Hello there

I did a search for pop up library. here's what came back;

http://nimblemedia.org/PopupLibraryRefs.html

Alex

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alex
Date: 16 December 2011 13:56
Subject:
To: r.a.hough@gmail.com

Sent from my iPad

I read it  [5] too, and thought about the Curtis films as well.

At one point (on which we didn't map) Curtis makes a comment about 'lost in the spectacle', Daw mentions it  [2] .  It leads me to believe that Curtis is intentionally evoking the work of Guy Debord here. His films look and sound similar to DeBord's too, check out Refutation [4]

From Debord, there is a narative of philospohical development; it goes to post modernism ('incredulity towards meta-naratives') then to post-colonialism ('all the meta-narratives are written to serve the interests of the West') . What comes after this and the post-industrial ('when everything has been comoditised' (including communication))? This is a topic for many academics, some of whom were employed by the state to teach me about the discourse while i was a student.

I lost interest in said discourse after reading Terry Eagleton's "After Theory" - i found it hard going and tedious, though I was suffering post modern discourse fatigue at the time. He talks about stringing the white middle class man upside down from the lampposts until every last penny falls from his pockets, and makes the point (as far as my memory and interpretation of his text goes) that this strategy has been attempted and not worked.

"This is simply a regurgitation of various species of disappointed, cynical, paranoid and plain deluded late-Marxism: we are proles brainwashed by the ideologies and spectacles of so-called ‘late-capitalism’ " writes Gaw [2]

It is interesting to follow the hyperlinks in Gaw text :Adorno, Marcuse, Gramci and Situationism.

Curtis has merely constructed a homage to Debord critiquing three metanaratives. We have been hoodwinked by the dominant rational model.

The answer to the question "how can we protect societal metasystems from abuse?" - the regulation of media following the hack-gate offers some promise. The complication is that capitalism was in cahoots with Murdock's empire - it funds it though advertising - so the whole system of advert constructed spectacle contributes the delusion. News, celebrity, scientific research, adverts create a closed system, a paradigm

The point that Curtis makes is that there is no hope, no way out of this situation. He makes it though copying Debord's video making style (thus signalling 'where he is coming from') and weaves a post modern narrative - post colonial, late capitalism etc

But the critique Cirtis uses is weary, and he acknowledges this in the little atom interview.  The baby boomers, the soixant huitards and critical theorists (Eagleton ropes in those who apply cybernetics to every subject under the sun) had a dream. They had a great time, are going to have a great retirement, they became the elite, they were always going to be.

Yesterday evening there was a prog. about building. Tom Dyckoff was explaining why building your own house is so difficult in the UK. Developers have been land banking, buying up the land so that it is impossible for individuals to build. (Perhaps we can add property developers to the 'ferel elite.' ) 

The optimist in me would like to think that there is a new generation of writers and thinker who fit into the same set of activities as the people's jury and that the austerity years will bring people to question the meta-narratives they have been consuming in every aspect of their lives. Will son of baby boomer do any better in making the world more fair? The non-optimist in me says 'definitely not'

Alex
[1] http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-life-of-buildings
[2] http://thedabbler.co.uk/2011/05/tv-review-all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace-bbc2/
[3] Eagleton, T., 2003. After Theory, Basic Books. Available at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465017738 [Accessed August 2, 2011].

[4] http://www.ubu.com/film/debord_refutation.html
[5] Neal Lawson's campaign for a people's jury in the UK put me in mind of themes of power abuse in the Curtis films:

I'm interested in new ways of communicating. This is why I am interested in checking out Google+. Its got a well designed  interface and offers interesting new ways of filtering. Its a big budget project - its big news

I wouldn't consider using it with "friends" in the same way I don't use Facebook, Twitter or E-Mail with them.  Those who could be described as 'week ties' (in the Granovatter [1] sense) is the environment I am interested in. "The Medium is the Message" is the principal I follow here: as a new technology it by definition gives access to networks of early adaptors -  and they are there checking Google+ out, having similar discussions to the one on this SCiO thread. 

I can see what they are interested in, i discover new things that I would not otherwise find, i make new contacts.  I have 'circles'  consisting of people who I have met at conferences, interested in new technologies, nebulous projects I am working on.... Overall I think its a good addition  to my S4. And to understand a technology, i need to use it, otherwise my model of it is flawed.

