I keep coming back to the torch. Gas welding is reliable and organic. Electric welding is efficient, but the electrodes wear out and presently both my plasma cutter and MIG welder have issues. The oxy acetylene torch always works as long as there is gas. It produces a bumpy-yet-smooth-to-the-touch edge which is just what I am aftter for that rough but touchable result. It’s where I started.
- roger
Do people who “Click here” really “Learn More”?
Someone recently asked if “Click Here” was necessary or helpful or if it just made people feel stupid. It seemed inevitable that the discussion would eventually grow to Learn More.
I don’t recall seeing many real buttons on physical objects in the real world saying “click here”, though I suppose it’s theoretically possible that some maybe could benefit from it, it’s generally not done and nobody seems to miss it. Physical properties offer enough self-identification implying, “Hey I’m a button. Push me” that such obvious instructions are rare enough to stir remembrances of Alice in Wonderland.
However, I disagree that such a thing makes people feel stupid. More likely, it makes users conclude that the UI and its designers are stupid, ultimately reflecting badly upon the brand experience.
What really makes people feel stupid, and then generally angry, is a UI that lacks affordances at all or a clear explanation as to what it is, how it operates, what it is doing right now, have I accomplished or not what I intended, and what in the world am I doing here using this piece of crap anyway?
Now, If I take this dissusion into the abstract realm of clicking and learning, implying that people who explore information, following its interconnections with other information, do learn more than people who do not, there is a lot more that can be said. In fact a lot more has been said and is available on line, which means a lot more clicking and a lot more learning.
Now the moment of truth when I ask, Did you learn more by clicking here?
- roger
Samsung, Apple, and My Favorite Machine
Sumsung has to pay Apple more money than I’ll make in a …….hmmmm, like ever.
So tell me, do I need to worry?
Tell me the truth.
- roger
Beck ‘Produces’ A Genius Innovation That Appeals To The User-Generated Generation
http://www.forbes.com/sites/willburns/2012/08/09/beck-produces-a-genius-innovation-that-appeals-to-the-user-generated-generation/
As artist, Beck, foregoes the recording step and issues new music in sheet music form. Yes. Just read it, play it and now you can listen to it. lol. It’s a Kramerism: “Make your own pie”. However, not quite so fast. This is someone with a large fanbase. Hmmm. That gives a little twist to this thinking about what is to come. Its the wave of posted YouTube covers of a song not yet recorded that makes this interesting.
In the end, Beck can use these “covers” in a mash-up to create what would have been the “original” recording after the covers have had their play. Let the audience take the stage while Beck runs the lights and sound.
Evidentally, the author of the article agrees. He posted: “Awesome idea, Roger. Love the mashup idea.” – Will Burns http://blogs.forbes.com/people/willburns/
- roger
Well, it seems this week, everyone’s “favorite machine’ is a little robotic off-roadster called Curiosity. Take a look at what he sees from his little vantage point on the red planet. Yes, I am personifying this little creature. I can’t help it. Anything that travels that far to send photos to the folks back home deserves our love and affection. It is without a doubt in the Favorite Machine Hall of Fame next to Lunar Rover and Robbie the Robot.
Pretty spectacular. We didn’t have images anything close to this with the moon landings and there was a photographer on site to shoot it. As you pan around ponder the tracks resembling some kind of crop circle style drawing in the sand to space men (Us?) that I wonder, will it ever erode away?, and I fancy Curiosity, upon seeing it (slightly personified) has a Steve Urkle moment. “Did I do that?”
Is this personification? Anthropomorphism? Or is it really Steve Urkel on Mars?
- roger
Show me a place where minimalism is most prized; be assured that undue complexity is nearby. And vice versa. People seek minimalism as a refuge from undue complexity. That is understood. That the opposite is also true gets missed. The dynamic tension between minimalism and complexity, modernism and postmodernism, is explained in the maraschino cherry, having flavor and color removed only to have other flavor and color added back.
