Toronto UX Book Club: Announcing our next book "Shaping Things" for March 21
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Kimberley Peter
Feb 6, 2012, 9:13:23 AM2/6/12
to UX Book Club, UX Irregulars
Hello fellow UXBCers,
You Are Not a Gadget: A Manisfesto by Jaron Lanier (240 pages): http://amzn.to/ziPFVQ (NOTE: We plan to read this after Shaping Things)
A programmer, musician, and father of virtual reality technology, Jaron Lanier was a pioneer in digital media, and among the first to predict the revolutionary changes it would bring to our commerce and culture. Now, with the Web influencing virtually every aspect of our lives, he offers this provocative critique of how digital design is shaping society, for better and for worse.
Informed by Lanier’s experience and expertise as a computer scientist, You Are Not a Gadget discusses the technical and cultural problems that have unwittingly risen from programming choices—such as the nature of user identity—that were “locked-in” at the birth of digital media and considers what a future based on current design philosophies will bring. With the proliferation of social networks, cloud-based data storage systems, and Web 2.0 designs that elevate the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and wisdom of individuals, his message has never been more urgent.
First, a thanks to those of you who came out to the Duke of Richmond Pub on January 23 to discuss our last book: Search Patterns: Design for Discovery by Peter Morville and Jefferey Callender. The casual environment allowed us to easily mix two practical activities: book review and dinner :-)
WHAT'S OUR NEXT BOOK?
As is the
custom, at the end of evening we selected our next book. Also customary is to try to switch up the more practical applied type books with the more theoretical, inspirational and thought-provoking. This time it is the latter with Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling (152 pages). Given the short length and theme, there was also interest in selecting a kind of chaser to Bruce's book with You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier. We plan to read Jaron's book after Shaping Things, but you might want to pick it now.
Here are the details:
Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling (152 pages): http://amzn.to/xnwAKS
"Shaping Things is about created objects and the environment, which is to say, it's about everything," writes Bruce Sterling in this addition to the Mediawork Pamphlet series. He adds, "Seen from sufficient distance, this is a small topic."Sterling offers a brilliant, often hilarious history of shaped things. We have moved from an age of artifacts, made by hand, through complex machines, to the current era of "gizmos." New forms of design and manufacture are appearing that lack historical precedent, he writes; but the production methods, using archaic forms of energy and materials that are finite and toxic, are not sustainable. The future will see a new kind of object; we have the primitive forms of them now in our pockets and briefcases: user-alterable, baroquely multi-featured, and programmable; that will be sustainable, enhanceable, and uniquely identifiable. Sterling coins the term "spime" for them, these future manufactured objects with informational support so extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes are designed on screens, fabricated by digital means, and precisely tracked through space and time. They are made of substances that can be folded back into the production stream of future spimes, challenging all of us to become involved in their production. Spimes are coming, says Sterling. We will need these objects in order to live; we won't be able to surrender their advantages without awful consequences.The vision of Shaping Things is given material form by the intricate design of Lorraine Wild. Shaping Things is for designers and thinkers, engineers and scientists, entrepreneurs and financiers; and anyone who wants to understand and be part of the process of technosocial transformation.
Here are the details:
Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling (152 pages): http://amzn.to/xnwAKS
"Shaping Things is about created objects and the environment, which is to say, it's about everything," writes Bruce Sterling in this addition to the Mediawork Pamphlet series. He adds, "Seen from sufficient distance, this is a small topic."Sterling offers a brilliant, often hilarious history of shaped things. We have moved from an age of artifacts, made by hand, through complex machines, to the current era of "gizmos." New forms of design and manufacture are appearing that lack historical precedent, he writes; but the production methods, using archaic forms of energy and materials that are finite and toxic, are not sustainable. The future will see a new kind of object; we have the primitive forms of them now in our pockets and briefcases: user-alterable, baroquely multi-featured, and programmable; that will be sustainable, enhanceable, and uniquely identifiable. Sterling coins the term "spime" for them, these future manufactured objects with informational support so extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes are designed on screens, fabricated by digital means, and precisely tracked through space and time. They are made of substances that can be folded back into the production stream of future spimes, challenging all of us to become involved in their production. Spimes are coming, says Sterling. We will need these objects in order to live; we won't be able to surrender their advantages without awful consequences.The vision of Shaping Things is given material form by the intricate design of Lorraine Wild. Shaping Things is for designers and thinkers, engineers and scientists, entrepreneurs and financiers; and anyone who wants to understand and be part of the process of technosocial transformation.
You Are Not a Gadget: A Manisfesto by Jaron Lanier (240 pages): http://amzn.to/ziPFVQ (NOTE: We plan to read this after Shaping Things)
A programmer, musician, and father of virtual reality technology, Jaron Lanier was a pioneer in digital media, and among the first to predict the revolutionary changes it would bring to our commerce and culture. Now, with the Web influencing virtually every aspect of our lives, he offers this provocative critique of how digital design is shaping society, for better and for worse.
Informed by Lanier’s experience and expertise as a computer scientist, You Are Not a Gadget discusses the technical and cultural problems that have unwittingly risen from programming choices—such as the nature of user identity—that were “locked-in” at the birth of digital media and considers what a future based on current design philosophies will bring. With the proliferation of social networks, cloud-based data storage systems, and Web 2.0 designs that elevate the “wisdom” of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and wisdom of individuals, his message has never been more urgent.
WHEN WILL WE MEET?
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 6:30 PM
We will confirm the location and details closer to the date.
We hope you can come.
We hope you can come.
Until then, enjoy your reading!
Kim and Kaleem
UX Book Club Toronto
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