Chaos Generation July Zine

Putting together the July issue of the zine. Aiming to put it up by the weekend.

The Apprentice

Started watching 'The Apprentice' now after reading the spoilers. On Monday night's episode
(Week 9), the two teams had to pick an emerging artist's work to showcase and whichever team sold the highest $$ value were safe, the other team would meet Donald Trump and his two advisors in the boardroom and one member of the team would be fired. They chose Meaghan, who's work they found confronting and a bit dark but who had her own following and who's work sold for around $4k a piece on average.

Versacorp, led by Nick, sold $13,000 of art while Protégé, led by Kwame, sold $869. Trump said Protégé got "creamed" because they made the mistake of not believing in what they were selling.

Website: http://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Apprentice/

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Saw this film earlier tonight. It was a good, fun movie.
W: http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/main/homepage/home.html

Jon and Josh Baker interviewed in Australian INfront

"TWiN is Jonathan and Joshua Baker. Both come from the same background in design, and have spent the last few years working at two of Sydney's top motion houses [Josh at Ambience Entertainment & Jonathan having moved on from mesh22, to now directing at Window Productions]. Their work ranges from title sequences for film and TV, to logo animations, to directing music videos and commercials."

They spoke at last year's the Semi-Permanent event. They did a fun, cool presentation.
W: http://www.australianinfront.com.au/Start.aspx?fr=/Individuals.aspx?IndividualID=13

Google reveals its caring side

This article talks about Google wanting to give back to the community by making available some of their code, as well as possibly opening a regional research and development office in Melbourne. W: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/21/1087669904427.html

Architects on ABC TV - tonight

On George Negus Tonight: Wednesday June 23, 2004, 6.30pm

The program looks at the way architects turn their ideas into reality, how their buildings function, and what impact buildings have on the urban environment.

"John Wardle
A profile of renowned, award-winning Melbourne architect John Wardle who talks through the design of a number of his houses in and around Melbourne. John discusses the whole process – from initial conception to the design phase, the nature of his on-going discussions with clients, and on-site talks about finished projects.

Robert Morris Nunn
Tasmanian architect Robert Morris Nunn focuses on public buildings. He is an award-winning architect who is renowned for retaining the historical integrity of Tasmanian buildings while giving them a contemporary redesign. He is also very interested in creating buildings that are environmentally sustainable. Richard Flanagan comments on the importance of Morris Nunn's work and how it represents the spirit of Tasmanians.

Gregory Burgess
Gregory Burgess is known internationally for his culturally sensitive designs, working for and with indigenous Australians. He has just won the Royal Institute of Architects' most prestigious award, the Gold Medal, for his body of work, which includes the cultural centre at Uluru, the Brambuk Aboriginal cultural centre in the Grampians, and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Burgess talks about his work, with a particular focus on the Aboriginal cultural centres.

Richard Goodwin
Richard Goodwin is a sculptor and architect who pioneered freeway architecture and large scale public art in Australia. He created the walls on the Gore Hill freeway, and the Glebe Island Arterial project, to name just two projects, changing the way we think about public space. Goodwin also won Australia's biggest sculpture prize this year, the Helen Lempriere Award. Alex Tarney visits him in Sydney and he takes her around the city to view and discuss his projects. We also see him working on his latest idea in his studio."

W: http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/future/

Launch of Natural Selection magazine issue 2

This Friday, 25 June
James Lynch is the guest editor for this issue.

MIR11, 11th floor 522 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
6-8 pm punch and club sandwiches
Turnip scuptures
Private readings
Meet the editors

The magazine will be available for download "sometime on friday" from the Natural Selection website at: http://www.naturalselection.org.nz.

Libraries try to fit into a Google world

This article talks about libraries acknowledging that lots of students, academics are increasingly searching for information using Google etc to write their papers. Some of the libraries around the world have started to work with the search engine companies to make their catalogues and collections available online.

An example is Carnegie-Mellon University, who have digitally scanned 1.6 million pages of archival material from the papers of Carnegie-Mellon scientists which are now searchable via Google. "Google has also indexed two million book titles through the Online Computer Library Center, which manages a database of catalogs from 12,000 libraries around the world."

The article mentions that there is still some way to go as a lot of information is also stored in electronic databases and so services like Google are not yet able to search these databases. Also some older, archival material is still only available in the hard copy collections of research libraries around the world.

W: http://news.com.com/Libraries+try+to+fit+into+a+Google+world/2100-1024_3-5241384.html?tag=st.rc.targ_mb

Reunion website in $3m sale

Article about siblings Rob Barron, 27, and Vicki Dawson, a 29-year-old mother of two selling their website www.schoolfriends.com.au to British competitor Friends Reunited for an industry estimate of at least £1 million ($AU 2.7 million). Rob saw the idea in the U.S. and then developed the idea for the Australian market.
W: http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9905067^15306^^nbv^,00.html

Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety Part 1 on TV tonight.