In the Article Where Microsoft Has ‘More Taste’ Than Apple the author is critical of Apple’s Skeuomorphic designs where UI designs go clearly overboard in appearing to mimic the appearance of real world things. I agree this can come off as cheesy. I have referred to it before as ‘brick patterned wallpaper”. Yet people love it. Why? I am not defending it, only explaining it.
People are sometimes confused by the apparent contradictions in my tech-expressionist art. It has been called a crude representation of the real thing, worse in every way. I say they are starting to get it.
Questions: Is it a celebration or a parody of technology design. The answer is both. The contradiction is a major part of the art. If you don’t get that then, you are trapped in your own mental box of either or. Worship of something often brings with it a backlash of irreverence of some kind. A great drama needs some comic relief if we are to stand it. Otherwise, it risks becoming tis own parody, ala Leslie Nielsen deadpan seriousness.
Built-in Contradictions, ironic twist, and some light-hearted self- parody are a safety net of sorts against the hazards of taking oneself too seriously.
That Apple sets up an intolerably slick and pious motif, then clashes against it with cheesy overblown superfluously visual metaphors is not a surprise to me. To not do so is to invite an onslaught of parody railing against the pious self-importance image. This occurs quite a lot already. Cheesy, campy, or clever, it is at least an attempt to achieve some balance in what would otherwise be hollow ivory tower snob design. Proof is in the fact that it seems to work for them. Like I said, I’m not defending, just explaining. I’m jus’ sayin’
- roger
Since creating art “MyFavoriteMachine” celebrating the endearing nnature of design, I have had the desire to collect images of objects / machines that exemplify that theme. This collection could then become an intersting study on its own of the characteristices that seem to be common among endearing obects.
Nice idea, but a little time-consuming and tedious. Then Voila! Pinterst comes along! It is the perfect medium made exactly for creating such collections.
Please visit my Pinterst board My Fav Machine Colection, browse through these images and see what you think. Have fun.
Tools, toys, objects, that win our affection through great design or by serving an important need. Sometimes, we just like them and we don’t know why. These are our “Favorite Machines”.
This is becoming an intersting study of what makes an object or machine endearing. Robots and human-like androids are an obvious inclusion in this collection, personified objects a close second. But what about the less overt? And why are certain objects personified in steriotypical ways? What are the intrinsic properties of an object that lead us to certain feelings that generate thos steriotypes? What patterns do you see?
http://pinterest.com/belveal/my-fav-machine-colection/
- roger
A gigantic THANK YOU to all of MyPhoneHenge backers! After many long hours, the art was completed on time for BIG(D)ESIGN 2012. Electronics, media, and lots of metal hardware, and my heart and brains went into this art. Making something that topped MyFavoriteMachine in scale and magnitude in every way was challenging, but we managed to pull it off. It was a huge hit!
Transporting it to the event was done by me, with help from my #2 son, a pallet jack, and a truck with a hydraulic lift. Due to their size and weight of the pieces and a limited setup window, my goal was to move them mostly assembled from my studio to the location. Keeping them intact would save time, labor, and avoid some of the risk of something going wrong during final assembly on site where tools were limited. And since cranking up a welder or a noisy grinder in a hotel lobby would be out of the question, everything needed to be absolutely right before it went into the truck. Only the electronics were hauled separately to be installed on site along with the steel icons. The large monitors and the steel icons were carefully boxed along with all of the electronics hardware and cables, etc. It filled the truck to capacity!
An unexpected challenge emerged when we arrived at the hotel. Though we had verified the loading dock and freight elevator in advance, we soon discovered that the only path between the large ample spaced loading dock and equally generously sized freight elevator was strangely through the hotel kitchen which involved a narrow corridor only 36 inches wide. Who thought that was a good idea? I’d like to have a word with them. Well, it was a very tight squeeze and some floor molding that looked plenty scraped up already got scraped even more, but in the end, the score was: belveal art: 5 and kitchen corridor: zero. We pallet-jacked the monoliths in place and began assembling.
