conversational drift, informatic license, NQPAOFUXIX: notes, quotes, provocations and other fair use

Anton Varganov breaking a brick  oldenglishherring                                                             disaffordance media

left to right: Anton Varganov breaking a brick; patterned concrete: 'oldenglishherring'; the Marki Project; disaffordance



The mark of launch-and-learn publishing: corrections are generally made within 36 hours. Reduction for print-out is 80%.





by Jouke Kleerebezem
NotesQuotesProvocationsAndOtherFairUse

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to go where no brick dare


October 26
You're the dot tenant for chrissake
...no longer the owner of your domain name, but its user... it's like your property is confiscated by mob rule... and you're not hung by the tallest tree in your garden, but tolerated as a tenant! (thank you, mob). This is bad news, coming via TBTF Keith Dawson's blog (thank you, >+ peterme). >+ TBTF is this great source for (at least to me) hard to get by information, on techno-political issues and much more. Great mix. Well organized site, search it by topic, etc. Some links errorize, on the newly installed 'Log', which will be overcome I'm sure. It published on >+ non-US domain name havens. Amazing to see the dots, not even stains, on the world map, gaining attention and capital on their top levels! Justice after all. A propos greed dot com, TBTF linked to >+ ICBTollfree/Judith Oppenheimer for >+ commentary.

the dining room is filled with the scent of the few quinces that we collected yesterday evening

we're suddenly hooked on Côte d'Or milk chocolate with pecan nuts


October 25
Tufte Exposed?
At the >+ Communication Research Institute of Australia founder David Sless delves into Edward R. Tufte's "19C museum curatorial" aesthetic and questions its information design relevance beyond splendid magical display, in a pars-pro-toto review of a single page (74) of >+ Visual Explanations. To my taste the review has a slightly pedantic <BGCOLOR>, rubbing in some obvious criticism rather than getting to the point. Follow Sless' graphs and try to find the agenda hidden up his sleeve. One appetizer, its conclusion:

- There is, of course, an important role in our life for the 19th century museum -- the place we go to to get out of the rain and quietly contemplate human ingenuity and craft. But we would be doing both the museum and the outside world a disservice if we believed that what 'works' well as an exhibit would also work well on the street outside.

'Evidence and Narrative'
(note in the context of the following item I happen to know that Edward Tufte's ideas on 'beyond the album' public displays of his collection and knowledge favor static museality, as encountered in the conception of an upcoming project in the Hague NL, at Stroom foundation, by its curators Maarten de Reus and Ronald van Tienhoven) (later)


infoArcadia (soon)

ourobouro : attention

1 : attention
Michael Goldhaber in Telepolis: >+ The Dream Life of Money

- Money will likely survive in coin collections, as a means for those on the far periphery of the attention economy to conduct transactions for material things, and as more or less meaningless numbers that occasionally crop up in the midst of the active transfer of attention, but as little more. By the time this period arrives, the stock market might have collapsed; alternatively, and just as easily it might have kept on rising, fictitious prices remaining suspended at some high level, as weightless as the ghosts they are already becoming.

Short Plea For 'Pause for a Cause' Complementary
DW2: >+ 'Day Without Weblogs', is an initiative of Bradlands:

- The people who create and maintain weblogs, newspages, journals and the like are an enormously talented, generous and spirited bunch. And, among the myriad of us, we reach an significant readership. Won't you join me, for a day at least, in continuing to educate that readership about the global AIDS crisis and how they can make a difference?

aids quilt

Such action makes sense. Yet I think 'days without' days are over, especially when in this case they underchallenge weblog force de frappe. More like with the quilt (1998 Washington above), the highly personal idiom of blogs should be addressed, in a 1 December rally. In sex and politics and other human affairs, as in weblogs, DW=DW, days without equals days wasted. What can we add to DW2? Some concentrated and synchronous attention could be performed at sympathetic blogs, to link to and/or comment upon aids related issues. Join 1 December DW2/WAR day: Weblogs Aids Rally.

