The100: Qual informed art, measuring magic and Gangman cam

Qual informed Art

Playwright Alecky Blythe spoke at our recent UK event on communication. Alecky uses recorded conversations to build her scripts and make them more engaging.

And Alecky isn’t alone. For those of you who remember the band Underworld (Born Slippy? From Trainspotting?), you might be surprised to hear Karl Hyde used a similar technique to inspire his lyrics. (h/t Elliot Connolly from the parish of Gasp and Call to Action.)

“Not only were his mellifluous and engaging lyrical musings inspired by overheard conversations, but they were actually transplanted from the urban environment they sought to evoke. After listening to conversations on public transport for a few months and jotting ideas down, Hyde employed Burroughs’ cut-up technique to rearrange snippets and motifs into pleasing streams of consciousness.” 

There’s definitely a consumer closeness tool in there somewere… Stakeholders could listen to recordings of consumers and repeat back to each other what’s being said. Now that would be engaging. Any takers to try this with me?

The ‘Friday afternoon, feet up, cuppa in hand’ section

Now for 2x long presentations and 1x 30m film… Who says I don’t treat you?

Ben Evans’ annual deck on macro and strategic trends in the tech industry is always a masterpiece. Coffee eruptions likely.

And Mary Meeker’s annual trends report does it again. Just the 340 slides. Ahem. Ross Dawson has written a summary for those who haven’t got 340 clicks in them.

And here’s how advertising really works. Measuring the Magic, a 30 min film from System1. Good stuff. 

“I am a cat person now”

When it comes to understanding people, there is still a general tendency to ask folk about themselves. But, as Julie Beck explains, we don’t really know ourselves at all. And that’s just fine: 

“The dream of perfect self-knowledge is unattainable, and chasing it too doggedly can leave you more confused and stuck than when you started. Humans’ ability to see themselves clearly and accurately has limitations that neither personality quizzes nor Fitbit data can overcome. “We should never think that we know ourselves very well,” Simine Vazire, a University of Melbourne psychology professor who has studied self-knowledge, told me. “Anyone who thinks they do—by definition, they lack self-knowledge, because they’re wrong about that, at least.”

Be rebellious: Daydream

This is a superb piece from Christine Rosen on the death of daydreaming. The smartphone has triumphed over boredom, with many unintended consequences.

‘We are more likely to experience waiting as an unpleasant delay rather than as anticipation. Waiting has become a problem to be solved, rather than a normal human experience. When we are accustomed to easily filling time, opportunities for anticipation, like opportunities for daydreaming, disappear’.

And finally…

How to pronounce every single Premier League footballers name. Gold. 

What if GenXers are actually the cool ones? Well, I couldn’t possibly comment. 

Behold! EarthCam. Live feeds from across the globe. Favourites so far include Dublin Pub Cam (it even has sound), the Abbey Road crossing (highly amusing watching people recreate the album cover) and Gangman, South Korea (always something going on). My apologies for the next 10 minutes that you’re about to lose. (h/t Scrapbook Chronicles.)

And quote of the week goes to one that popped up on LinkedIn this week and it’s from the great Yogi Berra – ‘You can observe a lot by watching’. Yes, you can.