Sure there are risks, but the personal benefits of having an informed model of innovations in communication, and a larger more varied network out-weighs security risks and club-card type fears.

When it comes to platforms for communication for a network like SCiO, I would be more happy to let Google host the conversation than another party. How would you evaluate the alternatives in terms of risk, cost and ease of use? It would take a long time, four or five doggie years, maybe even more in  SCiO Years. If there was a debate it would eventually fade out. Not many members are that interested in mailing groups anyway as evidenced by the group stats. Would there me more appetite for on-line conversations if things were different? I don't know for sure, but suspect not.

Alex

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Granovetter

> Could you explain a bit more about this? I'm actually on the SCiO list but I haven't got as far as reading what the Viable System Model actually is :)

Thanks for the question Ash. Its prompted me to think about it a bit
more and produce a text.

I am quite taken by Paul's Lean Startup Project, and enjoyed sparing
with him about cybernetics on Adam Curtis thread. I wondered what a
VSM startup would look like. SCiO had a 'lets slag off Lean' session a
while back. On Monday the term "Lean Startup" caused one chap's face
to contort has he winced: "its a different Lean!", I said, "Its about
listening to the customer and prototyping the product". ("Lean is one
method, don't - we use it but not everywhere," is a paraphrase of the
general view in the community.)

For me, an idea for a start up starts with an idea based something
that you could feasibly do. There might be a number of ideas in you
mind, and you mull them over.

You meet people, see things... think some more... the ideas are not
worth implementing.... your judgement tells you time is best spent
doing something else; you are not in a good position to act. But the
ideas - internal to your mind - have been born. And you can model them
according to the VSM.

So what have you been doing in VSM terms?

Well..

There is some kind of production; you have committed some resource -
your time - into thinking about a project. You have constructed a
working definition, a loose classification for your idea perhaps. In
VSM, production systems are known as 'System Ones' or S1

A non-operational S1 can still be modelled. It is one of many systems
you have in your VSM of yourself.

One of the aspects of the VSM that some people have trouble with is
its recursive structure. Its a kind of fractal model. So inside a S1
is a whole VSM.

The new S1 comes with some attributes - four other systems,
imaginatively named S2, S3, S4 and S5. Its S5 will automatically
inherit from all the other S5s at other levels of recursion. S5 is
about identity, and as you thought up the new S1, then its going to
bear the imprint of your identity by definition.

The new idea has also got some of you mental model of the future. By
definition, your plan is one for the future, and future planning in a
VSM model is System 4.

S5 and S4 are in a dynamic relationship. What you dream up is
determined by your identity and your view of the future. For example,
my ideas above include tea & oatcakes; they reflect my interest in
food and are informed by time working as a commercial chef. I have
seen chefs at work and see how they dream up dishes to entice the
public. I have cooked oatcake and smoked duck with scrambled egg at
one place I worked: it was not a success on the menu. But, I think
about for other pancake like products. Chinese 'cannelloni' is made
from dried shrimp and spring onions: "Why not a seafood oatcake?" I am
then thinking could such an item have a story to justify its existence
in a convincing way. I make a mental note to send possible relevent
thoughts and observations towards building this story - its a
recursive emerging adaptive S5 kind of story, in other words *very*
sketchy.

Next we have S3. It monitors S1s. For a startup the S3 is asking what
have I already got, what am i already producing. Is my new S1 any use
to any of my current activities? Can some resource be found somewhere,
can there be some bootstrapping. For example, you might have borrowed
an iPad from someone, they want you to look into something. You do,
but, you also use it to look into your own stuff. I downloaded a QR
reader onto my borrowed iPad. I've seen a talk about QR codes and
ceramics at futureeverything (S4), i didn't have the capacity to
investigate them at the time. I do now! So I am thinking about
ceramics, QR codes, tea and oatcakes. How could i use the QR code in a
cafe where all these items might play a role.