(note this WAR's an example for general principle: rather than the witty copying of one another's links, I hold that weblog topical concentration would work for issues 'bigger than blog'. Also between weblogs I could imagine collaborative production, if only to benefit from weblog authors' widespread spacetime anchorage: who joins the weblog247.com (available) start-up, with 2-3 around the globe participating?)

one hundred moon, midnight colors, morning star, silver shadows at noon, golden forests at noon

October 24
Volume or Value?
Most of the recent discussion on how to use new media to enhance the expression of opinion and build leagues of trust, etc., boils down to one first principle decision: do we add volume or value?

Now volume is smart these days, which makes it all the more easy to handle, and even raw material for value added content. Rather than considering this a complication, we should accept it as a great gift. Now we do not have to fatigue ourselves processing volume, drowning in abundancy, let alone add to it. C'est toujours les autres qui augmentent le volume. Finally we can add value. The end of volume slavery is near. Reduce waste, GET ON WITH YOUR WORK.



- You know, it's taken me forty years to stop being young, and I'm happy about that... I, I can just get on with my work, and my work is to write songs... and to write...
(Nick Cave, from a VPRO documentary, 1998)

October 23
Incantations
Re: ± Paul's Spells, which originated on >+ Alamut.

1. discretion there's no published private opinion
E/Opinions backfire. They sponge as much of the object/person judged, as of the judge. Opinions on people tend to explode into flames (eg. the recent >+ PeterM vs. >+ DaveW scroll bar fight, temporarily polluting two otherwise read worthy sites and tempting others to join a petty 'discussion'). To allow yourself to publish an opinion on a private individual, you better be a damn good observer, you concentrate on issues rather than habits, and have a very good reputation: remember public opinion judges the judges.

2. talking back markets settle for second or third best
Brand kills the product and certainly the person. The difference between persons and products is nicely illustrated in the comparison I once heard made between zoos and museums: they both conserve collections, only the zoo's collection reproduces itself. Brand happens, but outside its spheres, persons talk back to markets, products don't (at least not as articulate ;-)

3. brand or niche who wants to be an artist?
A major brand is allowed less mistakes than a (its) product(s), and certainly than a person—let alone an artist: artists and their ilk (once) were born to make mistakes, amok and abuse. On the other hand brand loyalty is not as involving as a sexual relationship or revolutionary pact (yet). As far as artistry is concerned: if everyone decides that what everyone does makes everyone an artist, those who want to make mistakes will find a new niche.

4-5. beyond opinion opinions improve competition
I don't consider the 'secondary literature' or meta information explosion in opinion media much of a progress. Opinions on opinions on opinions ad infinitum is ebabble. The benchmark of issue based opinionated review is that it enhances competition. Any opinion that doesn't is wasted. Beyond competition is original content. Let's start by reducing waste.

Improving PeopleTM dates back a while. Public opinion sure wrought great wars everybody came out a better (wo)man. When was the last time someone's opinion changed one of your habits or viewpoints, for the better? See? It could work.

6. agency the private/public configuration
I am very thankful (I know Paul is too) for the number and amazing quality of private pizzazz that went public over the past years, on the web. Personal portals, weblogs, you nail it—is the sunny side of the media. They are the little shop keepers (buy Dave Hickey's Air Guitar tomorrow, kids) of innovation, by their inspiration, attachment to issues, modesty and foremost: connected intelligence. If not from this cottage industry, where from? So here's your new private individual, at her very own private.com (taken).

7. abundancy spare me your attention
Abundancy never grows critical mass. Attention in narrow publishing needs to be critical, for the preservation of quality, of information exchange. The public figure in her new private/public configuration is a token of information exchange between participants in her league of trust.

8-9. Capital change
Culture is our nature—opinions is small change, content is capital growth.

