What’s happening with the business of advertising? What will the post-consumer economy look like? What is going on in sustainability?

Jelly Helm is the first to admit that he doesn’t know. But that doesn’t stop him from speculating about it in public, especially to audiences of excited listeners.

Last night, Jelly treated a number of us to a great presentation was full of existentialist introspection, personal narrative, and show-stopping poetry. He also gave us a sneak peek of the new work he’s done with the Oregon Council for the Humanities, and shared his excitement for Wikipedia, his newest client.

It was a fun-filled tour de force that could’ve lasted for a few hours more.

About this Transcript

If you were unfortunate enough to be sitting near me, you probably heard me typing very furiously, first in the audience, and then respectfully (hopefully) off to the side. Transcripts are important because they allow something amazing to be shared with a larger audience, but the resolution of experience decays as one abstracts the essence of the event through a digital means. I hope that this account preserves something of the excellent speech that was given last night.

I’m sorry there are not many images. I didn’t have a camera with me. Undoubtedly, there will be a thousand errors in punctuation and grammar. If it is something you enjoy doing, please feel free to point out any and all of them in the comments below.

Location

The event was held in the Cleaners at the Ace Hotel, a space often reserved for events such as this. Eric Hillerns, of Pinch. A Design Office., organized the event as part of AIGA’s Designspeaks.

“The Design Speaks series was developed as a voice for the creative community”, he began, “It was basically established to be a series of small talks intended to inform and inspire”.

How Eric met Jelly

Eric Hillerns met Jelly after his presentation at the 2008 Creative Conference.

“I knew that he was a high profile guy with arguably the best agency in the world”, said Hillerns, “Though our chat was brief, we had some common realationhips - and we left it at that”.

But later, while vying for the same buisness pitch - Jelly won it. Hillerns wasn’t pleased, of course.

“But I understood,” he admitted, “after all, Jelly was one of the more creartive strategists in the business”.

So Hillerns sent an E-mail.

“And at the end of the E-mail, I said - ‘We’re interested in watchng the brand evolve. We’re rooting for them, we’re rooting for you - don’t fuck it up’ .”

There was laughter from the aduience.

“Needless to say,” continued Hillerns, “he certantly hasn’t fucked up. I’m inspired by his approach to problems. He approaches them in a reverent manner”.

About Jelly Helm

Hillerns explained that Jelly Helm was a writer, designer, film director, creative director, and teacher. His clients include Imperial Woodpecker, Oregon Humanities, Infectious Diseases Research Institute and Wikipedia. He was formerly an executive creative director at Wieden + Kennedy, and founder of W+K 12, an experimental school inside the agency.

Jelly’s Presentation

Jelly Helm arrived at the podium. Behind him was the beginning of a PowerPoint screen that held an image of the word “Story” in a typewritten font. It looked like Jelly had typewritten his PowerPoint and scanned in each slide.

Jelly: Well, that certaintly was pleasant. I’m glad you all came. I didn’t expect you all to come, but thanks.

For me, all of my work, whether in design, writing, film directing, ect. — has been about the narrative; about story.

I left Wieden+Kennedy to take a sabbatical with no clue as to what would happen next. I took six months at first and then took one year because it was good to sit and think about why I do what I do for a living.

Tonight, before I got up here to give this speech, I saw Dave Allen. He said, “are you prepared?” And I said, of course, ‘this is my script’. This is me.

Jelly then tried to turn the slide, but it doesn’t work — it’s stuck.

Jelly: I hope you like this slide.

*laughter*

So, while they’re getting that, are there any questions you’d like to ask?

Audience: Where are you teaching at right now?

Jelly: I’m not teaching right now. I taught in two places, and then started a school at Wieden+Kennedy called 12.

*changes slides*

David Kennedy, who is kind of a crazy guy, has all of these little papers, which he cuts up and carries around with him. I used to be confused about why he did this, but now I’m doing it.

“This slide shows the time humans have been on Earth compared to how long the Universe has existed. It’s taken 12 billion years from the beginning of the Universe, and 5 billion since the beginning of the Sun. And then a tiny dash at the end shows us. Here we are, barely begun - the race of humans.

He showed the next slide, which was a picture of the Earth with the acronym “wtf” typewritten above it.

The Birth of the Story

The beginning of human life is inexplicable. There’s animals chasing you; you’re living in the cold without any clothes; picking foods that occasionally posion you….

And around 30,000 years ago we started doing something. We started telling stories. And people linked this up with the birth of the human spirit.

The reason we told these stories was to understand what was going on.

–

Karen Armstrong writes:

“We are meaning-seeking creatures.
Dogs, as far as we know,
do not agonise about the canine condition,
worry about the plight of dogs in other parts of the world,
or try to see their lives from a different perspective.

But human beings fall easily into despair,
and from the very beginning we invented stories that enabled us to place our lives in a larger setting,
that revealed an underlying pattern,
and gave us a sense that,
against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary,
life had meaning and value”.

–

We still use stories to make sense of the world, to:

-Create order
-To find our place
-To discover meaning
-To determine actions

“I think story is the operating system of being a human being.”

So…

Story.
Story.
Story.

I can’t remember what slide is next.

*click*

The slide changes to read “I am a storyist”.

So I’m a storyist.

I’ve played in a rock band, I’ve been an actor…

[But] underneath it all is a passion for telling stories and how they shape us and what they mean to us.

