socially yours

Cordially yours? Nah. Socially yours!


According to maestro Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook: it's not about being connected, but "what you are going to do once being connected" This means even MORE apps. Personally I think the market will increase to be flooded with apps that there will be a point where we will be "apped" out. This moment will come sooner rather then later. But that's a story for another day. For now we are all still playing.

Google+ has swept the geek world by storm. As Robert Scoble says: "How popular is Google+? Well, in less than a week I will have more followers here than I have on Facebook despite being on Facebook for more than three years."
Or: as another Google+ user tells it (Oliver Reichenstein): "User Interface Design standards have reached the level of graphic design, industry design and architecture, a level, where only user interface design professionals can discern outstanding work (Google+) from good work (Twitter) and average work (facebook)."


We are social animals. No matter how we live: exchange of thoughts and feelings is always going to be paramount. So what is going to be next? Does it matter? Well: does it matter to you?


And that is exactly it: instead of looking upon other people to provide answers as we generally tend to do: I think we will come to understand more and more that we are our own authority. As Hugh Macleod so aptly says:

I translate that to: you need to decide for yourself. At all times. CHOICE is what always matters. In everything.


You're never are going to have as much fun as the moment you know and decide that your life is. your. own. Whether you do something brilliant, stupid or whackadoodle: it's yours! How cool is that! So if you don't enjoy your life as much as you think you should: it's solely your responsibility to do something about it. Ha! Now you can't blame anyone for anything anymore. Liberating isn't it? 

Cartoons all by Gapingvoid.com

performance art

I am increasingly interested in performance art and art that simply blends multiple categories. Nowadays I think it's safe to say that;

• Art is no longer created specifically to be hung on a wall (naturally we have seen different spaces utilized to showcase Art for a while).
• The distinction of disciplines is continuing to diminish even further.
• What Art will continue to be is Expression, whatever way you look at it.

Via MoochMagazine I found Daniel: http://www.danielarsham.com/

From the Moochers: "Daniel Arsham is new type of artist, his work brings together multiple

mediums which include performance, dance, architecture and art. His forms are pure, linear, elegant and, curiously, three-dimensional. Arsham uses illusions to make his masterpieces feel magically alive. Born in 1980 in Cleveland Ohio, USA. Daniel lives and works in New York and Miami."


Other works Daniel has made or worked on in collaboration:

That Daniel is one clever talented cookie also shows in his commercial work. He set up Snarkitecture with Alex Mustonen: 

Snarkitecture is a collaborative practice operating in territories between the disciplines of art and architecture. Working within existing spaces or in collaboration with other artists and designers, the practice focuses on the investigation of structure, material and program and how these elements can be manipulated to serve new and imaginative purposes. Searching for sites within architecture with the possibility for confusion or misuse, Snarkitecture aims to make architecture perform the unexpected.

Snarkitecture was established by Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham and is represented by Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

to grok

Yes it's a word. Used by Steve Jobs no less too. (There's an endorsement statement for you: go grok y'all.) "To grok is to share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity“. (Wikipaedia)


I digg this completely and utterly. I was reading the Huff today regarding the TEFAF international art and object fair and looking at pictures of some of the work exhibited. Fascinating. Naturally artists have been inter-relating for as long as we can remember. Surely the Neanderthals must have had some grokking skills at perhaps a more basic level. So what is it with this communication that bounces to and fro and then voila! An object comes to life. It's puzzling. Where does it all start and does it really mean something? (Of course for Steve it worked out well.) I loved this post about the internal hobnobbing in Maastricht: here.


Now I grok on various levels. I think it's a beneficial activity and is hard to be avoided unless one wishes to be a hermit. Joi and have been working hard to get our Mooodlies on the road. The first collection "The Teaparty" has been finished but not released yet! The excitement builds. We are working like little squirrels on the second collection now that is in its final stages: #SOLD. (Which reminds me I will send Joi a sample of the kinky backing material.)


Mooodlies is all about grokking, actually it all revolves around: the interaction. Nothing else is relevant. Joi made me realize this again the other day when we were emailing to and fro about how we are going to approach the launch exhibition. Also I have started reading the excellent The Thank you Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk. Same deal: listen, love them or go home.


So there you have it: a part of the new age is to be able to communicate so well, that you can crawl in someone's skin, know what they are thinking know what they are feeling and love them in such a way that you are willing to have them in your life and talk to them on a regular basis. In our case: remember to have a laugh and interact wherever there is a Mooodlie near, they function like totem-poles: to be spotted from far distances and who carry the story of its owner to bring peeps together: (wiki) "Poles illustrate stories that commemorate historic persons, represent shamanic powers, or provide objects of public ridicule." Also: the mooodlies are good to cuddle up with.


For me Mooodlies are a vital part of the expression of process.
One thing says it best: "Grok y'all !"


source of the grokking concept: Jeff Bullas's blog