S3 is in a dynamic conversation with S4 and S5. S4 is saying stuff
like "you wanna get QR codes on mugs and plates... on tea pots! you
wanna be making oatcake tea shops selling innovative takes oatcakes
and tea - and there are going to be supported by a marketing
narrative; "Oatcakes are a very old food. They would have been eaten
with anything that the Staffordshire farmer would be able to lay his
hands on. This is why we created the Carp and Cheese Oatcake, its all
locally sourced and green. "

But S5, the governor of identity is overseeing all this; "erm, no
guys... this is not what we do. Its going to impact on the social
construction of our identity. We are into software not catering. You
will scare people"

Wise words from S5, but there are other S5s. Right now we don't want
to be exposing this S5 to the operating environment, but at some level
of recursion a S5 has adapted. The S5 relating to your new S1
(remember that) has by definition changed.

To be viable, the model has an axiom that says the S5s at all levels
of recursion must stack up. A viable system is contained in and
contains other viable systems. This is where some people find it
difficult. The VSM is recursive and infinite. The detail of each model
does not need to be produced by - using a software development model -
a waterfall, rather it can be 'agile'. It has just enough information
for it be a model.

So then the question could be: "I have a new S1 idea, i have a model
of it, how can it fit into a (good) model of things that I really do?
How can I change what I really do in such a way that is a sound and
sensible adoption of my system? Where do I look to solve this problem
(what would a S4 for this S5 look like, which fields would it be
looking towards?

This might be getting confusing now. But the method (and i think its
might be unique to me) is to think in adaptive loops and make many
models, models of a multi-dimensional fractal nature.

The key is not to make the models too simple or too complex. They
don't need to be exhaustive. They need to be at the right level of
complexity, and that level is a judgement call to some degree. Only
later, when the S1 becomes a real production unit in a financial
system would you be designing and implementing monitoring systems.
"How many people actually click that QR code on the Mug?", "Who is
buying Pike and Cheshire Cheese Oatcakes?". "How many Carp do we have
in our organic stock-pool? Will it see us over Christmas?" "Is it
worth doing farmers markets?"

One of the benefits of having an 'artists licence' (I like to think I
have one) is that all the above nonsense can be contextualised as an
art project! An 'Art S5' could be used to encapsulate the new S1 -
tea, oatcakes, QR codes. That way it might be adapted create an
interface of suitable complexity with an entity, or a number of
entities in the environment.

The idea has emerged. I've shared it with a few folk, and made an
inquiry about a premises (next to an oatcake shop) , i've spoke to a
few potters, a tea blender at a farmers market... The model of the
idea is in my head, and (now) sprawled across GeekUp. Its an example
of a VSM startup.

(If it every got off the ground, even as an art project, I'd be
interested in trialling Lean Methods vs VSM methods for startup. The
main purpose of the project could this, the emergent properties adding
value as side effect, nice VSMing)

The idea is quite a complex one. Questions now could be "Where are the
funds to come from?" ,"Is this worth investing anymore time and energy
in?", "Its the GeekUp summer project thread the right place for
this?", "Have I helped anyone in anyway?"

Any thoughts most welcome.

Alex

Below is an edited version of a post to GeekUp

• Would be nice to find video an music. Suggestions on coments please.
• Will try to incorporate into a Lean Startup film

------ Start ----------
<music>

<video footage>
A lamb stares at a dandelion. An orange Datsun Sunny rolls off a
production line. A nuclear power station: Three men in white coats
examine a mainframe computer controlling a steam turbine; Africans
perform Tai Chi: a solar farm. Greek protesters throw stones at
police. The IMF announce a new president. Bono at Glastonbury. Max
Keiser raises an eyebrow. Roadwars; he's given it legs... now the
arrest.

<music fades>

<voice over>
2012. The need to make savings in public expenditure to secure bailout
loans drove governments to manage their societies like factories...
Techniques developed in the manufacture of automobiles were once again
now again being applied to the running of states....

.. and the people were powerless

<video footage>
A ford model T rolls off production line, Vladimir Putin drives a Lada
on a new motorway -- past a lake. A boy racer pulls a doughnut in
Edgelands;A water buffalo, a flyover.

<voice over>

Talyorism was reborn.