I Read Poetry

If any of you were at the Creative Conference you know I use poems. I use this particular poem to understnad my role - because, like you, I have the same chaotic experience.

This is the same poem that Willy Wonka quoted from. It is from the time of the Civil War.

—

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world’s great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire’s glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o’erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

– Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1884-1881)

—

Jelly’s recitation of the poem left a sort of stunned atmosphere in the audience.

“You don’t explain poems, right?” he finally said, “That’s the rule?”

“But sometimes I need help,” he continued, “I think it describes what it is like to experience the endless cycle of us as the leading edge of the universe.

The story that holds togehter for me is the story of growth - unfolding and exploding. And I think that’s what the world is about - unfolding and exploding and exploring new growth.

—

Spiral Dynamics Model - The Theory of Human Development

This graph shows a more analytical way to describe what Arthur said in his poem. This model was created by taking every model and puting them on top of each other. Maslow, and Jung, ect. Is there any pattern to them? This is mappnig human development over time?

At the bottom there is there is this tan area - this is pure terror - this is waking up as humans and having this rude self-awareness. And the next layer is purple. It is the idea that, ‘I exist and you exist - and if we cooperate, we can do things together’.

Red is our development of our sense of power an dominance. The idea that there are others our there and we have to kill them.

The blue layer is order and not letting violence be the top level of culture.

And then the next layer is the layer of science.

Then there’s green - what you think of as green sustainability - we need to protect the least of us. It is about relativism.

And beyond that is yellow. We’re entering this emergent culture and we’ll talk about more of that momentarily.

Sustainability

I’d like to talk about this word and what it stands for. It’s not enough.

The idea that my grandkids are buying the same sustainable couches as me makes me want to gag. I think we can aspire to more than that.

What would more than that look like? Yes-we can understand those values of sustainability.

The emergent culture is the green meme is a little suspicious of technology.

There’s an entire chart here of emergent culture, where multicultural/fairness/equity, technology/science, heirarchy/order, competition/power/ego, and trival/local — they’re all at odds with each other.

So right now we’re merging into this yellow culture which will embrace all of these values.

That’s kind of the typical thing that hppens.

I think we have our first emergent culture that’s happened right now.

*applause*

That’s an easy applause line. But it’s true. We see it here in Portland.

The Zoroastrians’ Visions

So I was watching Rick Steves on PBS a while ago. It was one of those travel episodes where he was in Iran. The first thing he says was, “they’re not Iraqis — they’re Persians!! They don’t speak Arabic, they speak Persian!” Like it was obvious.

I though that was interesting, and I wanted to learn more, so I went to Wikipedia, which is what everyone does now when they don’t know soemthing. There was a link to an article on Zoroastrianism, the oldest religious community of Iran.

Apparently the Zoroastrians had predected that the future of civilization would be so spiritual that humans would not even cast a shadow.

And this is not about IKEA making everything sustainable. It’s about soemthing else.

And it’s a great thing to say. People usually say ‘woah!’, when they hear this. But if you say it too much you begin to sound crazy.

So we seek out, in branding - the things that expand our own stories. The brands I who are successful are the brands who align with who we are and the story of the world.

I don’t know what to call them. People-powered brands. Because they’re not controlled by an agency. Emergent brands. Because they’re not controlled by a style guide. Post-consumer brands. Because many brands are based on a consumer way of happiness while not being actually okay for the earth.

Emergent Brands

-Apple
-Google
-Wikipedia

They allow us to experience our full humanity. Our full creativtiy.

Emergent Brands?

-McDonalds
-PhilipMorris

Are these Emergent Brands? McDonalds’ Stock keeps going up right now. I don’t really go into McDonanlds and I don’t get eat there, but those times when I go into McDonald’s, I find that the menus are a hundred times healthier than they were before. I can go in there and my kid can get celery sticks, a grilled cheese sandwich and an apple juice.

I also hear that they’re the number one distributor of apples in the country. Is this true?

(Someone in the audience confirms).

If you’re working with a company who can’t answe rhte question of ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Why are you here?’, then run far, far away.

Value vs. Profit, Abudance vs. Scaricity

It will never work if a company extracts more than it takes.

I think that successful post-consumer brands create value before they reap it, which is much better than abudance vs. scarcity - which is the opposite process - where a brand decides to reap value before creating it.

See “Conspiracy of Science - Earth is in Fact Growing” on YouTube. It’s a really hilarious video where a guy says, “these continents can’t be moving around over time! What are they moving on? The only solution is that the Earth must be expanding! Check it out. You should really watch this video.

—

There’s kind of a folly of being a human being.

Where do you create value — where is your abundance?

Where is your joy?

I’ll leave that thought with a poem. It’s a Robert Frost — one he wrote towards the end of his life.

This last one was sort of him throwing up his hands at the progression of humans.

“Yet for all this help of head and brain,
How happily instinctive we remain.
Our best guide upward further to the light,
Passionate preference such as love at sight.”

I was so suspicious of Bill Gates in the beginning.

His comment was “when I’m ready to give away money, “you’ll know about it”.

He was really a good person in the world. And he’s really pulled his mind to it.

My frame is growth.

We expand - and we’re an endless source of growth.

We’re all abundant, whether in storytelling or elsewhere.

The key is going to it from that frame of thought. Thinking, ‘Where am I abundant? Where am I good?’

Usually it is the opposite. One asks the self, ‘why am I not like other people? I need to do things like they do!’

