There is an Aristotelic tradition in cognitive psychology, information design and artificial intelligence, to understand human information processing as a mechanism, that is, as a complicated system, ultimately explainable on the basis of the understanding of every one of its multiple components and their interactions. Instead of looking at human information processing as a complicated system, I propose to look at it as a complex system, distinguishing for this paper the complicated from the complex; the first being composed by a high number of discrete parts with many interconnections: as in a computer circuit, the second being an integrated system where everything affects everything: as in the relation between two people. Since I have chosen as my theme the contextualization of cognition with other human factors, I will be dealing with the complex, and I will therefore not attempt to enumerate parts and connections; I will instead concentrate on certain insights about field interactions that I hope will reposition our understanding of mental processes, moving it from an analysis of logical steps to the exploration of the influence that contexts have on human cognitive performance.

http://trex.id.iit.edu/visiblelanguage/Feature_Articles/Frascara_CognitionEmotion/index.html

At first glance, the logo above might seem like just a boring piece of concept-less design. Honestly, that’s bad enough.

Now you have to ask, “How on Earth does this make it through any type of approval process?” It takes me days, sometimes weeks, to get people to move on decisions. They rehash every little detail, until I think my eyes are going to bleed from debating the merits of cerulean text on navy over powder on black. Everyone has to take a look at it. Everyone has to give input. I don’t imagine that other people’s processes are much different.

http://www.dasgoodads.com/2008/06/you-really-need-art-director-001.html

this witty piece of stencil grafitti protesting the war was spotted in bloomington、indiana、USA.

‘the piece itself is was stenciled on the floor using a shadow cast by a light post at night、and later carefully sprayed with a 『camouflage black』 can.’

my friend from W+K recently did this in Portland!
Quote from Chean:

Was an idea from mark and I. We both were bored and want to do
something to encourage people walk the stair.

Also was inspired by the project “learning to love you more”. So we
collect information from wk-ers and write in on stair. These are
favorite quoted from parents.

facebook album

This has made me think that indeed, when it comes to fighting censorship, the Charter has an insurmountable flaw: it is a document. Therefore, its title and content are fixed and it is extremely easy to locate by a bot. Worse even, in this era of the internet, the authors have commited the mistake of giving their Charter 08 a searchable term title. Any internet conversation where the Charter comes up, even if the contents are not copied, is sure to attract the Censor’s eye.

It might sound ridiculous at this point, but I am dead serious: The Charter 08 should be named Wang. Or Zhang or Liu, any other term that is not exclusively related to it and therefore cannot be banned. Two centuries ago, the first Spanish constitution of 1812 was nicknamed by the people “La Pepa”, a popular name for a girl that many intellectuals scorned at the time. Two years later, during the reign of autocrat Fernando VII, this name became extremely useful to dissidents to acclaim the Constitution without risk to their lifes, with the famous slogan “Viva la Pepa!!”

comment: it’s kind of cool to think of it as guerrilla warfare, how to conceal something by making it formless and undefinable, or making it non-exclusive and having multiple identities and unsearchable. By not giving something a definite name, the entity lives in multiple locations and exists more as a movement rather than an object. Think of how terrorists are hard to detect because they look like civilians and are not dressed in uniform. This kind of warfare is hard to fight because the enemy cannot be located. How do you strike an enemy that is dispersed in a sea of people without killing everyone else? The internet age has definitely created a different battle for the world today.

http://chinayouren.com/eng/2009/01/charter-08-why-it-should-be-called-wang/

Grass Mud Horse, a mythical creature from a comedy Youtube children’s song, has apparently spread like wildfire through China’s cyber space. The name in Chinese is a pun on a much ruder epithet involving intercourse with someone’s mother.

To Chinese intellectuals, the songs’ message is clearly subversive, a lesson that citizens can flout authority even as they appear to follow the rules. “Its underlying tone is: I know you do not allow me to say certain things. See, I am completely cooperative, right?” the Beijing Film Academy professor and social critic Cui Weiping wrote in her own blog. “I am singing a cute children’s song — I am a grass-mud horse! Even though it is heard by the entire world, you can’t say I’ve broken the law.”

It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet — a project on which the Chinese government already has expended untold riches, and written countless software algorithms to weed deviant thought from the world’s largest cyber-community.”

New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/world/asia/12beast.html?_r=2&hp

FormContent is a curatorial project space, initiated in 2007 by Francesco Pedraglio, Caterina Riva and Pieternel Vermoortel in London’s East End. Its mission is to create a space in which to experiment with ideas and exhibition formats, to foster an active collaboration between artists and curators while challenging their roles.

http://www.formcontent.org/ 

LAB Demo Reel from labatrockwell on Vimeo.

The Lab represents Rockwell Group’s mission of making. It is a mixing chamber of ideas encompassing digital interaction design, the material and image library, modeling and prototyping resources. The Lab provides a space for the 250 designers at Rockwell Group – who are also artists, sculptors, chefs, opera singers, architects, playwrights, and set designers – to collaborate to create a cross-disciplinary approach to design, and generate a cross-pollination of ideas. The ambition of Lab is to explore and promote understanding of the relationship between human interaction with technology, and its effect on experience. This activity includes: science and technology consultation, in house design and creation of interactive environments/objects, and maintaining networks of technology solution providers.

http://lab.rockwellgroup.com/

Handmade from CISMA on Vimeo.

