blogos

It’s about the process, not the result… the journey, not the destination…

… even though a satisfying outcome would still be ideal.

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon — do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many, when,
with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,

as many sensual perfumes as you can; visit many Egyptian cities, to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.

Without her you would have never set out on the road.

She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.

Wise as you have become, with so much experience,

you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)

chronologically inaccurate

Was trying to squeeze this in with some earlier posts but couldn’t successfully pull it off, so I’m just placing it here – suspended. It hypothetically fits everywhere, yet cannot practically be placed anywhere.

Visual triggers —>  bound to cultural myths, historical baggage, national identity, politics etc  < —

In researching my disaster, I inevitably came across images of what I now consider cliched, overused, misappropriated and, frankly,  bordering on kitschy. I am referring to images of classical Greek structures such as the Parthenon, whose rendering into a mass produced image (among other commodity forms) has now become similar to a tacky souvenir that ignorant tourists eagerly purchase in the midst of some kind of spiritual cultural consumption. Those images, to me, no longer bear any “real” connection to the past… they are merely attractors to the easily seduced and the easily misled.

I was therefore cautious in using the meander because its use can often become tacky. I did not want my logo to turn into a condensed equivalent of this tacky Greek house:

In any case, I feel as though an obligatory analysis (ala Macnab) is in order, so as to justify the image/shape I chose to extract from the montage/collage/ pastiche of images that has been created in my mind with the help of the Google image search engine.

Instead of choosing the most typical shapes characteristic of the three prevalent architectural styles in Ancient Greece (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian order), I chose to focus on the meander-like shape that is perhaps a fusion of principles extracted from all of the aforementioned orders and -at the same time- a creative departure from all these styles and their functionality. The meander-like shape emerges from some recurrent shape/image-concepts in this blog, such as the labyrinth and the hypertext metaphors.

What is interesting about the meander is that it has made the leap from architecture (originally: Greek and Roman, e.g. used in temples) to art – from function and form, to aesthetics and conceptual design. Nowadays, the Key design is not only used in modern Greek design (sometimes to a fault, as in, for example, Greek restaurants in America), but also in products of other cultures (e.g. Mexican buildings).

Commonly, the meander symbolizes unity and infinity, or infinite potential.

Ironically (or, fittingly), a random snapshot of a meander reminded me of the swastika symbol. Not the spiritual and religious usage of the swastika, but the stigmatized version that is loaded with fascist overtones.

Of course, the meander-turned-swastika could be related to many aspects of the disaster, such as in relation  to concepts of anarchy, education, democracy, freedom, cultural myths, and progress.

In terms of my logo design, I wanted to transform and appropriate the meandering shape so as to touch on its classical undertones, but also transcend its overbearing significance.  However, with this transformation, some unexpected associations emerged that were unintended and beyond my control (see my aforementioned swastika symbolism).

In Decoding Design, Maggie Macnab cites the example of the swastika to illustrate how “subtle alterations [in design] can be used to influence belief and reconstitute the common meaning of a symbol.” She then goes on to mention how the positive associations of the swastika became overwhelmed by the propagandist appropriation of the symbol by the Third Reich. Despite Macnab’s assertion that an appropriated symbol can overcome its original meaning once it becomes redesigned and recontextualized (and, inevitably, de/repoliticized), I do not think the swastika can ever fully move beyond the negative signification it gained post 1920s.  These associations will continue to overwhelm the swastika symbol – at least for the Western imagination -  and no amount of amount of de/reconstruction and manipulation can help it surpass the baggage it is automatically associated with.

I am aware of this unspoken stipulation, and using it productively to stimulate my logo’s evolutionary progress and the branding of my disaster.

Rejects?

Cosmopedia

Κόσμος + παιδεία —> the comprehensive organization of knowledge.

The ultimate, all-encompassing, information archive.

Pierre Levy’s “cosmpopedia” vision of the Web as knowledge space suggests a deterritorialization of knowledge with misleadingly democratizing undertones (at least to participatory culture enthusiasts such as Henry Jenkins).  The advocating of the democratization of access to online information does not necessarily imply a simultaneous advocation of the democratization of knowledge production. When it comes to the provision and creation of knowledge in cyberspace, information is still -for the most part- organized under an implicit hierarchy that assigns legitimacy and authority accordingly (or, alternatively, it exists in a random and chaotic state and is thus not easily searchable and retrvievable to outsiders).  This is one way of filtering out “unnecessary” information/ web junk, but it inevitably means that an oligarchy (compared to the number of people who use the Internet) gets to determine what is unnecessary and what is considered of substance. Yes, the creative bounds are much more relaxed in cyberspace and more people can share their contributions, but there are still systems that help us determine what is “real” and what is “fake”, what is from a legitimate source and what is unreliable (e.g. website ratings, website reputation etc).