This is why I had Philip Morris next to the McDonald’s logo in that earlier slide. When they bought a bunch of food compainies - I said, “good job, Philip Morris - I’d rather you be selling food than cigarettes…”

Large soft drink companies are having a difficult time selling that brown (explicative) any more — becuase it is posion — you drink that shit and you die.

You must instead ask, what is the prupose of your brand?

And if it is to continue lining the pockets of shareholders — then it is not the right purpose.

Audience: Who is your favorite philosopher?

I didn’t do school - so I don’t know many philosophers. I heard Bertrand Russell was pretty cool. I have a lot of people tell me that, so he’s probably great.

I like people who tell the truth and tell a good story so I can read about it.

I like anything that tells me a story that quiets my mind and opens my heart.

So I like Mad magaizine.

Audience: What makes you mad?

I didn’t feel very good today so I felt mad.

I’m not as good at being mad as I used to be.

Audience: What is it you push against?

Jelly: Nothing. I mean - it’s great - what is there to push agaisnt?

Audience: Will there be anything to be angry push agaisnt when we no longer cast a shadow?

Audience: It’s that the Myans that think it is the end of history.

Jelly: It’s hard to look at that slide of 13 billion years and think anything it intense or unordinary. Anything can happen. We haven’t been here for very long.

Growth is natural. How do you connect to it? You just have a good itme.

You know Danial Payne wrote that book Collective Intelligence. He wrote about how incentives dont’t work in this new work. I totally agre. You cannot invent a world voice. It is so counterintuitive. I think joy might be the solution.

Jelly: I dont know if anyone feel a little bit ripped off about ho tey were raised.

So story is how we connect our culture, for sure.

I think of the stories I grew up with. We’ve had 50 stories that have been carved in granite for 150 years and now they’ve all crumbled. I think, ‘these are bad stories!’.

Audience: When was the last time you had your hair blown back?

Jelly: Well, Obama, right? I feel bad about going on about Obama - but it is an amazing story.

Also, I’m a fan of Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell’s stories can be overlapped and they become a pretty good story. They’re about peopel falling down and getin back up…which is what all of humanity is about.

Are you laughing at me or with me?

The Infectious Disease Research Institute

Let me show you some work. I’m working with some organizations right now. One of them is this Infectious Disease Research Institute, which is a really bad name.

But it is a really neat story. Basically it is this guy name Steve Reed in Seattle who made this non-profit institute to prevent disease.

Then there’s a non-profit Biotech. There are some great people. Chris Hornbecker. These scinetists who are great.
And then there’s this company. (shows an image of the Wikipedia logo) And this is it - I cant beleive I’m working with this company.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is written by 150,00 volunteers in the world. They have now assembled the lastest amount of material in the world. Jimmy Wales just wanted to start an online encyclopedia that anyone could write. It was called Newpedia.

He recounted his experience at Wikimania, a conference for wiki users. It sounded like a wonderful time.

“Did you know that inventor of the Wiki lives in Oregon?”, asked Jelly.

Some of the audience shook their head.

“His name is escaping my mind right now. It was…”

“Ward Cunningham!” I shouted from the audience. (Not only does the inventor of the wiki live in Portland, but he’s an extremely kind person too. Wickedly intelligent, approachable, and very involved in the local tech community).

Yes! Ward Cunningham. And Pete Forsyth, another Portland resident, is also a very dedicated contributor too.

Oregon Humanities

Here’s how I got involved with Oregon Humanities. They called me up one day and the first thing I thought was, “woah, did I forget to turn in an essay or something?” But instead they started telling me about what they do.

For instance, they told me about a series they have called “Think and Drink”, and I said, “uhh…”. So they were like, well ‘we’d like to talk to you about what the humanities are’. Humanities are no longer concerned with a white haired dude at the front of the auditorium telling us what to do.

So Jelly worked on the name. It got shortened to O. Hm, which is the sound of leanring a new idea. Oh! Hmm! or, O. Hm. Oregon Humanities. That’s part of the campaign. There’s more. Lots more. If you live in the Portland area, there’s no doubt that you’ll see more of it.

Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam

We were there, and working on a campaign to get people to drink (a certain soft drink which will not be named here) during the holiday. Someone said, ‘how about we associate it with a holiday? Have people opening that drink and enjyoing it during the holidays’. And that campaign was so successful that they said, ‘next year we want to own Ramadan and Passover’. Own! Especially when one reads Joseph Campbell and gets to understand how important these traditional holidays are to the cultures they’re associated with. No one talks about the purpose of the buisness. They just want to make moeny.

I just guessed I looked under a rock a few too many times.

Early on, there seems to be an overview of the aesthetics of what we did visually, but not the purpose of it.
But,

when I work with clients who have a purpose — I LOVE it.

Like Timberland. If it is a good story to tell, I still want to tell it.

Audience: A year ago, at Cre8con, you were really down on Chompsky — and I didn’t read him becuase of that.

Helm: You can read him — I just dont think you’ll enjoy it.

Audience (Crystal Beasley): What do people most often get wrong about story?

Jelly: I don’t know.

What do you think?

I think about it when I watch a movie and they don’t have the heart piece right.

Audience: Some people don’t have a point to their story. In the end there’s nothnig to gain from it.

Jelly wrapped up his speech after that and got a lot of applause. It had been an excellent evening.

