An exploration of TBC in an age of flux

1. TBC: TBC in the age of
flux
@davemee / TANDOT.co.uk / @MadLabUK
was going to talk about TBC in the age of flux, not sure where to start though.

2. wikipediaʼs always a good one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tbc theyʼve defined it for us

3. but then I came back it for a screenshot and it had changed
which is definitive? itʼs easy to say the most recent one, but my time of access decides which oneʼs right

4. www.flickr.com/photos/ thepotato/333319881/
itʼs like schrodingerʼs cat - i donʼt find out the truth till I access it - access is the decider

5. Understanding Media: the extensions of man/Routledge Classics
now, i couldnʼt remember what i said i was talking about - I had to check the event website - and this reminds me of Marshall McLuhan
ʻtechnologies as extensions of the nervous systemʼ

6. and now we all externalise our knowledge - things we remember, how to do things - a critical skill is not learning per se, but knowing how to find
someone elseʼs learning

7. ©2003 IBM / HistoryFlow of ‘Iraq’ on Wikipedia
and we trust in an ever emergent, unfixed, quantum set of data and documents. this is wikipediaʼs ʻiragʼ page visualised.

8. www.flickr.com/photos/ doyle_saylor/444354042/
hereʼs another dead guy - walter benjamin, a german intellectual and essayist. heʼs quite famous for an essay known - in english - as ʻthe work of
art in the age of mechanical reproductionʼ
# heʼs quite interested in the idea of ʻauraʼ, authenticity, which is lost in mass produced media

9. hereʼs a photograph of the making of itself - a metaphotograph. each step of mediation changes the meaning of the next step of the product,
leaves less ʻauraʼ and authenticity

10. so this is ʻthe ambassadorsʼ, a painting by hans holbein
... though actually, itʼs not. itʼs a photograph of it. and theyʼre not ambassadors, theyʼre a painting of ambassadors

11. and this is a photograph of a reproduction of it. a photograph of a reproduction of a painting of sketches of two ambassadors

12. so in a way, weʼve been messing with our idea of reality, memory and what is real for a long time.
elizabeth loftus planted false memories of seeing sylvester the cat at disneyland into people by describing the tactility of the experience. of
course, as a WB property this could not happen.

13. neuroproductions.be/twitter_friends_network_browser/
whatʼs this got to do with planning? decentralisation. these tools and technologies allow us to swap the referent for the reference - mobile phone
numbers, twitter accounts, identity theft. as we use these tools we create increasingly inauthentic connections. they donʼt connect us - they
connect abstractions of us

14. Wolfram Huke, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JuergenHabermas_crop2.jpg
so when we organise and coordinate activity - as we increasingly do - through these devices, it creates a disconnect between us and our
outcomes. our communication isnʼt free, itʼs defined by the mediums it passes through, and the nature and conditions of them

15. thewwwblog.com/images/twitter/mikeyy-worm-attack.png
So when we have a great, but net-native communication environment like Twitter, where the brevity and limits are inherent parts of the
communication, weird stuff can happen. this is how the mikeyy virus was so successful - it was easy to impersonate people

16. nosysnoop.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/couple-file-for-divorce-after-an-online-affair-with-each-other/
Taken to an extreme - Taiwanese couple - here reported as a bosnian couple - file for divorce. their representationsʼ start ʻdatingʼ electronically
and only when they meet in the flesh do they realise theyʼre already together.

17. but at the same time - this gives us a lot of power. we can constantly improve our knowledge, share learning and experiences, and respond in a
more timely and fluid manner than ever before.
this is what scott did with his 20 versions of bladerunner. and in a way - tyrell too - a man who caused trouble with fake memories and abstracted
identites.

18. www.flickr.com/photos/ brainsluice/294087990/
you know who else did this?

19. Conclusions:
To be confirmed.
so what have we learnt? Iʼm not really sure - itʼs yet to be confirmed. but weʼre increasingly mediating our lives and memory through communal,
changing channels and it will be interesting to see where it goes - whether peak oil will not only make things more difficult, but also render
us dumber as the supporting rug is pulled out under us.

20. Thanks for strolling
with me!
@davemee / @TANDOT / @MadLabUK