Conversely, we could also cautiously say that new media have changed (or, rather, expanded) not only the ways in which we access and process information, but also the ways in which information is organized and accumulated. Arguably, we are becoming less responsible for the information we share online. Case in point: this very blog. I do not fully cite my sources. Sometimes I paraphrase too loosely. I mix and match with no coherent transitions. My writing is haphazard.  But does that change the legitimacy of the information I have to share? Does it inevitably make it less reliable?Perhaps, but at least I am putting my thoughts out there. Will the future break down the still-existent barriers between the professional and the amateur, the academic and the non-scholarly? While this scenario seems to pave the way towards a more democratic access to information, it will probably not ameliorate the *quality* of information-production. It will, instead, make the quality of information more diverse, without necessarily improving or expanding it.

But for the sake of argument, let us consider the potential of the Web as archive and a site of  knowledge-production alongside Levy’s assertion that:  “no one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity.” Will electracy lead the way towards a true cosmopedia, same as the one originally envisioned by the Ancient Greeks? According to Levy, cosmopedia “serves as a site of collective discussion, negotiation, and development… Unanswered questions will create tension within cosmopedic space, indicating regions where invention and innovation are required.” In light of this, electracy combined with heuretics can contribute to the expansion of an archive of knowledge, where information is accumulated through idea negotiation, exchange and collaboration.

Nevertheless, the question remains: who will organize this information in a way that is easily accessible and easy to navigate?  We may not need “gatekeepers” in the future, but we will still need referees, right? Of course, then the question that persists is whether this task will be open to “experts” and non-experts alike, and/or whether it will rest on a combination of the two groups.  The premise of electracy is that it’s “easy” or intuitive in some ways, and thus everyone can potentially gain mastery over the same skillset. However, heuretics is what will separate the “just” electrate from those who use electracy to invent. Just because someone can write does not mean they can produce something brilliant; the same goes for electracy.

Will heuretics within the electracy apparatus produce something useful/practical (in any way you choose to define that), or just something new?

Do I have anything to say – or does the network already take care of it? Mongrel  – NetMonster

Everything is Intertwingled?

Intertwingularity is not generally acknowledged, people keep pretending they can make things deeply hierarchical, categorizable and sequential when they can’t. Everything is deeply intertwingled – Ted Nelson

According to Educational Technology magazine, “Digital convergence brings four (previously) distinct industry sectors in collaboration/competition with each other. Thus, we have Media/Entertainment, PC/Computing, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries all interacting more closely with each other than ever before. This version of digital convergence is happening all around us.”

Even though I do not think that the four industry sections were necessarily “distinct” prior to digital convergence to begin with, it is undeniable that with the advent of the Internet the convergence possibilities have multiplied.  Nevertheless, the digital and the academic have not (yet?) converged. As hierarchical structures are still in place – albeit temporarily displaced at times – some educational institutions (or, at least, some educators) are embracing the digital and manage to successfully incorporate it into pedagogical techniques.

Convergence misleadingly implies a smooth fusion of two supposedly discrete entities that have forged a symbiotic relationship. But, of course, convergence is the term we use for lack of a more adequate word.

While it is tempting to generalize the impact of digital learning on the quality of education on a global scale, the truth is that some countries cannot keep up. I want to talk about what I know, so I will focus on Europe – and specifically Greece- for the time being. Is Greece’s educational system on a par with the rest of Europe? Well, of course that depends on which European countries we are focusing on. Despite the European Union’s attempts to homogenize Europeanize standardize its participating members (e.g. in terms of exchange currency, educational language, and anglicized place naming), the educational system is still not uniform in terms of standards and quality. But should it be? Wouldn’t that mean that quality will subsequently be standardized and undiversified?

The Aftermath of the Riots?  – - – Digital Learning in Greece – - –

The introduction of digital learning in Greece might not be directly related to the rioters demands and the public’s disillusion with the Greek educational system. I am not trying to see the positive in the disaster here. It seems to me that the promotion of digital learning is more related to the allegedly impending recession that was looming even before the riots began.