There was also some nice wine and beer. Thanks to those who served the crowd, 52Ltd, AIGA, Designspeaks, and everyone who attended.
—-

About the Transcriber

Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist and new media strategist living in Portland, Oregon. She currently works at Wieden + Kennedy and tries to participate in as many tech and design events as possible. Her clients range from small to large companies, and she can be contacted through Twitter at @caseorganic, or through E-mail at caseorganic [at] gmail [dot] com.

About 52 Ltd.

52 Ltd. is Portland’s homegrown matchmaker of talent and employers in the arena of creative services. They received recognition in the 2008 and 2009 lists of Fastest-Growing Private 100 Companies by Portland Business Journal.

52 Limited provides contract freelance employees, full-time placement and custom project teams to a diverse client roster which includes: advertising agencies, design houses, interactive firms, brand marketers, health care organizations and others. For more information on how 52 Limited can help you find work or find talent, please visit
http://www.52ltd.com

About Designspeaks

The Designspeaks series, developed by Portland AIGA and in partnership with 52 Limited, showcases the most intriguing designers in the Pacific Northwest. Some of our guest speakers in this quarterly series will be stars and some will have mana
ged to maintain a lower profile, but we can assure you; all will challenge you to think a bit differently about design and its impact on community. We’re continually tweaking this series as an intimate venue for the creative community to connect to others, to see what they are doing and how they’re doing it. There is no specific format for Designspeaks. Basically, it’s a series of small talks gathering intended to inform, inspire and engage.

—–
Thanks much. Please leave comments below if desired.

Where are you from? What kind of work do you do?

I’m your stereotypical fast-paced ‘East Coaster’ from the NYC/NJ area but have been fortunate to have traveled all over the world, and have lived in a few different cities in the US — and abroad — over the years.

Currently, I am the Founder and CEO of Acclimedia, a consulting firm focused primarily on online brand adaptation, helping clients acclimate their products/services and customer experience to the web environment. We take a holistic approach to this process in order to preserve — and maintain — the integrity and essence of the brand online. I also serve as President and Chief Marketing Officer for Jelly Labs, the creative agency and market research arm of Acclimedia, specializing in campaign stickiness.

As a person who thrives on collaboration, I also founded Idea Brew, a think tank for fellow entrepreneurs that churns out ideas, copy and design for start ups and small businesses, where I act as the Creative Director (but that’s just a fancy title for ‘Do-It-All Creative Grunt Worker Extraordinaire!’). As if that weren’t enough, I also blog at Jelly Flux.com, covering marketing, technology and the social web, am a contributing writer for Green Options Media on all things green, renewable and sustainable from fashion to fuel, and recently accepted another writing gig for Triple Pundit adding political review to my writng repertoire.

Lastly, I will also be hosting a weekly podcast in 2009 and have a couple of other start up ventures in the works as well. Needless to say, I’m very busy but still manage to find the time to Twitter!

How did you first hear about CyborgCamp?

With my immersion (or more aptly, submersion!) in the digital world, I’ve had an increasing interest in HCI (Human Computer Interaction), and was seeking to network with others in this area. A Twitter search on the topic led me to tweet from @CyborgCamp, and after a quick scan of the posts and interactions, I began following immediately. Through @CyborgCamp, I have been able to connect with several interesting, intelligent and savvy people from in and around the Portland area — especially Bram Pitoyo, with whom I have sparked riveting, thought-provoking discussions about the semantic web and branding.

I am always seeking kindred spirits and like-minded innovators for collaboration, and I thought that if the people with whom I had connected on Twitter were representative of those I would meet at Cyborg Camp, I knew I had to be there. Being able to interact with these folks in person is so exciting, and I can only imagine the energy that will be emanating from their erudite minds. I must also give a shout out to Tyler Sticka, yet another Portlander with whom I’ve had the pleasure of interacting through Twitter, as I was completely blown away by the logo he designed for CyborgCamp. It’s absolutely brilliant in its simplicity and manages to effectively juxtapose the human and machine elements in a meaningful — and engaging — way. Talk about stopping power. And, of course, you, Amber, whose insights on a variety of topics always leave me pondering the philosophical elements of this space. I continue to be amazed by how Portland seems to be a hotbed for such an enlightened group of individuals and am looking forward to meeting everyone in person.

What is your dream ‘future technology’? If there was anything you could change about the current state of technology, what would it be?

I’m a total geek so I have several dream ‘future technologies,’ but in this case, environmental consciousness wins out, and I would love to see groundbreaking advancements in renewable energy become a reality, finding innovative ways to harness wind and solar power, eliminating our wasteful dependence on fuel and its harmful effects. Of course, as someone who grew up with Star Trek, The Next Generation, and an old school first-person adventure gamer, if I had to choose a more frivolous dream technology, it would most definietly be a virtual reality chamber similar to that of the Holodeck.

The one thing I would probably change about the current state of technology is the ‘on all the time,’ ‘always wired’ mentality [and applications that perpetuate it]. It’s great to be connected, and were it not for technology and the web, I would not have been able to meet the people from around the globe who have profoundly impacted my life, but I think it’s missing a human element that respects — and facilitates — offline/’unplugged’ experiences and personal growth. Our brains, cognition, and capacity for learning are increasing at staggering rates as a result of rapidly advancing technology, but what about the intrinsic human qualities that separate us from machines? I feel that those are getting lost in the process, and in some cases, diminishing in value. I think that this is a critical issue to be addressed with the Web 3.0 movement, which is being dubbed ‘The Semantic Web’ or ‘The Human Web’ by some. Marta Strickland recently referred to it as ‘The Relevant Web’ which I think ties in well with another issue of the current state of technology — too much information. In my ’spare time,’ I am working on a theory as to whether accessibility of information enhances or detracts from our relationships, or to take it one step further, does our relationship with that abundance of information enhance or detract from our human-ness?

