unknown, however familiar.
bad choices. lies. unfair
same choices.. again. : ___

waiting, hoping dropped
and-all the flood returns

cast_aside. and/and and. and……..

gone;

Very interesting duality. It reminds me of another old saying: “in order to know where you’re going, you need to know where you are from”.

The creative process is the realization of new ideas. In order to build, you have to understand the building blocks with which you’re creating.

I have so much respect for those that can tear apart something and create something completely different, new and exciting. Much of modern music is built upon this and, while naysayers like to cry afoul, the final product is often art in it’s own right.

This is one reason I’ve found chiptune music to be so intriguing. I’m not sure what would possess someone to hack a gaming console that was released in the 80s, but I’m happy they did. Enjoy.

I told myself that I would transcribe my session notes from my moleskin. A month later, I’ve gone through that exercise and realize I take terrible notes. The material from each talk is still fresh in mind and I’ve done my best to translate my messy, disjointed notes to something easily digestible. Here are my key takeaways:

1. Mobile is the new black. It’s cliche, but mobile is the new thing and every session mentioned it at some point. One recurring theme, however, was: though mobile is the newest platform for development, we should build on what interaction design lessons from Web 1.0, 2.0, and even print. Mobile is new and game-changing, but we shouldn’t throw everything out the window just yet.

2. Emotional content, not clever ideas, drive engagement. It’s amazing how few tech professionals don’t get this. It’s common to try to solve problems by looking for the newest, greatest idea. That may not always be the best solution, however. Simply put: figure out what people want, then give it to them. Don’t do things because it’s cool and everyone else did it.

3. Agencies need to learn from software companies. I heard a lot of agile development ideas… especially from the UX guys. This one is simple: don’t reinvent the wheel. Software companies have decades of developing rich, interactive tools. Learn from their mistakes. Adapt. Make it your own.

4. Metrics & research should drive strategic direction. Strategy without measurement is like trying to solve algebraic equations without defining the variables. If possible, measure everything. Then analyze the data, searching for trends. That brings me to my last key takeaway…

5. Iterate quickly and often. Foster an atmosphere of testing and don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. If your analysis is wrong, change it quickly. One track and field quote that I love is: “if you improve every day by just a little bit, eventually you’ll hold the world record”. Don’t try to make drastic improvements all at once, small incremental ones are easier to make and easier to recover from if they aren’t the correct choice.

All in all, SXSW and Austin was great. I’d definitely like to go back, staying for the music and film portions next time around.

More to come…

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work on a series of video installations for Speed Chain Training, a sports equipment company. The experience combined a few of my interests: sports, video/audio production, copywriting and taking a day off of work.

Maxence Cyrin does piano cover versions of rock, pop and electro songs mixed with scenes from silent movies and other classics. More Videos from Maxence Cyrin.

beauty                    steal

til        edtapt
nas    ti                 lychang
e          bea                 ring

withinsideyoulining

beautylove

I’ve always loved the idea of the Gorillaz. Something about their approach to a musical act taking on a persona has always intrigued me for some reason. It’s been done before – masked musicians like Kiss, Mushroom Head and Slipknot comes to mind – but Gorillaz has upped the ante by having a complete separation between the actual musicians and the “band”. What’s interesting is that, as technology progresses, the Gorillaz characters evolve and become more and more real, more visceral. The cartoon band even got to take the stage in front of live audiences.

Recently, I ran across an article that described the development of technology that would allow us to recreate the works of dead musicians. The project by Zenph Studios analyzes nuances of playing and musicality and recreates performances on real instruments via midi.

I wonder how long it’ll take until the two ideas merge: virtual bands and “reincarnated” musicians. Maybe someday soon, we could see live performances by virtual Hendrix, Bach, Lennon, Mozart.

Until then, enjoy the Gorillaz video. The guy from Die Hard is in it being a badass.

I assumed by the glow of the GPS unit atop the dash that the confused driver was waiting for the unit to tell him where to go. Finally, he took a left turn and I assume he arrived at his destination. I’ll never know.

This whole incident reminded me of the Oregon couple who got stuck in the snow for three days after being guided by their GPS unit to take a back road. I’m glad the couple are safe, however, it seems pretty dumb of them to take an unsafe route in the middle of winter simply because a phone tells you to.

This led me to a couple questions.

Have we become so dependent on technology that we cannot make decisions for ourselves anymore without technological assistance? Have we become so lazy that we’d rely on our gadgets, gizmos and widgets to make important decisions for us?

I, myself, am guilty. Anyone that knows me knows I am constantly checking my phone. In fact, as I was at the bookstore this evening, I was researching books on my phone’s browser.

The important thing to question is how much we will these new advances dictate our behavior. Will these cool new shiny things be a tool for us to use or a crutch? Has the constant availability of a vast wealth of knowledge diminished the ability of the general public to think critically?