This is the presentation:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html
in a reverse move, Edward Tufte claims that powerpoint presentations favor form (presentation/storytelling) over content (information). this reveals a disposition towards information over storytelling – while conveying information is important, so is telling a good story.
BarCode Art
he does not necessarily use information, but the MEDIUM of information – the barcode – to create art. the flipbooks are particularly interesting.
When looking at creating user scenarios and building prototypes, it did occur to me that these are both opportunities to tell stories. In user scenarios, we create stories on how people will end up interacting with the product or interface. The more clearly we can imagine the user, the more clearly we can make the design.
I think this is perhaps the most useful thing about creating a specific and detailed user scenario. In creating detailed character, we are forced to expend a great deal of effort imagining a particular user. When focusing energies this way, it will clearly yield a more specific and well-thought out design.
It was funny to realize that I became bored while reading on how to tell a good story. I would imagine that while explaining this concept, the author would also be able to tell a good story…
In any case, a specific set of standards is necessary in good, practical design.
Looking at the process of prototyping is definitely a new concept. This is necessarily examining the process of process. In my world of theater, this is not new – know your audience, know your space and play to those things.
However, in the world of design and digital new media, you can quickly forget this because you’re working remotely at home or somewhere else (like the beach) on your laptop.
The barrier of entry in new media is much lower. This results in lower standards – it is easier to make garbage online and have many people see it (see Google Video backstreet boys) than it is in offline.
Likewise, the rise in blogs has changed the standards of journalism and publishing.
We no longer need to read or write long articles.
Just short thoughts, bylines.
The conversational tone has replaced the authoratative one.
Walter Benjamin alludes to this in The Storyteller, though he does not explicitly refer to authority or colloquialisms. He does, however, touch on the themes of information versus narrative storytelling.
The two processes and mechanisms are quite different. When communicating information, we are used to communicating just that. However, with information replacing all other content of communication, we (as narrative beings) are now imposing narrative on information.
Take, for example, Carnivore.
Carnivore is a technology used by the FBI to snoop. The project Police State is a system of remote control police vehicles controlled by specific data packets. It uses
“the data being ‘snooped’ by the authorities [as] the same data…to control the police vehicles. Thus the police become puppets of their own surveillance. This signifies a reversal of the control of information appropriated by police by using the same information to control them.”
This is a prime example of information feeding a larger narrative.
However, the project is not in itself a narrative.
It is the interface and context in which we create a larger societal narrative.
Sphere: Related Content