What is the tech scene like in New York? Do you attend many tech events there?

It’s hard to say. In any city where there are mass numbers of people, there is always something brewing in tech, and NYC has been home to many Web 2.0 types of expos and the like. It’s a hub for gathering people from all over the world, so it’s an attractive spot for events, but the scene itself tends to veer more toward the social realm of the industry than deep into the geek sector. And those with successful tech start ups tend to migrate west to Silicon Valley and other more booming tech ecospheres.

Running several companies with clients — and vendor partners — throughout the world, I don’t have the luxury of attending as many events as I’d like. That’s one of the reasons I am continually exploring new technologies for participating remotely without sacrificing the experience, or being able to benefit from the key learnings just as I would as in-person attendee. Obviously, nothing can ever truly replace physically being at an event, amongst a group of people collaborating and sharing ideas, but I think that there are ways to bridge the virtual and physical worlds to make it advantageous for remote viewers to participate, share in discussions, and watch it happening real time. Pop!Tech did this very effectively with the live stream for their recent conference. While there weren’t any participatory applications to join in directly, the quality of the video was top notch, allowing you to substantively connect with the speakers and subject matter, and you could supplement the experience via sharing tools like Twitter. There are a few events where I think it’s important to attend in person; I am planning to attend SXSW in Austin, TX in March, and possibly Interactions09 in Vancouver in February.

Have you ever been to an un-conference before? If so, which conference? How was your experience?

Yes, I have attended a few unconferences, and I prefer them to big, splashy events because the intimate setting and smaller, thematic-driven groups allow for participatory learning rather than having so-called ‘expert’ speakers pontificate to a large group. The result is always inspiring and I find the experiences expand my views on a subject and enrich my thinking much more than linear, highly structured formats; plus, you are able to feed off the energy of the participants, who typically are very passionate about the topic. There’s much more of a community feel and sense of ownership to the material because it was self-created, where each participant plays an instrumental role in the process instead of watching a series of slides and taking notes. I think unconferences also stimulate action more so than traditional events, because you are excited and inspired to start applying your newfound knowledge and put your ideas into motion.

What do you think about the future of entertainment, branding, online media? How has your world been affected by new networks such as Twitter?

I think the future of branding has many challenges as brands tend to get diluted in the oversaturated web space. And I am of the thinking that not all brands need to — or should — have a digital presence.

Entertainment, on the other hand, is significantly augmented by technology, and is on the precipice of expansion in a variety of different areas. In addition to the rich visuals and advancements in CGI, more traditional network programming is able to connect viewers with their favorite TV show, or even characters with web-enabled services and extras. Even movies are enhanced by using the web to draw users into the storyline where they can make a personal connection with the film. But, in my opinion, the future of techtainment is with the continued growth of podcasting, iTV and web film-making. Major, capital-driven networks no longer control the market or drive the content. Anyone with a video camera and a dream can penetrate the space, and some of the most popular programs are web shows that are able to reach a global audience thanks to the power of the Internet medium, and even gain the exposure of mainstream media previously reserved only for big budget film houses.

Online media is another area where oversaturation makes it difficult for many new products and services to rise above the clutter, and for platforms to sustain long-term. I think in order for the online media space to advance, it needs to be streamlined, sourcing content better for relevancy and audience, and built to evolve with its users’ needs/wants/behavior/usage. A living, breathing architecture will be critical for maximizing the value of online media, and creating a vehicle for meaningful interactions that become an inherent, consistent — and active — part of the user’s daily life [with tangible impact] vs. a distraction or passive activity that wanes over time until the next ‘hot hit’ comes along. The ‘throw spaghettic against the wall to see what sticks’ method doesn’t scale. If Web 2.0 is analagous to the ‘classoom,’ Web 3.0 is the real world opportunity to put those learnings into action.

Twitter has dramatically impacted my world in a positive way. Save for the distraction and source of procrastination it can sometimes be, it has become a daily (read: hourly!) go to resource for real time knowledge sharing, product reviews, market research and even local, national and international news. It’s information with a pulse. And it has become an important part of my routine from my daily good morning exchanges with friends I’ve made to checking in with the Twitterverse on a myriad of subjects throughout the day — from their insights on project-related/client issues to their thoughts and experiences with new gadgets — even recipes and restaurant recommendations. Just about everything that touches my life makes its way into my tweetstream.

How have you built your Twitter network? What rewards have you received? What do you find most difficult/annoying about Twitter?

I am a firm believer in using Twitter to build relationships. I take pride in my network and value my connections. And I’m proud that I have been able to build such a quality network of amazing individuals each of whom bring something unique to my tweetstream — and to my life. I built my entire network organically, using Twitter search on keywords of interest to me, connecting through @ replies to individuals connected to those I follow, and by returning the follow to those who have sought me out through similar means. I always read a person’s bio, visit the link to their blog or website and read at least 3 pages of their posts before I follow. I take it very seriously and do not use auto follow scripts or try to inflate my followers. I prefer to keep my network small with even ratios of followers/following as I believe that’s the only way you can develop — and nurture — the one-on-one interactions that drive meaningful exchanges and encourage sharing.

