this is old, but i find it hilarious.

[transcribed from handwritten notes:]

LV wrapping as a brand. Muakami stands in front but with the background behind still clear and strong.

Branding as a form of pretending; style manuals, actual branding, how it creates mythologies; apple and macdonalds [sic] (Carter)

How do you avoid nostalgia? where are the new forms (Sebastian)

Pretending vs. Lying

nostalgia and naievete can be used critically vs too cute and becoming kitsch;
walking the line (MR)

Boggs - drawing of currency, not just pretend but exchange produced by it
how do you inest the pretend thing with the power of the real
clearly pretend but not invested in the real
fake LV has all the currency of the the real
look beyond itself object into its exchange value (MR)

museum of jurassic technology - uncertainty IS the product
exchage value: aspect of maker producing something that references real
but is a unique thing in the world, so there is a triangle of
PRADA - TOM SACHS - ARTWORK
(MR)

Stories of my son are populated by different characters from different stories, recombined; creating mythologies out of fragments of other mythologies (MR)

Paul McCarthy: Santa’s elves riding blood / violence of film and TV;
thing itself wavers in space …its two space materials (?) (MR)

When we borrow we see how much they bring with them vs. what they lose
1st and 2nd dislocations - return and lose aspects of their original mythologies
in that way, is the pastiche elemet - dislodging them from sources and recombining them (MR)

“we want to look coool” brands,
it becomes a game of convolutions–I’m gonna do the opposite of what you think,
then I’m gonna do the opposite….
Isn’t it weird that Eric is doing the opposite of expectations, you’re a player in terms of expectations, playing with childlike and naive, i’m open to world vs. criticality (?) (MR)

Critical, Otherwise its too saccharine. (MR)

Sitcoms build back story; fit together back story (Carter)

The book you made really engages because it tapped into several systems at the same time (Sebastian)

combining characters japanese idea as the character

huige + philip - bought japanese character
also at carpenter center, marionettes that debate modernism architecture etc [?]
(MR)

One gesture that creates alternate realities
sound design class example (Julie)

Stamping over existing thing
Stencil over existing thing
an large quantity of a particular item available for less than or around the cost to produce
a missing crucial part
form negating function (square wheels)
test patterns for tv monitors, photocopiers, computer monitors, projectors

• it is impossible to show vertical images as large as horizontal images with the current ratios of digital projectors and screens. Do you show them at different proportions or shrink large images? This is not a problem with slides since you can rotate the slide.
• leaky faucet
• error pages on the web
• moire patterns
• discarded items
• items rendered useless through replacement (but still function) (could include old software too)
• dead web pages
• deserted/abandoned architectural spaces
• printing and production errors
• stains on materials

Time is an important part of my thesis. For there to be failure, there must be an effort at success and a resultant that is deemed unsuccessful. This requires a certain amount of time.

Asking for help.

Knowing what works and why. There is usually not just one solution, but a range. One example is step height. Steps can be a range of heights, but there is a range that will work for the range of motion of people (and, of course for the space that needs to be spanned). Anything beyond the comfortable range will discourage people from using it. If that is the purpose, then it is a success.

Letting go of control. There are so many things out of one’s control. This must be dealt with and in fact embraced as the route to new possibilities.

Nothing is perfectly successful. The Mini capitalized on the fact that larger cars-while perceived to be safer-use a lot more gas, and in that way fail in the current system of rising gas prices.

Reinvention. As a graduate student, this is something very relevant to me at this moment. We have a three-year program in addition to the two-year MFA specifically for people who want to reinvent themselves as designers. And, the two-year program is filled with people who want to take their design to a different place that it could not go while practicing in the “real world.” Prince has been a very successful example of this when he changed his name from Prince to a symbol (or a logo-what’s the difference? That is a study for later.) Without really doing anything but a rebranding, he became a completely new thing (this is a bad description-working on it…).

Retrofitting/adaptive reuse/repurposing. How can something that did not work as X work as Y? Film outtakes are an example of this-did not work in the larger scheme of the film, but work on their own as mini-film (some work better than others-and anything works better than showing the actors continually just laughing in one scene).

Authenticity. This one seems to work both ways. If you are inauthentic, you can fail because you not are representing the subject in its true form. But, on the other hand, if you are authentic, you run the risk of being rejected for what you are actually communicating. Politics seems to play this game a lot. The politicians know that if they represent something in its true form, it will be rejected, so they are in authentic to sell their idea.

What is the best forum for failure-on the computer or off?

Need to combine things that do not seem to go together to see what results.

Mechanical (analog) things have limitations that can be seen and understood as a physical thing. Digital things are maybe too complex to comprehend so need to set limitations. When you can manipulate an image to represent almost anything in Photoshop, why would/how does one make choices about how to manipulate images.

Rules make the game interesting. This is the difference between a beautiful soccer game and a bunch of people chasing a ball around in an open space. The limitations should not be randomly thrown onto content, but should stem from the content itself.

History. It influences everything I produce.

In some types of humor, things are funny because there is a failure of sorts. Slipping on a banana peel, getting a pie in the face, etc. An object that produces a result outside of its intended use can be funny even if it causes physical harm or embarassment to a person.

Moving beyond failure itself. It seems is always going to be negative. In my reading, I found a place where a certain field of scientist (I cannot remember which one) created a place where they could publish their failures online with the idea that the collective could advance faster and in the end have less failure, however, it appeared not many people have published anything there. Since this is supposed to be a generative process, I need something that will give me a finished product. It is the nature of my field.

So, I guess I want to ask the question, “How did this thing that failed work for something else?”

In posing the question like this, I am hoping to avoid a binary situation of failure or success-and tend more towards a situation where failure can be success and success a failure.

Lost Book Found - Jem Cohen
The Uses of Failure by Robin Kinross
Bruce Nauman

Rob’s options are as follows:
gdblog1.com (which I already own)
16designers.com

Sound is closely linked to failure. More than any other time, it seems, you are “alerted” with a sound when an error occurs. On the computer, there is no sound when you hit the “right” key, click on the right word or object, or you computer is functioning properly. Obviously, this is because the machine needs to communicate that the thing you are trying to do is not really allowed at that moment or in that space. That is the basis for errors, otherwise it would not be a error.

But, why sound?

Need to think about how sound will function in my presentation. Generally, sound is a big issue during presentations. It is either too loud, too quiet, too bass heavy, too much feedback, etc. These usually have a negative effect on the overall presentation, but I wonder how these problems can be used. Maybe to emphasize certain words. Maybe to distract from the parts that are less considered than other parts.

Some sources of sound relating to failure or sound produced by a failure:
Failure to stay in your lane produces a hum
Wrong answer on a game show is a buzzer
Tar filling cracks in asphalt make a whishing sound when you drive on them

Sound Files I found online:
Slow spindle motor
Head Stuck to Platter-phaser noise
Ships hull cracking and filling with water
Heart malfunction
Head damage to a computer