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Landscapes Unknown II

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

Kamran and I saw the documentary film Landscapes Unknown II, which was astounding in its portrayal of the artist’s vision. The filmmakers Melle van Essen and Riekje Ziengs were able to bridge the distance between the the viewer and the artist and, in a sense, give us new eyes to see with.

At one point, the artist Frans Walon who is completely obsessed with capturing the things that he sees says that we all secretly hope that after death we will continue to see. When I heard that, I realized that, of course, he is correct.

If you are in Amsterdam, you can see the film at the International Film Festival (IDFA) at these times:

Tuschinski 2, Thu 29 Nov. 12:30
Tuschinski 4, Fri 30 Nov. 19:00
Compagnie – Grote Zaal, Sun 02 Dec. 16:30

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I’m a Stumbling Fool

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

And an apology to all those folks who got emails from me… And a plea for better INFORMATION DESIGN.

Okay, I am a complete idiot. I hope some of the designers of Stumble Upon read this so that I can tell them how angry I am. I read something like: “add your contacts and see who else is on stumble upon.” SU showed me a page of people I knew. I clicked on “add” or something like that and it added every single contact in my address book.

Years and years of effort to avoid sending spam, automated emails, and other annoying crap down the drain. I’ve avoided opening viruses, avoided sending on chain letters, avoided joining endless annoying viral networks only to have all my credibility ruined by a misleading interface. Am I alone?

Where can I complain about the horrific information design?

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