October 22
Starting where I left off this morning at 2:30am, I polished yesterday's ± ktd a bit. And was yet (while having had a preview) fort surprised by >+ Paul's 9 point 'spells', or incantations? I love it when things work this way, so I owe him myOpinion.

...and from the >+ How Gross Can We Get Dept comes the latest technofix... Wanna Smell My Leapfrog? If this really works count on my smellthisbook.com. (Now the only things that's lacking seems to be the digital smell recorder). Imagine downloading this scent and you get the 'your browser is running out of memory' error on a once in a lifetime experience—hey, wasn't smell all about memory in the first place? Who remembers tea and madeleines?

October 21
know, trust, deal
What are the dead simple hence hard to find components for any fulfilling (material, immaterial, physical) exchange: know, trust, deal. In a mutual interest relationship. What could be the complications?

Knowing people, who I trust and who trust me, so that we can deal with one another, provided me with the best of information, changed my life over and over again and accidentally filled me with love. Full KTD compliance is rare, I don't have to tell you (but it can be found anywhere, it is not exclusive to any kind of stratum or scale). Otherwise, I've found solid information with people that I knew, did not trust and did not have to deal with, because what I wanted to know was written all over their face. I've bought information from perfect strangers at prices that I couldn't compare, yet was prepared to pay. I leave information with people that I do not know, nevertheless trust, which makes the dealing a lot easier. All the time I accept information from people that I trust, since I got to know them through their consistent public performance, with which I am free to deal, or not. Then there's all the information pushed at me from people that I do not know, have no idea whether to trust or not, and do not deal with, apart from the split second in which they draw my attention. I could go on, there's endless variables of KTD factors and relations. Any action from either of these, or any combination, generates information.

There is only limits to the amount and quality of information that one can gather, because there's limits to the amount of people one can get to know, limits to the amount of people one learns to trust and n limits in the (market) conditions of dealing. When these limits are pushed to the extreme (at some events, on some websites, in some personal relations, in some markets), information infarcts might occur. The bottom line limit lies obviously in how much information one can process, in order to learn and reflect, and in order to provide information to others, to have some currency, to be productive. Merely pushing around information is a dog's life.

For years now I've been wanting to have Guido Morselli's notes Fede e critica translated into Dutch or English. Morselli's the author of Dissipatio HG, (Evaporation of Mankind), which was translated into Dutch (not into English, which is a shame). The Fede e critica content I expect to change my life, like Dissipatio HG once did. I know that Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno learned Danish to read Kierkegaard. I manage some Italian, but I am not prepared the sacrifice of improving it in order to be able to read the original F&C. Now how to liberate the information of F&C, which is hidden in its original Italian, for my private use? It is almost the same question as that I was confronted with when I read about the ± Female Principle conference. I know there's information that I want, how to get it out of where it is? I need to know someone to trust, that I can make a deal with.

So for the female principle I designed Charlie's Angels' over, says >+ Judith on October 21, in .elsewhere., third paragraph (who needs anchors anyway?). Here's a conference I am affected by, here's three women that I (only) know from their publications, whose erratic intuitions and lucid opinions I learned to trust: here's the opportunity to deal information for all involved—or not. Hence my proposal. We're dealing. I have little to offer in return as of yet. But the principle is out. Information sharing is information dealing, and information is a KTD product. It's poetry and art and music and architecture and other drugs like friendship and affection. Its anxiety and humor and despair and greed. It's nothing to worry about. So why is it not widely available? Not as widely as noise?

All we know is formats. We're the designer species. When opportunity knocks, we're prepared to rush to the door, 'come as we are'. Another travelling sales person begs for our attention. Design rules, so we start formatting. That's the default situation, witnessed in the everyday. KTD is like Y2K: believe it or not. It's the constant challenge of the everyday's improvement—information is not a threat of the industry, it's not fate. It is choice, design (...who am I trying to convince? I've made my point. Launch and learn).

"And what about Morselli?", I hear you ask. Not having sold a single manuscript to a publisher in all of his life, Guido Morselli committed suicide at the age of 61, soon after finishing Dissipatio HG. God bless him.