Another illustration god at W+K Shanghai. The office is just filled with talented people. Oh, and he’s Singaporean.

http://www.imsolo.net/
http://www.momorobo.com/

http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/originalsss2009/content/#/lifestyle/lookbook

Lately I have become interested in artists for whom collecting is central to their process. Dealing with taxonomies and systems of classification, their work is, at least in part, a critique of the activities of museums and collecting institutions or individuals. Fundamentally, these artists are exploring notions of identity through quantitative assessment. Here, identity is expressed through an ontology—a system of objects, representing a particular and unique perspective. A collection seeks to establish a framework by which to formalize, structure and express its content. Through their work, these artists critique that framework at different levels—relating to individual identity, the role of the institution, or society at large.

It seems that the need to categorize is a basic human trait. We cannot not categorize. The ontologies we create define cultures, as the result of processes by which we shape our lives. Museums fundamentally aim to document culture, and the systems of classification created within the museum context reflect those present within society. Art involved in a critique of these systems is therefore fundamentally also a critique of society at large—a particular society, that is—aiming in an almost scientific way to objectify the outcomes of those processes that manifest themselves in certain predictable or less-predictable forms.

http://www.formfollowsbehavior.com/2008/06/25/collecting-as-art/

Richard Galpin’s complex art works are derived from the artist’s own photographs of chaotic cityscapes. Using only a scalpel Galpin intricately scores and peels away the emulsion from the surface of the photograph to produce a radical revision of the urban form. The artist allows himself no collaging, or additions of any kind - each delicate work is a unique piece made entirely by the erasure of photographic information.

The works enact a reimagining of the city, but their futuristic vision is predicated on the city as it is now, with the intricate details bearing traces of contemporary urban experience. Playing between abstraction and representation, the works draw their visual language from a variety of early 20th century movements such as Constructivism, and Vorticism…

http://www.richardgalpin.co.uk/
watch his process: http://www.richardgalpin.co.uk/video_large.php?image=hales_revisionary.jpg&title=Quicktime%20Video%20(119MB)

Founded by Belfast resident John Bielenberg six years ago, Project M has brought together young designers from different creative disciplines to create graphic instruments that investigate, explain and perhaps solve community problems through design.

The process developed by Bielenberg, taught in 2-to-4-week intensive laboratories, is known as Thinking Wrong. By following this unorthodox pathway to problem solving, using creative vision, inspiration, exploration and multiple processes, the collaborative efforts of the young designers lead them to new ways of making a difference in the world around them.

Examples of the impact Project M has had around the world including mounting a 48 Hour Global Video Blitz during the height of governmental collapse in Iceland (visit doblitz.com); launching Project 425, which provides a financial conduit of hope and clean water to Hale County, Ala.; rushing an “M-bulance” of supplies to graphic designers affected by Hurricane Katrina; pumping up micro-financing projects for the Woman’s Trust in Ghana; and seeding change of urban blight in East Baltimore parks through the “This Is Not Grass” book project.

Project M has developed a permanent lab site in Greensboro, Ala., but from March 8 to the 21st, Project M North will be based at Waterfall Arts Belfast. Bringing 13 enthusiastic designers together who are eager to Think Wrong, the project will pave the way for future endeavors that will impact Waterfall Arts, Belfast and the Midcoast.

Under the direction of Bielenberg and his advisors, the M’ers will live, eat and work together. Members of the extended community will be invited to communal dinners at Waterfall Arts to share their ideas and plans with the intent of propelling energy toward dynamic results.

Project M’s Web site, projectmlab.com, provides further insight into the range and depth of this initiative. More information on Project M’s schedule and products will be available at waterfallarts.org.

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/AandE/story.cfm?storyID=148586

The Armory Show, The International Fair of New Art
Pier 94
The Armory Show – Modern
Pier 92
Hudson River (Twelfth Avenue) at 55th Street, New York City

The Armory Show is expanding in size and scope to introduce The Armory Show – Modern, a new section dedicated to international dealers specializing in historically significant Modern and contemporary art.

flickr set

山寨 = shan1 zhai4 = literally “mountain stronghold” in reference to historical warlord holdouts that were outside of government control. A “shanzhai” edition product thus refers to products outside of government regulations that are widely reflected in the numerous fake and knockoff electronics/commodities made in China today. The term “shanzhai” can also refer to things that are improvised or home-made and are generally crude in both form and function (the closest English equivalent would be “ghetto”).

http://www.chinasmack.com/pictures/funny-and-clever-chinese-shanzhai-brands/ 

One of the illustration gods in W+K Shanghai. Be awed.
http://elephant77.com/

http://www.loveworn.com/ 

1980 is the beginning of China’s economic reforming and opening up. Leroy
W. Demery, Jr. , an 27 years old American, decided to cross the ocean and
check out the mystery east. His first stop is HongKong. During the time in
HK, the tour guide asked him if he’d like to spend an afternoon in a place
next to HK but across the sea. And he said “YES”. The place he went to is
Sheng Zhen, the first city to start reform and open up in China in 1979.

Leroy recorded the original ShenZheng in the last minute, before all these
got replaced by factories. He came to China again in 1983, visited a lot of
other cities and recorded all of them. I am kind of curious why this old
country pick this young man from the west to record how this land looks like
before everything totally changed, but I am really glad to get to see these
treasure images today. Not only me, same as a lot of people. Leroy start
to put these photos on flickr since Dec,2008 and attract tons of viewers.
Among these viewers, there is a curator of ShenZhen & HongKong architecture
biannual, and the result is these photos will be exhibited in the show.

Check them out now on Leroy W. Demery, Jr.’s flickr album.

http://flickr.com/photos/lwdemery/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gedawei/collections/ 

via Julia Liu of W+K Shanghai

All your blogs/social-network sites into one.
Check out an example at Madad’s updated blog:

http://www.howtoimplode.com/

Madad + friends! http://scty.org/