Week 56 - 27 February 2023

• Reading Brian Enos Diary. He keeps talking about big juicy ass, and how he's obsessed with enlarging ass on photoshop. At one point he compares it to alcoholism, such is his addiction to enlarging ass. Not what i'd expected but as someone said - reassuring that someone like him can be an idiot too. It'll be a while before the word 'photoshop' doesn't conjure images of Brian photoshopping someone's ass.
• Listened to a podcast where they made the point that when taking two things to determine their similarity, there are an infinite number of qualities to compare against - making the point that determining similarity is an intuitive, human process, rather than anything that can ever be a hard science.
• Went back to the Morandi show. Got the catalogue. Really beautiful show. Morandi somehow made these paintings that seem totally aware of their flatness that also deal with the weight of objects and the scene being painted.
• Had an interesting chat with a tutor at UAL. Not from my course - but they pointed at the Designer Maker students and referred to them as 'the past' and then said that people on my course are 'the future'...I'm very suspicious of the detachment of design from real things (ie: service / system design without considering artefacts or how said system manifests) and one of the most important things designers can do is connect people with the world around them - a world that is material. Also, a designer that doesn't think of the material used in their work exacerbates the climate crisis by abstracting away externalities (maybe this is just what Design is?). Anyway I thought it was a pretty dumb thing for a fairly senior tutor to say.
• I made a TV cabinet out of offcuts of plywood from Louis. I'm fairly happy with it - but would do lots of things differently. Mostly to do with its proportions. Just ordered some tiny LED spotlights that I'm keen to turn into a lamp to go in the fireplace.
• I've tried two new reading apps recently - artefact (great name and branding - from Instagram cofounders) and FT edit - from the FT, offering 8 curated stories a day. To date enjoying FT edit a lot more. Artefact still feels like it feeds you clickbait, despite it being aware of your interests. Maybe it'll get better with time as promised - but at the moment I find myself clicking on clickbaity articles and being disappointed but I'm not sure the algo will pick up on my disappointment. Still prefer the curated.

Last update: 2023-02-27 20:10