Russell Davies

high-culture/hi-rez

Various video games stuff lined up this week...

On the BBC's Front Row on 3rd Jan there was an interview with four of the UK's culture barons. (The people who run the big UK arts establishments). The talk at one point turned to the conflict between live, high-art and video games. The talk began predictably enough - with dismay over diminishing attention spans - but then Michael Boyd of the RSC actually said something interesting:

"I think the attention span required to really get a sense of satisfaction from a Final Fantasy computer game, or San Andreas, or GTA...the dedication, the concentration required by that...I think equips kids really well to cope with the complications of narrative and actually makes them an awful lot less naive than maybe our generation was when we were that age, about interpreting Shakespeare...much more skeptical, much more used to intervening and making choices."

Which reminded me of the little article posted above from Wired. Orchestral performances of the Final Fantasy soundtrack are popping up in concert halls all over the world.

And I was reading Icon magazine - reviewing GTA: San Andreas as a design/architecture exercise. Which reminded me of this fantastic post over at thingsmagazine.

different ways of blaming coke

One of the things about working on a brand like Nike is you're always coming across marketing or business books which tell you precisely what made Nike great, or what they're doing wrong or how they achieved success or how they're ensuring failure. And they're books that you really want to like or that are making some sense and then they start to talk about something you know a little about and you realise they're just making stuff up.

People who worked on the launch of New Coke must feel a similar thing. It must be one of the most cited marketing thingy's ever. And not everyone's theory about its failings can be right.

Here, though are two audio presentations which shed light on the New Coke fiasco. The first - a talk at PopTech by Malcolm Gladwell is the most convincing. He talks about the stupidity/limitations of the taste-testing research Coke did to convince themselves they needed to change formulation. (This one is free). The second is a presentation at audible.com about influence by Dr. Robert Cialdini. He only touches on the Coke thing, but it's worth listening to anyway. (This one is $3).

underwater audio joy

I've been going swimming every morning, staving off boredom by listening to my ipod encased in one of these. Pretty good. But now, splendidly, it looks like Oregon Scientific are releasing a proper cheap underwater mp3-player. Read more at Tech Digest. Given that previous options were much more, this is a good thing.

influence

Your youth marketing experts will tell you that influence is dead in your youth marketing. No-one has heroes anymore. Well, we've got Arthur's cousin staying with us, and his mate. And Arthur absolutely worships them, as you can see from where he's put his skateboard.

fit bit

Fitness talk is everywhere right now. It's not just the summer, there's real genuine revolt against fags and alcopops. This bar near work is even offering alcohol-free happy hours during the olympics.

and get yourself a spiritual vacuum

Was in New York at the weekend. Saw a bunch of stuff. I loved this sign on a vaguely 'worldy' shop. But it struck me that they'd distilled so much in the phrase 'accessorize your spirit'. So many contemporary brands and products are acting as spiritual accessories - candles, 'scrapbooking', starbucks, all those books about angels. Some are obviously more crap and facile than others. But they're all spiritual accessories.

trend nirvana

A bit of my job is doing all that 'trend-hunting' rubbish, though I think of it as more like sharing interesting stuff. This is coolhunting gold-dust; three trends in one - 1) holistic wellness (whatever that means) 2) the global dominance of hiphop 3) non-obvious things in collision. Marvelous. That's all my presentations written for the next six months.

off brand

This is the back of an abercrombie and fitch t-shirt. It's a great quote. But it's interesting because it's not on brand for Churchill or A&F.

pedestrian pushbutton paranoia

Don't you suspect this is true in London too? It seems that, in New York, more than 2,500 of the 3,250 pedestrian crossing pushbuttons have been disconnected by the city. The crossing lights are computer controlled, they just have a placebo effect. It's a good effect though. I'm glad the buttons are there. Read more at the New York Times, (requires you to login)

mag cover design decline shock

There's a great little piece here (via things) about the decline in American magazine design. From the heights of Esquire etc in the 60s to the celebrity obssessed type nightmares of today. A good, quick read.

Not so sure if it's as true about British magazines. I'm not saying that Nuts and Now are great pieces of design, I'm just not sure we ever had an equivalent golden age.