of blog.
So yeah, I'm a big fan of Frank Gehry's recent
work, like the Disney Concert Hall in LA. Take a walk around with
me. (2.1 Mb, requires Shockwave plug-in)
These "lifestyle centers" popping up all over can be really creepy, like
"Legacy Village" near Cleveland. Neither handed down from the past
nor communal despite its name, the place is like Disneyland without the sense
of fun.
There's another to the west of Cleveland called "Crocker Park" that isn't
nearly as bad. Here's why.
So what is it that I actually do all day, since obviously it's not spent
updating this site? Well, a good part of the time I'm working with students
in the Interactive Media program at Cuyahoga Community College. Here's an
example of what these talented students create: an interactive piece called
Telekinesis by Ana Terstage (Shockwave plug-in needed).
Spent a couple of days at the AIGA Schools
of Thoughts2 (what's up with
the name?) design education conference in Pasadena, CA in March.
Take a look
at some impressions and reflections via Flickr.com.
I suggest you click
on View
as slideshow.
It's 2005, and GW Bush is still president. If this sticks in your
craw, you may be interested in my HalfTheCountry
website.
Holiday greetings... The view on Dec. 27th from
West 32 St. (and beyond).
This site is a descendant of Interactive
Design Forum, a site I started in 1999. I've lost the enthusiasm to
keep IDF updated frequently enough to make it worthwhile for regular
visitors, so it lives on as an archive of old articles, hopefully still
useful.
This site (44113.com) is more of a sketchbook that I'll add to from
time to time.
Here are a few "electronic journal" entries from the 2004 Design
Inquiry conference I attended in Portland, ME. Also see the Portland
link at left.
BRAINSTORMING
FLIGHT HOME
Here's a print version of my reaction to the conference, similar ideas in
a different form.
If you're a glutton for punishment, read my article about interactive design,
written for the AIGA FutureHistory
conference, Cave walls to mouseclicks.
Download (pdf, 300k)
Please mail me your comments.
DO IT
Instead of a Superbowl party,
a friend is having a pot-luck gathering to talk about simple ways each of
us can live a "greener" life. Much more interesting. As for me, I've been
replacing lightbulbs throughout the house with compact fluorescents.
Your tax dollars at work: Lots of energy-saving tips at the EnergyStar.gov website...it's
kind of fun, too.
Seems to me that something as traumatic as Sept.
11, 2001 ought not be forgotten, even while we continue to debate how to
best combat the political forces that spawned it.
I took the two pieces of real estate that I control, my website and my house,
and tried to give people a moment to pause and think.
The Sept. 11 webpage was
up for exactly 24 hours. The candles
on the porch burned a few hours longer. Not much, either of them,
but better than nothing.
After an inspiring visit to the All
Digital show at MOCA
Cleveland last year I decided to try a little randomness in the name
of love.
Artist Leo Villareal mentioned
that he used Macromedia Director for some of his work, and
I thought I'd try to do a primitive version of one of his light projects,
and ended up with this Valentine
card of sorts:
All
you
need
is...
If getting naked for art doesn't grab you (as in the Spencer Tunick installation
described below), how about getting naked for peace? Lots of people
are doing it.
When MOCA announced plans for
a Spencer Tunick nude outdoor
photo shoot in Cleveland, I was one of the first to sign up. I was bitterly
disappointed when the date of the shoot turned out to be right in the middle
of my family vacation on Kelleys Island.
If Joanne had agreed I'd have taken the midnight ferry the night before,
gone to the 5:30 a.m. call & shivered
along with 2700 other people, and driven back to the island by noon. But
she thought it was too big a disruption of our time together, and I had to
choose. Time together won out, and I don't regret it. Much. Well, OK, every
now & then.
My hometown, in the
nude.
So I signed up with
Tunick in case he does another photo within driving distance of Cleveland.
I'm #4. What are you?
STUFF
When the Target ad said $99 for a TruTech digital
picture frame, I bought one in the interest of research for my class in Media
Design.
The black plastic frame looks kind of cheesy, but the price was
right.
It has a decent built-in slideshow feature, but controlling the sequence
of the images has escaped me so far. The tiny, tiny User's
Manual isn't much
help.
In Feb. '01 I bought $1000
worth of Apple Computer stock, figuring that
it would rebound from its then-low of about $17.
In Sept. 2006 its price was about $70, after a 2-for-1 split in 2005.
By Feb. 2007 it was $85 after peaking around $90 a couple weeks back.
The chart looks pretty darn good:
But this hasn't led me to
invest more in the stock market. I've seen my retirement accounts crash & burn
once already.