The process was very physical and I got more sweaty than you would care to hear about, but the art parts all went together exactly according to plan and MyPhoneHenge made its debut to a crowd of conference early birds and trade show exhibitors. Onlookers immediately gathered around asking questions and wanting to touch the art pieces, which I gladly welcomed. When the inquirers faded, I continued fine-tuning the audio and video and interactive elements into the evening for the large crowd that would arrive the next morning.
There were many special moments, audience reactions, great conversations, even live video interviews using the art as a set. The highlight for me, however was when one of the ADA design consultants who herself happens to be blind, came by to experience the art. I offered to provide a guided tour, which was really just me directing her hands from one monolith to the next, hitting the most tactile areas along the way. It was an awesome and most unexpected adventure. We both became Bilbo Baggins discovering mysteries beyond the Shire. She was thrilled just touching and dentifying these objects from the virtual world, for the first time represented in a form that she could actually perceive in real-life three dimensionally. The cold, the rough, the jagged, the abstract, the concrete; it was a thrill seeing it all through her hands. I had been living, eating, breathing this art for the past six months to bring it into existence; I knew every inch of it, and yet it was as if I was seeing it for the first time through her hands acting as eyes for us both.
See more photos at http://belveal.net/?p=1189
And also at http://belveal.net/?p=1116
I’ll be posting video too. But that will take longer.
Okay, its one month later. Now I’m focused on making sure that all the appreciation gifts are received accordingly. I have created more MyPhoneStones especially for my Kickstarter contributors and posted photos on my web site. So, please go to http://belveal.net/?page_id=37&wppa-album=13&wppa-photo=225&wppa-occur=1 to pick the one(s) you like. People are asking for these, but I am determined to serve my Kickstarter supporters first.
Also, because of complications working with the print shop, there has been a delay in the printing of the t-shirts. Rather than make people wait further I am offering additional MyPhoneStones in place of the one t-shirt. An extra MyPhoneStone means you can have one for the office, one for home, or share with a friend! They also work great as an IPod stand or for business cards.
If this is agreeable to you, please go to the web site and pick the one(s) that you like and email me their numbers along with your mailing address to contact@belveal.com so I can ship them to you.
I have settled up with some of you. Some right at the conference. For others, please hurry to pick the one(s) you like and let me know so I can get them to you. It might be good idea though to pick some alternates in case some other early bird picks your favorite MyPhoneStones first.
I would love to send you the MyPhoneStone(s) you want. So please respond soon.
Thanks again. I really appreciate the support!
- roger
Since creating the art title, “MyFavoriteMachine”, I have been collecting examples of various things that fall into that category. Pinterest, I have found to be a wonderful place to collect images of all sorts of favorite machines.
If you go to my Pinterest board titled MyFavoriteMachine you will see a nice variety of interesting machines, classic and contemporary, high tech, low tech, toys, transportation, other. You will probably also notice that there is a disproportionately high number of motorcycles. That is no coincidence.
The way motorcyclists feel about their bikes seems more often than not to transcend the “like” level toward a grander personal affection. Some of the reasons for this are probably obvious. A motorcycle more than other modes of transportation works as an extension of the rider in the way that it moves, like a bicycle, but coupled with the thrill of acceleration and speed.
Custom motorcycles add to that the personal expression as an art form. As a UX designer in technology, I can’t help but also see the parallels between custom motorcycles and User Interface design. They are both a hybrid of technology, performance ingenuity, human factors, and pure art form. The balance between minimalism and features actually produces a somewhat similar design approach. I may talk about that more in another post.
For now, I just want to show some photos of UX designer, Guy Briggs and his Sportster. This bike is lightly customized for comfort and performance on long road trips. Guy has a chopper also that I hope to include here as well, perhaps with some other bike images from other UX designers.
Notice the Sign 
What’s your favorite machine?