The aftermath of Total Quality Management and Just-in-Time
manufacturing had permeated every aspect of life producing an all
enveloping spectacle, an infinite mental prison of howling,
reverberating second-order-schizoid-feedback

... And it all started in a small town prior to the great depression.
<music>

<video footage>
Barbead wire being used as telegraph wire. A closed factory gate.

<voice over>
W. Edwards Deming - a sometime telephone engineer turned business guru
would change the way the world thought about their work...
His methods -- of statistical control -- would wipe out the
livelihoods of millions of ordinary people ... shopkeepers, farmers
and artisans; Milions years of cultural evolution, networks of trust
and trade would be overwhelm by a harbour wave of dogma. The result a
cul-de-sac from which we would never emerge

The variety from which serendipitous mutation emerge would be
extinguished from the imagination of the population.

<video footage>
A young Terry Lehey is pictured looking at a prototype of a clubcard,
a chimp in a cage stares at a mirror and eats a chocolate, a telephone
operator makes a connection on a switchboard, Margaret Thatcher
outside her parents shop in Grantham

<voice over>
The efficient distribution of commodities combined with the
comditization of every aspect of life was leading in a crisis in
public health...

and at its heart was a cult ...

<music "Kung Fu Fighting">
Management consultant John Seddon had convinced the government that
pubic mood could be managed like workers in a factory..

Seddon, believed that his experience of optimizing teams in  call
centers could be applied to the pubic services...

<video footage>
Willian Hague performs Judo throw, Sebastion Coe in a hard hat outside
a stadium

<Voice Over>
His inspiration came from the the automotive industry..
and a metaphor of organisational change expressed in the language of
martial arts.

<Video Footage>
A 'flow chain sensai' delivers a powerpoint to a council in the North
of England. A middle manager is presented with a green judo belt.
Colleagues applaud.

<Voice Over>
At the same time, serial entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley were learning
lessons from the ashes of the US car industry.

The production of computer code would now be managed according to just-
in-time feedback from the markets, in ways were influenced the way
slimes and moulds navigated mazes

It would stabilize risk.
It would prevent a bubble.

...and the coders-cum-poets-cum-entrepreneurs would be more elegantly
productive.

Efficient innovation would be the key to an economic recovery, one
based on ideas.

The agile development of intellectual property would re-address budget
deficits...

And we would all eat locally sourced, ethically produced vegetables,
our computers would be powered by the wind and the sun, we would work
from sheds on our allotments.

< Video Footage>
Chinese bureaucrats look impressed as a young man with a beard looking
dressed in 1920's costume demostrates a Heath-Robinson contraption
with a Arduino circuit board, a mobile phone and a fixed wheel bike. A
solar panel nestles against a (romanesque) Cauliflower. A QR code

<Voice Over>
New methods would be taught in schools

And self organizing projects in derelict shops would replace schools,
youth clubs and universities

The new society would be big and connected. The data would be shared,
government would be small, society would be big

<video footage>
a dad, a son, his friend look at a screen in the middle of the city.
The dad shows his mobile phone to his wife.

They smile

... benevolent and lean

------------- THE END ---------------

A lamb stares at a dandelion. An orange Datsun Sunny rolls off a
production line. A nuclear power station: Three men in white coats
examine a mainframe computer controlling a steam turbine; Africans
perform Tai Chi: a solar farm. Greek protesters throw stones at
police. The IMF announce a new president. Bono at Glastonbury. Max
Keiser raises an eyebrow. Roadwars; he's given it legs... now the
arrest.

2012. The need to make savings in public expenditure to secure bailout
loans drove governments to manage their societies like factories...
Techniques developed in the manufacture of automobiles were once again
now again being applied to the running of states....

.. and the people were powerless

A ford model T rolls off production line, Vladimir Putin drives a Lada
on a new motorway -- past a lake. A boy racer pulls a doughnut in
Edgelands;A water buffalo, a flyover.

Talyorism was reborn.

The aftermath of Total Quality Management and Just-in-Time
manufacturing had permeated every aspect of life producing an all
enveloping spectacle, an infinite mental prison of howling,
reverberating second-order-schizoid-feedback

... And it all started in a small town prior to the great depression.

Barbead wire being used as telegraph wire. A closed factory gate.