I have made professional contacts, built lasting friendships, secured new opportunities and been exposed to new cultures through my Twitter community. In fact, my overseas partner is someone whom I connected with via Twitter, expanding my services into the European market with a creative shop in London. I will also be co-hosting a podcast with another Twitter contact and am collaborating with others on a new venture. Not to mention the personal friendships I’ve built that have come to mean a great deal to me.

Without question, the most annoying thing about Twitter is the spammers, self-promoters and get-rich-quick schemers that appear to be multiplying in droves, as well as those who are obsessed with their number of followers, using it as a misguided measuring stick for their popularity or ‘influence.’ I have always contended that the true value of Twitter is in the relationships, and the aforementioned groups are only interested in advancing their own agenda. It’s a megaphone for them vs. a sharing tool to spark two-way communication. Their misuse and flagrant disrespect for the network detracts from the experiece and devalues the service. I’ve become adept at spotting (and avoiding) the culprits, but it requires continual contact clean up to maintain a quality, spam-free community — time that could be better spent engaging with people who actually want to learn and share with you.

What is your presentation style like? What would you like to see discussed at CyborgCamp?

I recently ditched PowerPoint and any form of canned slides when presenting to clients or speaking at events, which has proven to be a much more creatively enriching experience for me — and my participants. By not stifling the flow of creativity with a highly structured set of materials, I’ve found that the group is more open and expressive, and that better ideas are generated. So, I am going to apply that same principle to CyborgCamp, allow the dynamics of the group to guide my talking points, and put a raw perspective out there for consumption, dissection, discussion and ideation.

I don’t want to limit the flow of creativity or expression by mandating a list of topics but I’d love to spark a discussion around what I referred to earlier in the interview as ‘The Human Web’ to get the group’s perspective on the interconnectivity of it all and how to effectively bridge/honor the dual faceted-ness of that interaction.

Connect with Gennefer

http://twitter.com/acclimedia
http://www.acclimedia.com/

It was about 1:30 Pm when Paige and I arrived at PNCA+FIVE Idea Studios at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Dr. Saul Ostrow sat at the front of the room and began reading from a small stack of paper in front of him. He had a pleasant, descriptive voice, and his face was illuminated by a small lamp.

Behind him was a projection screen displaying a series of disconnected abstract black and white scenes. Sometimes these scenes had muted scenes of people giving speeches. When Saul spoke, it sometimes looked like these ancient philosophers was coming back to life.

While he spoke, I attempted to write down every thing I could, but some of what he said may be unclear or missing. Please excuse this.

Transcript:

“Before I begin my speech on Models of Critical Production, one of the things that I tend to do is that I need definitions.

We all tend to say — even in the titling of this — we say ‘oh, I know what that means”

I need to clarify what I mean by it.

To model is to give form to or to display.

Critical is a moment of importance.

Practice is to perform with proficiency, or to exercise in order to gain proficiency.

To train in a systematic matter to a given end.

Therefore, what I am going to speak about gives form in a systematic manner to judgment.

System — a number of elements working together in concert, in an ordered manner, to create a whole, or to accomplish a task.

Obviously, we are talking not about something singular, but a complex network of interrelated relationships.

What does one need to make a judgment or to take a position? A position is something that one uses to locate themselves relative to another thing or person.

What are some of the terms of valuation -so that they may be a guide to one’s practice — to one’s performance. What are the standards, values and criteria are to be employed –and how might these come to be.

Standards and criteria are comparable and therefore quantitative .

Values are qualitative and therefore relative.

Criteria — the terms of evaluation or appraisal.
Desirability, or comparative quality. Obviously, these reflect a system.

Ideology –a series of imagined set of relationships that guide one’s actions and guides one’s subjectivity. A sense of self, or identity.

To model a critical practice is to give form or to display one’s sense of self, but what is this sense of self?

A sense of self is how we as individuals understand our individuality and collectivity. How we collectively and individually compare ourselves to each other

It is this self that is the emergent subject that enables us to act as well as inhibiting ourselves.

———–

Let us first clarify the notion of the emergent subject -that which moves under or moves something away

The emergent subject is one who acts, or orders.

One is not fixed. Our actions in the world move us .

We possess the ability to act in an ever new and reflexive way. In other ways we are always manifesting and an ever evolving awareness of ourselves.

It is our awareness that allows us to act, and consequently, the modeling of a critical practice is the display of the awareness by which you experience the world. And how the world might be ordered to the evolving self.

The experience of the self is always for the self and the position of advancing the self — both individually and collectively –

Relative to the subject with this talk — at this point, I’ll remind you — I cannot tell you the whole of this with any certainty — because based on the position I have announced here — I do not know the whole of it.

What I do know that there is more to it.

There are three elements of this model of the self

• Self criticality.
• Ethicality
• The Aesthetic.

Neither a priority or inherent, self criticality is a fail safe as we cannot extract ourselves from our world view.

We cannot understand ourselves except for that which is done in the way of value.

That we invest in ourselves tin that that effort will render up an additional value — in that one believes one needs, or one believes the world needs.

This “putting” into the world requires an aesthetic. We must think of it as an inclusive -as well as a means by which we do things. Ourselves in the world - it is the terms by which we represent our terms of self and the ability to progress. It is the means by which the emergent sel.

The content of such a practice is always political — these politics being the economy of social power.