October 20
Quick, Blog, Follow that Content!
By not respecting anchors or the fact that URLs change in archiving, (also) weblogs cut themselves off from (even near) future relevance. Just linking to <anyblog.com> will get you to anyblog's /index.html, no matter which time of year or what kinda content... if content moves, your reader does not want to have to chase it. The superficial godotgo linking pattern is born from laziness or (false) modesty ('no one reads this blog day after tomorrow'). If you link to specific content, you look in the source for anchors, and mind changing archive URLs. Viceversa: if you want to enable linking to specific content, you use anchors in your own documents. It's that simple.

Next bumpersticker: I Blog for Eternity
Given time, weblogs will be like yesterday's papers, allowing limited search for old recipes, cartoons, and that kind of content. Some new content will be created for cut-and-paste album sites: yesterblogs.com is still available for the blog mining entrepreneur. Remember where you saw that URL first!

More Narrowscape
This morning I found last nights logs still smouldering in the library fireplace (which' shutter I had closed to see whether I could keep a fire alive all night), and I answered my prospective femme agents' replies to my ± Female Principle speculations. Early early today, in a long email to Francine, I explained (to her and to myself) how personal correpondence and narrow publishing merge in my recent 'production':

- Generally, I find that since some months, probably since i'm here in France, in my correspondencies I consider my personal mail in a way an addendum to my web journal (and the other way around). Coming to think of it I know that friends read it regularly and i anticipate them doing so in my writing, both in the journal and in the private emails and even phone calls. So... this means that when I mention NL in my mail to you, without further thinking about it i suppose you know what is going on -- at least as much as is published on my site.

The subtleties of private/public publishing are many though, and still very much a mystery to me too. Corresponding and publishing in my practice as an artist should be really close and intimate. I might even try to be as 'public' in a private relationship as possible, and to be as private (intimate) in a public relationship. This comes of course with some enigmatics, and stylistic codes, hidden messages and rhetoric.


October 19
Hack my conference
Tuning conference proceedings/reviews to narrow interest markets, by sending agents to cover and publish ultimately one-to-some, would be my idea of information brokerage. Being both interested in a conference's theme or topics, and acknowledging the importance of opinion, hack, voices outside the curriculums, I can imagine setting up a service to connect demand and supply, beyond the improved yellow papers of >+ epinions (who sell goods, not information: "we offer unbiased advice to help you make better buying decisions"), beyond >+ Information Markets Corp (who intend to sell information, but will probably venture into Ebay-style commodification of vital Q's), beyond >+ Infoscoot (whose expertise is yet to be seen and who do not venture off-line, where the real interesting mess is happening).

Reputation flees the blogs
What's wrong with some major personal portals out there? Their owners split off some of its valued information into epinionated institutionalization? I don't want to check epinions et al (we're only seeing the beginnings of this kind of agency) next to those weblogs where opinion and expertise find their appreciated daily expression—including 'what to read', or 'what to go see'. But I even find protrusive linking to Amazon a disgrace... largely underestimating a reader's preference of retail. They're only in it for the micro payments.

A Course is a Course, Off Course, Of Course
>+ The Disrespected Student, conversation with Roger Schank on Virtual U's:

- People are actually thinking about designing courses in a new way. They are not doing this because of the opportunity to redesign and rethink the concept of what a university can and should offer. They are designing courses in a new way because the new medium forces them to do so. Nevertheless, we suddenly have the opportunity to ask: What exactly should the offerings of a university be? What should a course be? Should there be courses at all? How can we make education better?

If you'll excuse my cross-dressing
For their annual DressFest, G.'s elder sister and 10 other Red Hot Mamas, as they would be targeted in current marketing speak, will be over this week-end. Meaning, 11 mothering aunts for R+r (but presents will make up for that...), 11 sisters in law for me %-) I guess I won't be the one who makes all the jokes.

