Heading back from Big Brother Awards. Hans and his team at Bits of Freedom put on a good show. A few things of note: The lady from the primary education council using “game” as a metaphor to explain adaptive digital learning materials. The ridiculous faux cable response from the ministry of safety and justice to Opstelten winning an award, which I wish but don’t expect will backfire on them horrifically. Hans using the concept of “legibility” to shift the focus of the digital rights movement on to increased diversity. A high percentage of female speakers on stage. Snowden getting a standing ovation. It was a good night, if only to rally the troops.
Tag: freedom
Urban procedural rhetorics — transcript of my TWAB 2008 talk
This is a transcript of my presentation at The Web and Beyond 2008: Mobility in Amsterdam on 22 May. Since the majority of paying attendees were local I presented in Dutch. However, English appears to be the lingua franca of the internet, so here I offer a translation. I have uploaded the slides to SlideShare and hope to be able to share a video recording of the whole thing soon.
Update: I have uploaded a video of the presentation to Vimeo. Many thanks to Almar van der Krogt for recording this.
In 1966 a number of members of Provo took to the streets of Amsterdam carrying blank banners. Provo was a nonviolent anarchist movement. They primarily occupied themselves with provoking the authorities in a “ludic” manner. Nothing was written on their banners because the mayor of Amsterdam had banned the slogans “freedom of speech”, “democracy” and “right to demonstrate”. Regardless, the members were arrested by police, showing that the authorities did not respect their right to demonstrate.1
Good afternoon everyone, my name is Kars Alfrink, I’m a freelance interaction designer. Today I’d like to talk about play in public space. I believe that with the arrival of ubiquitous computing in the city new forms of play will be made possible. The technologies we shape will be used for play wether we want to or not. As William Gibson writes in Burning Chrome:
“…the street finds its own uses for things”
For example: Skateboarding as we now know it — with its emphasis on aerial acrobatics — started in empty pools like this one. That was done without permission, of course…
Only later half-pipes, ramps, verts (which by the way is derived from ‘vertical’) and skateparks arrived — areas where skateboarding is tolerated. Skateboarding would not be what it is today without those first few empty pools.2
Continue reading Urban procedural rhetorics — transcript of my TWAB 2008 talk
- The website of Gramschap contains a chronology of the Provo movement in Dutch. [↩]
- For a vivid account of the emergence of the vertical style of skateboarding see the documentary film Dogtown and Z‑Boys. [↩]