Archive for October, 2006

Tesco depravity

Sunday, October 29th, 2006

A simple library error has rocketed Tesco to the top of the Corrupters Of The Nation’s Children league. In short, they classified an adult pole-dancing kit under “Games” on their site – meaning that it would appear under certain searches for toys. This despicable crime was picked up by, who else, the Daily Mail. Predictably, comedy gold ensues. Yes folks, we have the grim-faced family pic, we have the obligatory “I’m no prude, but…” quote, and we also have this absolute gem:

Dr Adrian Rogers, of family campaigning group Family Focus said yesterday that the kit would “destroy children’s lives”.

Fantastic.

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Capoeira

Wednesday, October 25th, 2006

Me + capoeira.
Think about it.
Picture it in your mind. Get a good visual image.
Imagine me at a capoeira event.
Now imagine me, Cennydd Bowles, doing capoeira.

Now imagine me waterskiing.
Imagine me waterskiing, being chased by sharks.
Imagine me waterskiing over a rivine, being chased by sharks.
Malfunctioning robot sharks with bombs in their mouths.

Which is more likely?

(PS. I got invited to a capoeira “event”.)

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Time wasting

Friday, October 20th, 2006

All this talk of how the internet is revolutionising mankind gets a bit much sometimes. So recently I’ve been:

- playing with Line Rider
- finding out celebrity bra sizes
- doing cube roots of 9 digit numbers in my head
- looking at the largest insect in the world
- admiring the Suspicious Looking Device.

It’s a pleasant respite from hearing about YouTube, at least.

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International weekend

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006

Reuters, 11 October 2006

In a landmark legal case, a 7 year old Aberystwyth boy won his challenge to a court ruling over his custody.

The boy, with a history of being beaten by his parents was originally told he could stay with his sole surviving Grandfather in keeping with child custody law and regulations but shocked officials discovered, under Social Services disclosure, that he also beat him. A further judgment that an Aunt would care of him was declined after a further disclosure of beating as well.

After considering the remainder of the immediate family had domestic violence cases and it was a way of life amongst them, the judge took the unprecedented step of agreeing to allow the child to propose who should have custody of him.

After two recesses to check legal references and confer with child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to John Toshack and the Welsh National Football Team, the judge agreeing they are not capable of beating anyone at present.

Honk. Bring back the club season already!

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Ekphrasis

Tuesday, October 10th, 2006

I wrote something for National Poetry Day last Thursday, based on the idea of “ekphrasis”, as covered by Amy Newman. Some Google detective work will help you find the original inspiration.

Love Lasts Forever

This cruel negative
Is the taxidermist’s brutal revenge:
Your bones
Offering symbiosis in death
To refute our plain mortality.

Rendered inside out but
   (so as not to cause offence)
Cut clean over the last three years,
Your fossil jaw
Mimicking the strata,
the slow subsidence
And the pain of final freedom.

Not true! our artist friend retorts.
Let the spotlight illuminate the palms before your feet
As by your sacrifice we exonerate the sins
Of destruction, the wheeling bluster of life.

Either way, I blink with the wry humour
I recognise so often in these scenes.
Animal empathy reduced to the thrall of creation.

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Understanding comics

Monday, October 2nd, 2006

I don’t like the word seminal. Besides its dual meaning, it’s a lazy, overused shorthand. But I would grudgingly apply it to Scott McCloud’s ‘Understanding Comics‘, which I’m currently reading after many months on my ought-to list.

It’s as excellent as I’d heard, with some fascinating concepts on abstraction, graphical representation of time and motion, and icon design. Most impressive is a chapter on ‘The Six Steps’. The creation of any work in any medium will always follow a certain path: a path consisting of six steps:

1. Idea/purpose – the impulses, the ideas, the emotions, the philosophies, the purposes of the work. The work’s content.
2. Form – the form it will take. Will it be a book? A chalk drawing? A chair? A song? A sculpture? A pot holder? A comic book?
3. Idiom – the “school” of art, the vocabulary of styles or gestures or subject matter, the genre that the work belongs to. Maybe a genre of its own?
4. Structure – putting it all together. What to include, what to leave out – how to arrange, how to compose the work.
5. Craft – constructing the work, applying skills, practical knowledge, invention, problem-solving, getting the “job” done.
6. Surface – production values, finishing – the aspects most apparent on first superficial exposure to the work.

My first thought was just how close this was to Jesse James Garret’s marvellous ‘The Elements of User Experience‘ diagram. There are clear parallels – particularly the importance of strategy and choosing the appropriate medium, rather than jumping straight in to the visual layer. Ready, aim, fire.

McCloud talks too about how most newcomers start at point 6, then gradually realise the value of starting earlier through the process as their expertise grows. It’s the same issue that prevents information architecture being appreciated more widely: the “I can do that” syndrome, by which any untrained observer thinks that by merely replicating point 6 they can create a work of art. Hacked copies of Dreamweaver and Photoshop do not a designer make.

It’s great to see these issues talked about outside of the contexts I’m familiar with, and I’d love to learn more. Sadly I can’t make the day Scott’s presenting at NN/g’s User Experience Week 2006 (although I am going to the previous three), but I really hope he makes it to Page 45 later in the year as promised.

While I’m on the topic, this is King Cat by John Porcellino. I was introduced to King Cat by a friend, who in turn was introduced by a friend, and so on. I try to continue the chain where I can. It’s probably the one title that got me over the comics-are-just-superheroes-and-fantasy hurdle, so I’m immensely grateful to it. The stories he tells are genuinely contemplative and sensitive, his drawing sparse yet lively – as much about space and omission of detail as what it portrays. Oh, and his animals are superb: Picasso dogs with jaws at obtuse angles, crayfish with pliable legs and squirming bodies.

To read King Cat is, for me, to be touched by a brief glimpse of the beauty of the world – which I something I think very few other media could achieve.

Categories: comics, mccloud, graphics, kingcat, porcellino, visualisation

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