To revise or transform how it has come to understand. Essential to advancing its position within the world is an affirmation or a means of introduction.

—————-

Thinking of Objects Rather than Systems

This desire to categorize art as object rather than critical discourse

one ends up worrying about the market rather than the cultural effect of the things that are produced.

Art is free. It is in our galleries. We can see it.

If we choose to posses it then we worry about markets. And possessing an object rather than the art.

If all of those fields are the creation of distinctly different things, then how do these ever interact?

Answer: there is never (not any interaction - it’s omnipresent) it is the material conditions of our lives. We are born into this — there is no undoing of it?

Is there value in that? There is only value we subscribe to.

We have common projects — some of us participate in those projects and some of choose not to
And we’ve determined that some of s participate in these things that we deem ed best to me in that collective.
Tom Summer: How is the possibility of communication between this intersubjective space possible? It is by consensus forming one contour of collectivity.

What does it mean to “take care of yourself”?

The fixity of the subject is not attached as an image- - is a restless activity (reminds me of Erving Goffman’s seminal book on the understanding of human existence, ”
If one presents new terms - if one is constantly seeking to unfix something - that is illicit. Once it becomes fixed - put in its place- it ceases to become a critical practice. Constantly offering up new propositions. If that worked, will this work?

Do artists ever fall prey to being licit without knowing it?

Not every artist is involved critical practice — the constant reinvention and rexamination of one’s own thoughts, ideologies, self-presence (except perhaps maybe online?).

Very often we talk of things as a singularity –as an art–as a thing- a singular thing. rather than the notion that there are artists that have little or no interest in criticality, but still culturally produce.
Not any singular practice –

the question of dialogue and intersubjectivity . the clash of these practices makes culture still dynamic.

Entering into the same aesthetic and same assumptions we would have a very structured culture, in which the practices would all be subscribed. There are some of us that unsubscribe — for instance, to say, “Oh I know that position, and I’m not interested in believing that anymore”.

Critical practice is always for something; it is not against something.

If I do away with evil - good will remain.

Theory always moves towards practice. they are interrelated.

Practice without some grounding is habit. if it has no self reflexivity. if it has no affirmation -being informed - we end up engaging in something that is habitual . the notion of theory is that I put things into the world as proposition. even the objects that one makes are always grounded in some sort of theoretical position.

You construct a theory of intuition. theory is the propositions that guide us.

The notion of artificiality - as it is with objects it is with us. They are tremendously unstable objects.

A critical practice is always illicit, but never negative.
—

A theory , in a sense -

Do not pick a meaning inappropriate to the subject.
There are just some things you can’t make a painting out of.
Which need is stronger—to make a painting about that subject or to be a painter?

A person decides to paint a picture of mars and Venus. And so they must learn everything they can about Mars and Venus—the whole story—so they can find the perfect moment in which to it.

in depth research - and understanding of relationships - self reflexivity.

Then it becomes how to represent that appropriate moment.

When models of existing practices should exceed existing structures.

Thomas Zummer: We’re always negotiating conflict.

A system network is constantly in negotiation. Constantly in practice. Constantly informing who and where we are in our positions in the world.

On Human Expiration

Productivity is dependent on death and destruction.

Some argue that what makes our human is the knowledge of our mortality.

In that we attempt to constructs things to leave behind.
The fear of death - drives us to produce the social -drives us to produce civilization.

Death is not destruction. I don’t see death as destructive! You’re talking about violence and I see violence as something else.

—————–

@paigedestroy will be going on a two week retreat with Tom Summers and Saul Ostrow. I’m letting her borrow my tape recorder who can by in multiple places at once.

A formal ind of decay or destruction to be subdued in the destruction is to be consumed in that productively is to be consumed in those forms the the transstion or production of those forms.

Those frameworks are always producing or always creating those decays.

We are dying every moment.

What I Took Away from the Lecture

Bordieu - that we are always reterritorializing things —-moving the boundaries of things. We only see it online because it is newer there – and disconnected. –
at one time you could not frame this with a new body

it is just more mechanical online, the reinvention of self — it does not mean that we do not do it in real life. the distance between spaces in which we do it online is just larger more granular — less resolution. we do not notice it in real life because it is so smooth and there are so many more systems at play — the granularity, the smoothness and the complexity of the system in real life compared to the systems online is so much more that we notice things more easily online. It is not “liquid” modernity” it is not fast and continual flux. it is slower online. much slower.

Moreover, as sociologist Emelie Durkheim said, as society matures and progresses, they flow from mechanical to organic.

We exist in space for a prolonged period and we call that time.
I’m more include to talk about entropy than decay.
These negotiations of certain processes. Things moving to a steady state.

I think its a society looking for its values and world view to be expressed and that it goes back to — reception. Those things we call artists are the agents by which we express something.

——-

I don’t believe in a Zeitgeist -because I don’t know when that time is.
if I could predict what would touch those million people. For instance, I could say, ‘what people really need right now is hope’ — but I don’t really know what hope looks like.

At the end, he pointed out something along the lines of the time cost of painting, adding “It’s better to work in film”.

And in similar vein of Artists are force carriers of culture.

—-

About PNCA+FIVE Idea Studio

————————
This lecture series was part of the PNCA + FIVE Idea Studio: Models of Critical Production
Saul Ostrow will be at Pacific Northwest College of Art from October 13–16.

