Upstream #187
speed kills 🚧, penguin pool 🐧, in that case💡, two hands 🤚🤚, flyte 🎧 .
Well. There you are. Hope you're well. I did some Dry Cleaning, and watched Anatomy of a Fall (v good) Spring still springing. Heat rising. Feels nice. Let's go.
“Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.”
Seamus Heaney
culture // speed kills
Are we in the service of speed now? Is urgency everything? Are we hurtling towards some great end, that'll justify our frantic means. Book summary apps are the latest, which harm authors’ sales, and our ability to think critically. Apps, like this, to help us “think better” are likely to have the opposite effect. As writer Susie Alegre says,“If we don’t use our minds to reflect deeply, we may lose our ability to think critically at all,” (top future skill). Speed has killed off the music video too. Too slow for scrollers. And where we once lovingly burned cd or tape mixes, new Spotify AI prompted playlists will do it now in secs. Not to mention the impact speed (AI) is having on work, hilariously summarised here. Friends too slow? Try friendship snacks. Christ, We have to remember the amazing things that happen, if we slow down, and are more human.
brands // penguin pools
Loved this piece by Ian Leslie about London Zoo’s Penguin Pool. In 1934, Georgian architect Berthold Lubetkin designed a daring, experimental elliptical white concrete pool, with a centrepiece pair of interlocking spiral ramps. It looked beautiful and became a world famous masterpiece of modernism. But it was designed for people, not penguins. So it didn’t work. And it’s been mostly empty since the 1980s. Form did not follow function. The purpose of the thing, wasn’t the starting point of design. It happens. A lot. Things are designed to serve stakeholders, not actual users. The Guggenheim in NYC, is a masterclass in form and function. Visitors enjoy a continuous art-viewing experience, descending along the spiral ramp. Purpose was at its heart, from the start. Powerful lesson for brands; don’t build a penguin pool.
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creativity // in that case
Imagination, creativity and innovation are interlinked. To create, we imagine. To bring it to life, we innovate. The process is like a dance. With multiple dancers. Like the English Dance. “The precise outcomes can’t be designed or determined in advance”. And “the dancers are not automata — each one follows the dance steps, the formal rules of social order, but does so in his or her individual way”. Like improv jazz. Listening to Michael Keaton describe his role as Beetlejuice. and working with Tim Burton, was like listening to that dance (from 3:48). He says it was one of his great “yes and” experiences. An improv technique to build creative momentum, by avoiding no. He describes loads of "well in that case” moments. You can literally hear the possibilities opening up. Love the idea of bringing “well in that case” enthusiasm to projects.
technology // two hands 🤚🤚
The internet has been a distribution revolution. Networks of connected information, have transformed our lives. Like shipping, cars, planes, it's been huge. Now, as Rex Woodbury writes, with AI weapons of mass production, we’re moving from a distribution revolution, to a production revolution. Like the industrial revolution before, now EVERYONE can make stuff cheaply, and quickly. Which means either loads more shite, OR more optimistically, loads more Picasso's, or Michelangelo’s. But that’s tech isn’t it? On one hand, it can help us speak whale, or cure cancer. On the other, it can mean outsourcing cashiers to remote workers on screens. The best of times, the worst of times. Perspective matters.
five random (ish) things:
watching // flyte
Been enjoying these for the last week or so. This track is nice. Nice video too. Shame about them dying (the video's that is.....see above ☝️). Enjoy!