In an attempt to enhance digital literacy, the Hellenic Republic is strengthening ICT infrastructure and supporting the development of digital content and educational software. The Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs wishes to modernize the administration of education via the incorporation of ICT into pedagogical strategies in all levels of education. The Ministry is also planning to introduce informatics as a subject in high schools and technical schools. In addition, three new projects have been proposed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs. The tentative names of these projects/ campaigns are: Get Digital, Portable Computer for Every Student, and Blog Out.

This seems promising, but there have been other projects prior to these ones that have never officially been launched.

Perhaps I can get myself a job in Greece if I ever finish my degree. Perhaps by then they will introduce Film and Media Studies in higher education. And perhaps students might actually be interested in enrolling. One can only hope. . .

Most of my family thinks I am making movies in grad school. They do not understand what the point is in studying film without actually producing it…

Eurovision

http://eurovision.ert.gr/

Greece has one of the worst records in the European Union for racism against ethnic minorities. Anti-immigrant sentiment is still high, especially against ethnic Albanians, who form the largest minority. Until the 1990s, the BBC notes, Greece had been an extremely homogenous society. Even though Greece is gradually becoming more ethnically (but not yet racially) diverse, there is no real sense of multi-ethnic integration.

No wonder xenophobia is a word of Greek origin.

This is one sociopolitical aspect where the Cypriot attitude is in agreement with mother Greece

Wiki says: Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου, born 25 June 1963) best known as George Michael, is a two-time Grammy Award winning, English singer-songwriter, who has had a career as frontman of the duo Wham! as well as a soul-influenced, solo pop musician.

He has sold over 110 million records worldwide, encompassing 12 British #1 singles, 7 British #1 albums, 10 US #1 singles, and 2 US #1 albums. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith became one of the best selling albums of all time, as well as the first album to produce six top 5 singles in the United States^. It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

All four of his solo studio albums have all reached #1 on the U.K. charts and have gone on to become huge international successes.

The disaster is already branded

Copy, Paste, Remix

Greek Recession?

ATHENS, April 15, 2009 (Reuters)                           

The Greek economy may fall into its first recession since 1993 this year as the global economic crisis hurts the country’s shipping and tourism revenues, central bank governor George Provopoulos said on Wednesday.

‘It is estimated that economic activity will stagnate this year,’ Provopoulos said. ‘It’s even possible to have negative GDP growth rates within the year while activity might be even more unfavourable if international economic conditions deteriorate substantially.’

Provopoulos told the central bank’s annual shareholders meeting Greece’s current account deficit, one of the highest in the European Union as a percentage of GDP, will decline to about 13 percent from 14.4 percent last year as imports fall because of weaker domestic consumption.

Exports of goods and services are expected to drop by 12 percent this year, Provopoulos said. Credit expansion to businesses and households will decelerate further this year. Falling energy prices will help Greece’s EU-harmonised inflation slow to about 1.5 percent this year, from 4.2 percent in 2008.

Core inflation, which excludes energy and food prices, will reach 2.9 percent, compared with 3.4 percent last year, according to central bank estimates.

Unemployment is seen rising by 0.5 to 0.8 percentage points this year from 7.6 percent last year.

Google Image Search – Keyword “Greece Euro”

More triggers

When walls form  labyrinths…

I must self-confess: I have contracted an infectious compulsion. Like a paranoiac, I stumble upon seemingly random information that I automatically relate to this blog. Am I turning into Pynchon’s Oedipa? Which Oedipa, the crazy or the lucid one? Depends on your outlook.

In thinking about walls, experiences, and immersive environments, I came across something I was searching for in relation to a project on interactive cinema that I am currently working on.

The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67

Cinema is a big part of my life. Sadly, not as big as it used to be because reading about cinema takes up most of my time, so I don’t really have that much time to actually watch films! Yes, this is frustrating me more and more every day.

Anyway, I was reading descriptions of the Labyrinth Project installation at Expo 67 in Montreal at the same time as I was reading Brandscapes. Perhaps the connections I have drawn are arbitrary and a simple consequence of concurrent events taking place in my mind at the same time.  In any case, I connected the cine-Labyrinth to a broader idea of cinema as architecture, cinema as an all-encompassing experience (an illusion enhanced by the immersive architecture of the project), and the Labyrinth as an experience cinematographed (rather than choreographed or orchestrated) around the installation’s traversers.

