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- n.b.4 | welcome to slow media
n.b.4 | welcome to slow media
at least, if you're reading this
No big story this week, but I did want to add a few thoughts on a topic I've been chewing on lately: slow media.
The "Golden Age" of Big Tech was (and still is) dominated by algorithms. Massive, mysterious mechanisms determining what you see, when you see it, and why has insidiously impacted almost everything in our lives.
So as the allure of Big Tech (and the fearless investment in it) dries up, it's as good a time as ever to fight back. So, how?
Well, "slow media" may be the answer. This method of consumption is more thoughtful, measured, and...slow. Instead of endless feeds powered by inhuman forces, slow media values curation over conglomeration. Newsletters, podcasts, blogs from personal, human sources, instead of the faceless factory of an algorithm.
I don't think my thoughts on this are fully baked--and I may write a more composed piece on it eventually--but they may represent a possible trend that I really, really hope comes true.
— n.b.
R E A D :
time-traveling tech
This piece, posted last week on Vice, really took me by surprise. In it, write Joanne McNeil tells a story of time-traveling laptop that appears as a distant, fleeting artifact of an internet past.
I won't spoil any more about it, but it's a quick, thoughtful read. Check out the lede from the Vice editors below:
Those of us who are old enough might remember the days of a kinder, simpler, and more organically intriguing internet; some of us even wish we could, say, open an aged laptop and return there—but is such a returnal even possible, even if we wanted it to be? Was such an online world ever “real” at all? Questions, perhaps, one might keep in mind while reading Joanne McNeil’s immaculately rendered speculation. Enjoy.
//
should life all labour be?
I've been making my way through the first season of The White Lotus and it's really been an impactful piece. Besides the multilayers of social commentary, it's been a masterpiece of sickly relatable humor, teeteringly caustic circumstances, and disarming subject matter.
Anyway, a poem popped up in the latest episode I saw that has stuck in my brain. Relevant excerpt (the first four lines) including a bit more below:
Hateful is the dark-blue sky,Vaulted o’er the dark-blue sea.Death is the end of life; ah, whyShould life all labour be?Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast,And in a little while our lips are dumb.Let us alone. What is it that will last?All things are taken from us, and becomePortions and parcels of the dreadful past.Let us alone. What pleasure can we haveTo war with evil? Is there any peaceIn ever climbing up the climbing wave?All things have rest, and ripen toward the graveIn silence; ripen, fall and cease:Give us long rest or death, dark death, or dreamful ease.
I'm always a sucker for when a character recites a poem excerpt. Something about the suggestion of self-awareness for them to not only apply it to a situation, but also to have it so available in their recall that they have clearly anticipated the relevance of the piece before.
W A T C H :
kerning wins championships
There really is a competition for everything these days.
On TikTok last week, the Relume Design League came across my feed and I was entranced. In it, two web designers compete to see who can create the best landing page in 30 minutes. Fans vote on the winner.
Really interesting to watch and hear the commentary. All the designs end up being beautiful, at least in my eyes and despite the designers likely relying on their muscle memory, but it did get me on a thinking tangent: is there such thing as design that's "too fast"?
Regardless, I enjoyed it. And it's slightly less absurd than something like the Excel World Championships.
//
a reality of sorts
Quintin Smith, and more recently his team at People Make Games, occupies the same space in gaming for me that Alton Brown occupied in cooking. I could probably listen to them discuss anything in the field, because they make it more clear, more compelling, and more entertaining.
Especially when any given topic is one that I'm interested in. In a video posted earlier this year, Smith dives into the boundless world of VRChat, a virtual reality platform that likely best represents the concept of a "metaverse" out of any of the current options.
What caught me most off guard, however, was how moving a few parts of this video were. In particular, a testimony from a user with a chronic illness, made worse during the pandemic, illuminated a story about how they discovered a space in VRChat that they were never able to meet the creators of.
So this place that we’re in is called ‘Treehouse in the Shade’. It was made by two people, one of which unfortunately passed away. I never got to meet them, and it always leaves me a little sad that I never got to thank them for making this beautiful place that I’ve spent hundreds of hours of my time in.
The moment is really touching, and honestly opened my eyes to VR more than anything has before. Not to mention the pinpoint accuracy of Facebook/Meta commentary at the end...
I can't possibly do the whole video justice in a summary, so please watch it if you have a block of time available this week.
P L A Y :
same page...or?
I've played the boardgame Wavelength with a few different groups recently and I highly recommend it.
The party game is a bit of a one-trick pony, but it's a really good trick. Also, very simple but very difficult to explain. Basically, you and a teammate need to independently agree on where something lands on an adjective-adjective spectrum.
It's a great test of...being on the same wavelength, obviously, but also it offers an opportunity for something I rarely see in boardgames: an "instant barbarian" moment. Those times when something lands so perfectly that you and a teammate just look at each other and yell. Always a great time.
Thank you again for reading.
— n.b.