W. Edwards Deming - a sometime telephone engineer turned business guru
would change the way the world thought about their work...
His methods -- of statistical control -- would wipe out the
livelihoods of millions of ordinary people ... shopkeepers, farmers
and artisans; Milions years of cultural evolution, networks of trust
and trade would be overwhelm by a harbour wave of dogma. The result a
cul-de-sac from which we would never emerge

The variety from which serendipitous mutation emerge would be
extinguished from the imagination of the population.

A young Terry Lehey is pictured looking at a prototype of a clubcard,
a chimp in a cage stares at a mirror and eats a chocolate, a telephone
operator makes a connection on a switchboard, Margaret Thatcher
outside her parents shop in Grantham

The efficient distribution of commodities combined with the
comditization of every aspect of life was leading in a crisis in
public health...

and at its heart was a cult ...

Management consultant John Seddon had convinced the government that
pubic mood could be managed like workers in a factory..

Seddon, believed that his experience of optimizing teams in call
centers could be applied to the pubic services...

Willian Hague performs Judo throw, Sebastion Coe in a hard hat outside
a stadium

His inspiration came from the the automotive industry..
and a metaphor of organisational change expressed in the language of
martial arts.

A 'flow chain sensai' delivers a powerpoint to a council in the North
of England. A middle manager is presented with a green judo belt.
Colleagues applaud.

At the same time, serial entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley were learning
lessons from the ashes of the US car industry.

The production of computer code would now be managed according to just-
in-time feedback from the markets, in ways were influenced the way
slimes and moulds navigated mazes

It would stabilize risk.
It would prevent a bubble.

...and the coders-cum-poets-cum-entrepreneurs would be more elegantly
productive.

Efficient innovation would be the key to an economic recovery, one
based on ideas.

The agile development of intellectual property would re-address budget
deficits...

And we would all eat locally sourced, ethically produced vegetables,
our computers would be powered by the wind and the sun, we would work
from sheds on our allotments.

< Video Footage>
Chinese bureaucrats look impressed as a young man with a beard looking
dressed in 1920's costume demostrates a Heath-Robinson contraption
with a Arduino circuit board, a mobile phone and a fixed wheel bike. A
solar panel nestles against a (romanesque) Cauliflower. A QR code

New methods would be taught in schools

And self organizing projects in derelict shops would replace schools,
youth clubs and universities

The new society would be big and connected. The data would be shared,
government would be small, society would be big

a dad, a son, his friend look at a screen in the middle of the city.
The dad shows his mobile phone to his wife. They smile

... benevolent and lean

------------- THE END ---------------

On Jun 28, 7:05 pm, Paul Robinson wrote:
> On 28 Jun 2011, at 16:46, alex wrote:
>
> > It sounds a bit like a cybernetic approach to me.
>
> I can see how you might think that. It's not in my opinion, but I'd appreciate you turning up to debate the point with me at some point. :-)
>
> Paul

Sorry Hakim, 
I should proffer my your own opinion if you're asking for others.' 
Here it is; 