October 18
Female Principle
Starting my day I was greeted by Spoon-Announcements with a CFP for this promising conference: >+ The Female Principle; Eclipses and Re-emergences, at the University of Texas at Arlington, March 30-April 1, 2000. If someone pays a fact finding mission I wanna go and report. OTOH, a more interesting possibility would be for me to pay Judith and Heather Anne and Puce to go there, and publish their respective findings on >+ calamondin and >+ lemonyellow and >+ puce.com. They would be the connoisseuses, but they're busy like the rest of us (I think there's business to be made of narrow interest conference reporting). Meanwhile, in my country, Julia Kristeva has just delivered the first volume of a trilogy, on le génie féminin, on Hannah Arendt—Melanie Klein and Colette will follow. Kristeva in Lire, June 1999:

- L'action spécifique des femmes au sein de la vie politique permettrait, si elle se réalisait, de revaloriser la partie cachée de notre expérience psychique, celle-là précisément qui contribue à éviter la "pensée-calcul" au profit d'une "vie de l'esprit".

Fact finding
Fact finding allowed Paul and myself to go to the first Bionomics conference in SF back in 1993. Triple P paid for that trip. The bricked down pencil illustration in this NQPAOFU's head ('disaffordance') we found in Mark Miller's (et al) enlightening Open Society and its Media, which was distributed at the conference. Bionomics 1 had a great line-up, among it: Federico Faggin, Gilbert Amelio, George Gilder, Mark Miller, Brian Arthur, Tom Ray. The first Doors of Perception, also 1993, introduced Toshio Iwai, Derrick de Kerckhove, David Liddle, Louis Rossetto, Dave Warner. These two conferences right after one other were of great impact.

Nursery
Today I set up a small (80sqft) nursery for those plants that don't wanna stay in the garden, yet would choke in the house. It is covered but has no windows, but gates. I wonder if I should shield off with plastic.

October 17
We visited the restaurant for lunch, having been invited by its owner Bernadette. A drunk regular who just left invited me to work in his soon to open garage. It's always hard to be straight to a drunk, but I realized just in time I'm not that desperate for change. After lunch we said hello next door, to the former owners of our moulin, whom we brought two of the last pink roses from the garden. Later that evening when I picked up the car at the restaurant, Bernadette handed me the remains of the meal. Already we had their bag of young ink mushrooms in the car (yes, they're edible, kids, and considered one of our many autumn time road side delicatesses. Beware not to consume any alcohol with'm though).

October 16
Returning from the Clamecy biological market and Auchan grande surface, I tried to chase (driver, follow that gaggle!) >+ a large gaggle of wild geese, growing to several hundred birds from many smaller threads, assembling from all directions to move south. Following their general course we raced the hills to get near, finally loosing them in the mist over Varzy, still hearing their gaggle, indeed, long after they had disappeared out of sight.

Half way yesterday evening I got the hang of NQP again. Today I hope to add where I left off this morning at 1:49hrs. As above, so ± below.

October 15
Finest Hour
This morning (I thought) I had:

- Enough coffee and hot milk for the next couple of hours, the piano intro to The Jayhawks' The Man Who Loved Life, Phalaenopsis looking as fresh an orchid as if she's survived the trip, out there the lands damp and grey: this is my fucking finest hour. Returned home, returned on-line, returned to NQPAOFU.

...but soon fine fell flat. Yep, I know, anything started with such happy anticipation is bound etc. Instead today was restarting. Taking a long and too hot bath then brood on the porch in the late sun. Go outside, open the lock to flush branches and leaves. Go inside, check mail, send mail—not even. Check the attic for work waiting. Find insect colonies on two of the lower bedrooms. Open the windows to let them out. Where's the habit gone? No milk today? I restlessly cruised the house as if this was my first day here. Later the other neighbours passed by, after Gil had told him we had discussed that they could house their horse in our stable for the winter. They're a young(er) couple with two kids, Jimmy soon to turn three, and the girl, about Rolf's age. The horse is named Coco. We can ride it too. It is sort of a medium sized dark brown animal, great for R (who has been begging for a horse) +r to learn how to ride. Slowly I was making it back. I never rode a horse myself but I've wanted to since a long time.