Send me a link or photo and tell me what makes it so. Maybe you’ll see it here or in my Pinterst collection of Favroite Machines.
http://pinterest.com/belveal/my-favorite-machine/
- roger
Times they are changing. So is culture. Technology is a driver. We are in its midst. This online experience we are sharing at this moment is just one example. Your love of your smart phone is another. My art is about that. That sentiment, that experience. The old art circles are out of touch. They don’t get it. Youth get it. The tech crowd gets it. The youthful tech crowd has seizures over it. They are my prime audience. Art for the blind is another – and I am serious. People who find modern art boring or obnoxious are another. There may be others I have not yet discovered. I’m curious and looking.
The following illustration describes my observations of people of different sorts responding to my art which I have dubbed “Tech-Expressionism”.
Considering this diagram depicting my observations of who gets it and who doesn’t; Youthful techies are my primary audience. Youth in general are fairly techie by default just because of the world they grew up in. So they get it as well, though maybe with slightly less excitement. Old techies, like me and my IT peers get it because we see and have seen the impact on our own lives and the changes to culture around us because of technology. We are part of it. This is our world an we are actively involved in changing it ourselves. Older non-techie people don’t get it. They, like everyone, are fully aware of the changes to our world, but they typically lack the deep first-hand experience that makes the full connection to art that is about that experience.
Now here’s the kicker. The traditional art community, though not entirely, falls into the non-youthful, non-techie category. Hence, I do not expect much from them. The vestiges of traditional art are still very strong. I’m not sure what they make of this. Perhaps they think it amounts to drawing portrait of your dog or photographing what you had for lunch. I don’t really know or care. Bottom line: they don’t get it probably never will. I’ve encountered that before with people who cannot see the significance of a technology, event or idea, though its flaming in front of them. I’ve learned its best to step right past them. They will never understand, though they will eventually follow.
And strangely, much of what is considered contemporary art seems to either deliberately evade technology altogether or embraces it so fully that it simply becomes part of the machine. Contemporary art seems to be fixated on body parts like an adollescent, or about being offensive for offensiveness sake with nothing really worthwhile to say, but that’s another discussion. My point is that I don’t expect much from that sector either.
Artistic commentary outside the glass about what is happening inside the glass and its impact is totally rare. That is what makes these pieces unique and important.
And I believe these pieces are important. It is an art statement of our time as the work of Andy Warhol was to his. Call it pop-culture if you want, but I belive it is deeper than the word pop suggests. It is about massive and rapid impact worldwide on people, families, communities, and cultures. It is about a new and continuously changing way of life due to ubiquitous computing in our palm and in the cloud. And we should have tons to say about it, including through art.
Some People ask for the Moon
Here’s the “dis”; I have never really liked the art establishment. At best, it is a fickle alliance of cultural and sociological dichotomies. At worst, it can be a hair ball of obnoxious brats dipped in a mixture of both fresh and stale snobbery, a conglomerate of gold digging, ass-kissing, power-mongering hypocrisy. Somewhere in the midst is the noble thing art is supposed to be, but like religion, politics, and other fields where money, power, and egos come to play, art can get pretty f’d up.
Lest my friends in the art community be offended, just consider that I am of course not talking about you, but all those other people and you will heartily agree with me. Got that?
Still, I enjoy connecting with art people, art things, and art events. Obviously, I like to make art and like my audience. By the way, I have observed that actually “liking my audience” makes me different from many contemporary artists who seem to have only contempt for their audiences. Disrespect for one’s audience is a characteristic I loathe. The weird thing is that audiences seem to like being abused because they tend to elevate artists that are the most abusive to them. Like a battered lover clinging to an abusive “lover”, some seem to feel that being a self-centered villain is what makes an artist. Go figure. I hate that and won’t subscribe to it. If that’s the rules game, count me out.
I like my audience. If you enjoy my art, that makes my day. If you don’t, that’s okay too. I don’t need you to like it. I like it and will keep on doing it. If you are an art establishment person, you can like it or not and I don’t really care one way or another. Your fickle agendas are not my preoccupation.
I am pleased with the audience that I have found. It is the one that matters. And I will try to respond even more to and learn from this audience. I am excited to see where this leads.
- roger