I love the Curtis' work on many levels. 
1) The spectacle - the visuals, the audio, the narrative voice 
2) The content - seemingly uncovering a deep sinister truth 
His latest offering is especially interesting in that it touches on 
one of my favourite topic areas: Cybernetics. I got into the subject 
while studying art. Then later while working on a leadership project, 
I was introduced to management cybernetics. This kind of cybernetics 
compared to the art kind is quite dry. I became fascinated by the two 
flavours, one quite whacked out infleuce on the avant-guard , the 
other seemingly a very square. 
In the Manchester Business School (MBS) library there are a few UMIST 
texts nestling in-between the reading list standard texts. Ross 
Ashby's "Cybernetics" was a dry yet understandable read. It features 
lots of exercises concerning the manipulation of matrices, some of 
which have penciled in anwsers, perhaps from the early 1970s. Stafford 
Beer's Designing Freedom has some nice pictures in and is -- like 
Ashby's text -- is a slim volume. Other texts are less easy going. 
Beer's first book "Decision and Control" sets out a vision for 
operations research. It is quite a dry read, the Greek-typefaced 
quotes at the beginning of each chapter not particularly helpful. 
Some Googling and a wikipedia page later I ended up back at MBS. There 
is a cybernetics club that meets there. I went along and it was quite 
dry and hard to understand. I kept on going and now its not so dry. 
There are some rich stories there, genuinely more interesting than 
they may look on paper. In the North West the early computer industry 
was influenced by Beer though the Manchester University's 
collaboration with ICL. I find this quite interesting as many of the 
parents of my hometown friends worked at ICL Kidsgrove. 
Management cybernetics generally takes a dim view of  art flavoured 
cybernetic. "People like Adam Curtis come along every now and again, 
but they don't realy get it," would be a typical line from a seasoned 
cybernetician. The fact that Curtis paints the discipline as a right 
wing project will no doubt irk many cyberneticians. They may view 
Beer's work in Chillie under Allende as groundbreaking and well ahead 
of its time. There is a view that if the real time contol of an 
economy were implemented then recent events like the so called crash 
would not happen. Another view is that Beer (on $500 a day consultancy 
fee in 1972) was extremely naive in neglecting to model the political 
dimension (ie the US not being happy about a socialist state in South 
America) 
In UK politics cybernetics does not seem to feature heavily. Beer met 
with Tony Ben in the 1970s apparently. I've stumbled across one of 
Margret Thatcher's ex-advisors writing a Viable Systems Model analysis 
of Obama's plan for health care reform. The language of 'Lean' and the 
hashtag #systems thinking does seem to have permeated into the Today 
programme though the work of Vanguard Consulting and John Seddon. An 
examination cybernetics in UK politics  would suggest -- to me at 
least -- that the cybernetics of Ashby and Beer remain locked away 
from those in power and that systems used in political points towards 
streamlining rather than holistic analysis. 
In the states, conceptual metaphor guru George Larkoff writes that 
Obama is using the language of cybernetics. Terry Winograd -- tutor to 
the Google boys worked with Fernado Flores the Chilean finance 
minister under Allende. My impression is that in the States, 
cybernetics as a is in a more mature state than in the UK. 
To me Curtis' narrative though cybernetics is quite an obscure one. 
Maybe tonight he will mention von Forester, Winograd and Flores, 
Maturana and so called "second order cybernetics": a more mainstream 
narrative would include them I think. 
Having said that, I think that Curtis is happy making a "spectacle"; 
his films closely ape the style of Guy Debord's collage; jutaposition 
of archieve footage delivered with a flat, polemical voice-over, a 
narative that attempts to sugest that reality is not what it seems. 
Its a mirage created by those in power and capitalism. 

Overall its great work. But perhaps the BBC should allow its achieves 
to be used by other artists. In some ways Curtis is the voice of 
(BBC2) power. 
Best Wishes 
Alex 

From https://groups.google.com/group/geekup/browse_thread/thread/8b71e49e94803ef9?...

GeekUp,

The question is "How excited should I be getting about QR codes.

Q : How excited should I be getting about QR codes?

Please select one of the options below.

A) Mega excited. Where have you been 'man'? I've been into them for so
long!!! Come in 'daddy cool'!!!
B) The QR code, like other many other technologies, seems to offer a
solution to a great (if partial) number of "problems" in contemporary
"post-industial society"[1]. However, it is by _no means_ a "silver
bullet"; issues of adoption and standards still apply . If your
interest lies with hobbyist, Futureeverythingeque, academic,
allotment-meets-hardware hacks-meets-geeks-go-camping , hacking fixed
wheel bikes or the finer points of production lines in automotive
engineering -- then go for it.But remember real "problems" are
socio-technical in nature and can't be solved by technology alone. You
also might want to check out the work of (Kurt) Gödel, (Professor)
Brian Cox, (Karl) Marx and Adam Curtis (in that order) and challenge
your preconceptions about the problem space in a new light.
c) QR???? You must be having a laugh!!!!!!!!!!! My 3/4/5* year old
nephew was into that ........ 2 years ago!!!!! LOL Where have you been
granddad???? Reading Norman 'Kingsley' Mailer and getting a new tailor
just hasn't worked has it? Oh dear!!!!!
d) Option d is reserved for free prose. Please use it as you like

Alex
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-industrial_society
* Delete as applicable

This is a test. Does html formatted e-mail format on Posterous?