Repaving the beach
>+ Hypertext Webster Gateway: "brick"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Brick \Brick\, n. [OE. brik, F. brique; of Ger. origin; cf. AS. brice a breaking, fragment, Prov. E. brique piece, brique de pain, equiv. to AS. hl[=a]fes brice, fr. the root of E. break. See {Break}.] 1. A block or clay tempered with water, sand, etc., molded into a regular form, usually rectangular, and sun-dried, or burnt in a kiln, or in a heap or stack called a clamp.

The Assyrians appear to have made much less use of bricks baked in the furnace than the Babylonians. --Layard.

2. Bricks, collectively, as designating that kind of material; as, a load of brick; a thousand of brick.

Some of Palladio's finest examples are of brick. --Weale.

3. Any oblong rectangular mass; as, a brick of maple sugar; a penny brick (of bread).

4. A good fellow; a merry person; as, you 're a brick. [Slang] ``He 's a dear little brick.'' --Thackeray.

{To have a brick in one's hat}, to be drunk. [Slang]

Note: Brick is used adjectively or in combination; as, brick wall; brick clay; brick color; brick red.

{Brick clay}, clay suitable for, or used in making, bricks.

{Brick dust}, dust of pounded or broken bricks.

{Brick earth}, clay or earth suitable for, or used in making, bricks.

{Brick loaf}, a loaf of bread somewhat resembling a brick in shape.

{Brick nogging} (Arch.), rough brickwork used to fill in the spaces between the uprights of a wooden partition; brick filling.

{Brick tea}, tea leaves and young shoots, or refuse tea, steamed or mixed with fat, etc., and pressed into the form of bricks. It is used in Northern and Central Asia. --S. W. Williams.

{Brick trimmer} (Arch.), a brick arch under a hearth, usually within the thickness of a wooden floor, to guard against accidents by fire.

{Brick trowel}. See {Trowel}.

{Brick works}, a place where bricks are made.

{Bath brick}. See under {Bath}, a city.

{Pressed brick}, bricks which, before burning, have been subjected to pressure, to free them from the imperfections of shape and texture which are common in molded bricks.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Brick \Brick\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bricked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Bricking}.] 1. To lay or pave with bricks; to surround, line, or construct with bricks.

2. To imitate or counterfeit a brick wall on, as by smearing plaster with red ocher, making the joints with an edge tool, and pointing them.

{To brick up}, to fill up, inclose, or line, with brick.

From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)

brick adj : paved with brick; "follow the yellow brick road" n 1: rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln; used as a building or paving material 2: a good fellow; helpful and trustworthy


The Brick is a hefty theme.

October 6-14
Serving previous lives
Precious days were wasted in NL on my previous life's bureaucratic and economic mess (finding a new passport, dealing with hungry taxes and incompetent real estate agents, and cleaning an apartment bearing all the greasy traces of a stowaway tenant from hell, flown in from Helsinki via Tokyo, receiving large amounts of anonymous cash from Florida, while in queue for NL asylum). Upsetting G. with my mood swings and ambivalence regarding Amsterdam and our cubicle pied-à-terre... Although it had its moments, this hasn't exactly been a fab week. Lessons learned appear here over the days following October 15.

First however, I have to concentrate on local matters: the house suffered our absence, as I can tell by its temperatures and scents (no two spaces are alike in this place). I feel like I missed the passage from late summer to fall. Now I have to find out how to rearrange things and re:inhabit spaces in order to allow for new flows, deciding where and how (central, wood, electrical) to heat and where not, which doors and shutters to keep open, which closed, etc. This big old place is part of our metabolism—or we are part of its, which distinction depends on your anthropocentrism hang.