————————

Event Schedule

Models of Critical Production
October 13 – 16
PNCA Campus
Free and open to the public

October 13
Tom Zummer workshop | Commons | 4 – 5:30 pm

October 14
Saul Ostrow lecture | Commons | 12:30 – 1:30pm
Tom Zummer workshop | Commons | 4 – 5:30pm

October 15
Tom Zummer lecture | Commons | 12:30 – 1:30pm

October 16
Saul Ostrow lecture | Commons | 12:30 – 1:30pm

More at PNCA Lectures occurring this week.

If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?

Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers. But Portland’s own event, Ignite Portland, will be happening soon, and it is a chance for locals to make short presentations on anything they are passionate about.

When?

November 13, 2008. On the Ignite Portland Blog, Josh Bancroft urges Portlanders to Save the Date.

Ignite History

Local tech legend Raven Zachary told me that Ignite Portland was founded by Brady Forrest of O’Reilly. He was initially inspired by Japan’s rapid fire presentation method of Pecha Kucha and did an adaptation of that for technology. If you haven’t heard of Pecha Kucha before, it is Japanese for the sound of conversation. Attendees watch a speakers that have only 20 slides, with 20 seconds per slide.Portland Pecha Kucha Night was just last week.

Ignite Portland

Portland, Oregon has had some of the largest events in Ignite history. Ignite 2 packed the Bagdad Theatre with over 750 people, and many waiting in line had to be turned away.

Ignite Portland at Gnomedex

Several alumni of Ignite Portland will be presenting their five minute topics at this week’s Gnomedex 8.0, an annual social media conference organized by Chris Pirillo. Rick Turoczy has a list of the presenters on his blog, Silicon Florist, and Portland Ignites Gnomedex on TinyScreenfuls, the blog of Josh Bancroft, who points out that “The idea for Ignite Portland was hatched at last year’s Gnomedex.”

Ignite Portland Planning Begins Now

November 13th may seem like a long time away, but Ignite events take a tremendous amount of effort to pull off. Want to be part of the event and meet some really cool people in the process? The Ignite Planning Committee is always open to dedicated, passionate volunteers. Help make this Ignite Portland even better than the last three.

The Ignite Planning meeting that occurred at Cubespace tonight was there primarily to deal with a system in large demand. The first major thing discussed how the online ticket reservation system would function. Then, volunteer teams were developed. Currently, they are as follows:

The Presenter Team

Raven Zachary, Mentor iPhone developer and recently of Raven.me, an iPhone development blog. You can follow Raven on Twitter. He’s also a Legion of Tech Board Member.

Tasks

• Review and sort through all Portland Ignite 4 proposals.
• Ensure that all presenters submit 20 images, a Powerpoint, or PDF by the final deadline.
• Ensure that AV equipment does not FAIL upon deployment.

The Marketing Team

Josh Bancroft, Mentor of Intel, Kindle Evangelist, and author of the TinyScreenfuls Blog, and Legion of Tech Board Member. @Jabancroft on Twitter.

Tasks

• Spread the word about Ignite Portland 4 through writing on the Ignite Portland Blog
• Designate an Official Ignite Portland spokesperson to ensure uniform information gets out to local media connections.
• Monitor the Tweetverse for Tweets about Ignite Portland. Tweet from the official Ignite Portland blog, and answer questions as they are asked.

The Sponsor Contact/Site Team

Todd Kenefsky, Mentor CEO of Connect Interactive Media, an interactive marketing company, and Legion of Tech Board Member.

Tasks

• Convert Sponsor logos from .eps format to .gif or .jpg and place them on the Ignite Portland sponsor page.
• Help create sponsor slides

The Ignite Event Setup Team

Dawn Foster, Mentor, Consultant, FastWonder blogger, Legion of Tech Board Member, and recently, of Shizzow, an micro-geolocation released last Monday (a review of its beta release is here).

Tasks

• Help set up the venue during the day of the event.
• Organize attendees and help line flow.

Other Organizers

Adam Duvander also has a hand in organizing Ignite Portland events and has presented in past Ignites. Check out his blog, Simplicity Rules, and Adam’s Twitter profile.
~.—————–

For more information, check out the Ignite Portland Website.

Ignite Portland 4 will be on November 13, 2008

Bagdad Theater
• 3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd
• Portland, OR 97214
• 7:00 - 10:00 PM
• Ticketholders get in at 5:30 PM
• General Admission at 6:15 PM
• Admission is always FREE

~.—————-

Please let me know if I missed anything in this post. Feel free to contact the Mentors via Twitter if you’d like to add to the volunteer efforts.

You can follow me on Twitter @caseorganic. I’ll be on the Marketing and Sponsor Teams.

Thanks for reading Hazelnut Tech Talk! We’re proud to bring you event coverage from a mix of creative and tech worlds.

When, Where, Why?

There was an event this Wednesday at Cubespace called “Lunch with a VC”. The VC in this case was Carolynn Duncan. She has three projects going right now: www.fundinguniverse.com, Epic Ventures, Hundred Dollar Business (a series of brilliant startups using less than one hundred dollars each).

New Ventures

While I wasn’t able to stay after lunch to hear her presentation, I was able to visit with her afterward at Backspace with Reid Beels and Bram Pitoyo. She showed us a brilliant new start-up she’s doing (for less than one hundred dollars). And while I can’t say much more about it right now (because is not yet finished), I can say that it will be a wonderful boon to experts used to a coffee-shop/consulting life.