Any attempt to describe the Labyrinth experience is inevitably reductive.  Not even pictures and sketches can complement a language-oriented description. But alas, this is all I have in terms of accessing an event that cannot be – and does not wish to be -  recreated… and relived.

Floorplan of the Labyrinth building and of the vertical and horizontal screens in Chamber 1

Even though I had to imagine the experience of traversing the cine-labyrinth in an indirect manner – through descriptions, accounts, sketches and pictures – I still had an affective response to the idea of a cinematic labyrinth. All I could think of FEEL was a sense of panic creeping and building up inside me. I’m not quite sure why, but I think it has to do with the the fact that this is an experience that distorts certain expectations regarding cinema, architecture, and the concept of viewership. The labyrinth accentuates this feeling of panic… Panic when coming face to face with the unknown.  Panic intermingled with feelings of clastrophobia and disorientation… Loss of control.

But then I read the inevitable analysis of this maze-like space. Oooh, so this is supposed to be an experiment that lays the “sensory training ground for the new global citizen”… a space “where simultaneous information inputs create not confusion which numbs the senses but a new ‘oceanic consciousness.’ “

“This represents the world in all its plurality… [a] mythological cultural mosaic of humankind that was the basis for Pierre Trudeau’s new plan for Canadian federalism.”

Do these interpretations negate my visceral response? Do they undermine the affective sentiment triggered by the fragmentary views of the project that I had to piece together and also fill in the gaps with my imagination?

Analysis rationalizes and ultimately negates the possibility of a raw affective reaction

Cretan Labyrinth

νέφος

[smOg]

ουσ. αιθαλομίχλη, (αστικό) “νέφος”: the smog loomed over Athens το νέφος επικάθησε στην Αθήνα

“”"”"Athens has become known for poor air quality. During the city’s frequent severe incidents of nephos (smog), many citizens require medical care for circulatory and respiratory ailments. Athens’s climatic conditions favor formation of photochemicals that trap pollutants close to the ground, partly because the reconstruction activity that began after World War II has proceeded without a comprehensive plan for traffic and industrial location.”"”"

“”"”"Among Greece’s principal environmental problems are industrial smog and automobile exhaust fumes in metropolitan Athens. Over half of all industry is located in the greater Athens area. From June to August 1982, the air pollution became so oppressive that the government closed down 87 industries, ordered 19 others to cut production, and banned traffic from the city center. In July 1984, the smog again reached the danger point, and 73 factories were ordered to cut production and cars were banned from the city.”"”"”

Waydowntown

more about “Waydowntown“, posted with vodpod

The convergence of work and leisure -  as well as the seemingly inevitable prevalence of work over leisure -  provides the backdrop for the social commentary in Gary Burn’s film Waydowntown. The feeling of claustrophobia and the progressive suffocation of individuality gradually permeate the film – something that is further excacerbated by the thwarted development of the storyline. Even though Burns could have probably pushed the dominant themes in the film further and more reflexively, Waydowntown nonetheless provides insights into consumer culture, postmodern sensibility, individual decenterdness, and commodified experiences. Burn’s mall-slash-office-slash-apartment complex is the ultimate immersive environment that operates within the capitalist logic of the experience economy.  The mall is multipurposed to the extreme, and all aspects of everyday life converge into one place.  Waydowntown, even as an extreme example, makes me wonder whether people are indeed “longing for a more integrated lifestyle and places that facilitate a sense of community” (Jerde, paraphrased in Klingmann, 81).  It seems that the proliferation of integrated places and immersive experiences try to force not just a sense of community, but also a sense of “human” interaction by forging precarious bonds based on the cultivation of consumer identities.  Have we reached the point where human interaction needs to be artificially emulated?

Can we deem this increased focus on integrated lifestyles as a primarily American phenomenon? I don’t know for sure; I am only making this assumption based on my life experiences – having Europe and America (parts of them, at least) as my means of comparison.  I am thinking in particular of things introduced to my country, Cyprus, that have been associated with the influence of a globalization that is a guise for Americanization: the multiplex, shopping malls, Starbucks, etc.

I don’t want to speak for the rest of Europe, but – at least as far as Cyprus and Greece are concerned – lifestyles are no longer as compartmentalized as they used to be as recently as five years ago. Quaint? Makariou Avenue – Nicosia, Cyprus