Coincidentally one of The Amsterdam Lessons bears upon the distinction between two kinds of wealth: one of enjoying the subtlest differences, one of the one-stop-take-away-all-the-world's-variety sort of kind.

Diversity versus variety
The goat cheese from down the road Le Mazot farm is basically one variety of crottin, while no two cheeses taste the same. Each cheese is a unique experience, if you like. Here is no variety, it is any cheese you like as long as it is goat crottin, its diversity is to be savoured. It's the opposite of global control, global distribution, global mediation. It is local wealth, local distribution, local difference. Some bites taste best near where they are produced, or: in their own setting, in their own aggregate of tastes and smells and visual context. Kretek cigarettes I only supported when in Indonesia, while Nasi Padang, in Padang, cannot be compared to the same dish anywhere else. So when I smoked my kreteks after dinner in Padang, peering into the dark green night, this couldn't get any better, elsewhere, another time. Again, variety ('choice') was limited, but its rich diversity ('experience') to be left unequalled.

Paul rightfully observed on >+ Alamut that my family also drove up to A. to 'stock up on tools and supplies', to visit doctor, dentist and accountant, and to tap old media abundancy I should add, bringing the latest issues of Nest (206 4 hole pierced pp) and Fast Company (420pp) and Wallpaper (394pp) and Interni (192+118pp) and even Wired (308pp) once more (for G. this time: October's bag report). So that we know with what kind of bricks the dark side of the moon you are paving. And I love the eclecticism of its strategic highways, even when these do not provide for the smoothest rides.

Connoisseurship
Yet over dinner we discussed connoisseurship: myopic attention, Des Esseintes-like attention, wild taste. We're wired, and brick boys. Materialists. Aestheticists. I know what he is talking about when he ponders a return to Art. It's a return to a different talent, to fortes and to the system which rewards them. Why hesitate? I could even return to typography, the printed matter. Recently I spoke to a Dutch designer who discovered print, after several years of website design: he was delighted, with such resolution, color, distribution, portability... I realized that while my generation came from print to screen, old to new, some out there travel in the other direction. I'd be interested to see their books, posters, flyers in some years.

Local knowledge
Having moved to a different country's countryside you are confronted with a striking lack of knowledge, more than your natural expertise will help you out. Just the other day we marvelled at the mushrooms in the woods, wondering about their gastronomic qualities. Who knows what delicacies we were looking at, and what hallucinatory possibility spaces would open at the taste of some of these purple, or the orange, or the tiny milky, almost transparent? Later the brocanteur husband of Madagascan Bernadette, who runs the nearest chambre d'hôtes cum restaurant, gave us a bag of young ink mushrooms for supper. They had invited us for lunch. 'When you're adopted, you're adopted', Bernadette told us last summer when we first visited the moulin. Adding: Ce ne sont pas les conseillers qui payent. Advisors don't pay (...the house you are considering to buy—which news we yet had to break with family and friends, back in NL).

Be where you are
Another Amsterdam Lesson is to be where you are. It's not that simple... when I mailed Francine from Joke's account she replied that location doesn't matter no more when you can send and receive at any. Yet my over-scheduled days in NL proved the opposite to be true. I was clicking through instead of sitting in. Which was even inappropriate at the dentist.

>+ alamut
bastion of peace and information

>+ idie.net
I DIE for change: design competence
± 19991026
± dotbloodyproblems
± 19991025
± upthesleeve
± 0attention
± 1attention
± neverstop
± 19991024
± volumeorvalue
± 19991023
± incantations
± 19991022
± 19991021
± ktd
± 19991020
± followthatcontent
± bumpersticker
± narrowscape
± 19991019
± beyondcustomization
± reputationdrain
± coursing
± crossdressing
± 19991018
± femprinciple
± factfinding
± nursery
± 19991017
± 19991016
± 19991015
± finesthour
± cultureisournature
± 1999100614
± whatwentbefore
± richdiversity
± connoisseurship
± localknowledge
± bethere


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