COMPASS: STATUS ANXIETY: PT 1
Tonight 10.10-11.05pm, on the ABC.

"Alain de Botton, one of Britain's leading young thinkers, investigates the contemporary face of status anxiety by exploring its history and examines what status is, where it comes from and what we can do about the problems it causes."

Source: http://www.ebroadcast.com.au

Dissociatives gig a the Enmore theatre last night

Enjoyed a great gig by the Dissociatives ie Daniel Johns and Paul Mac last night at the Enmore theatre. Daniel looked liked he was having a lot of fun and just really getting into the music. He experiments with his voice, such as whistling v.well parts of tunes and experimenting with sounds. He is a v.charismatic, world-class performer. Paul Mac was having heaps of fun too, jumping around at his station. Great night. V.uplifting sounds.

Dissociatives website: http://www.thedissociatives.com/flash.htm

Then went to The Citrus cafe on King St, Newtown to share a yummy 'mortal sin' cake (four layer cake - chocolate crumb type base, then a cheesecake layer, then a chocolate mousse layer then a cream layer on top), with ice-cream on the side and hot chocolate. This cafe has 18 cakes on display. The potato wedges on the next table looked really great too!

K-mart, Marrickville Metro

Was looking for a column heater for those chilly nights. Saw a price-check machine in the toy section. Saw people taking boxes and things and lining up to scan the barcodes for the prices. One kid was happy with the price and exclaimed loudly that he could afford the item. Saw all these kid spy gadget toys, where you can listen to conversations some metres away using a device that's 'disguised' to look a CD player, and there's the night vision glasses and more, and these items are now just kid's toys. They also have a range of new release book titles selling for 35% less than retail prices. That's a pretty good deal.

Google's man behind the curtain

CNet interviews Craig Silverstein, who joined Sergey Brin and Larry Page to build Google. He gets asked about Google and the future of searching. Silverstein talks in general terms but the interview is still interesting. He talks about reference librarians being able to 'understand emotions and other non factual information' provided by people, and then being able to apply these cues and apply this intelligence in using Google to help answer people's queries.

He says: "So, part of the goal is to make computers smart enough so that when you interact with them, they can do something with that information to help you actually get better results. That is certainly something Google thinks about to improve quality.

When do you think that kind of artificially intelligent search will happen?
I think that understanding language is kind of the last frontier in artificial intelligence, and then talking to a computer will be just like talking to a reference librarian, because they will both be equally knowledgeable about the world and about you."

Article at: http://news.com.com/Google's+man+behind+the+curtain/2008-1024_3-5208228.html?part=rss&tag=5208228&subj=news.1024.null

On The Road with Audioblogger

This article talks about putting audio blog posts onto your blog. I like the idea of phoning in your blog from anywhere, and also the idea that you can download mp3 audio blog files onto your ipod and listen to them. Gives another level of 'personal' quality to blogging.

Link: http://www.blogger.com/knowledge/2004/06/on-road-with-audioblogger.pyra

NSW KM Forum: State of the Art in Web Mining - Free event

Topic: State of the Art in Web Mining
Presenter: Laurie Lock Lee
Date: 01 July 04
Time: 5.30 – 7.30
Location: 286 Sussex St Sydney (Corner with Bathurst)

"Laurie Lock Lee, a KM consultant at CSC and a regular at the NSW KM Forum, will talk to us about the State-of-the-art in Web Mining

The World Wide Web is the world's largest information repository and growing at an astounding rate. The volume and richness of information available for both business and personal use is undoubted. If only it were easier to find and use it! A survey of CSC staff indicated that over 80% of information accessed to support day to day decision-making came from unstructured and often web accessible sources. This result is consistent with similar industry surveys conducted on unstructured information use.

Web Mining is a natural extension of data mining, though with the web (both the Internet and intranets) as its primary data source. The unstructured and textual nature of the web presents some significant challenges, but also some exciting possibilities. This presentation will review the current state of the art in Web Mining. The presentation, based on research conducted under a CSC Leading Edge Forum Technology Grant, will include some novel Web Mining application examples. One example will show how web mining can help us understand our positioning in certain markets e.g. BPO, CRM etc. Another will look inside CSC's 700+ communities to explore the informal side of CSC around the globe."

If you want to go to this event, you just turn up.
For more info email: james.digges@sai-global.com

Source: The Knowledge Update - June 2004 enewsletter, sent from SAI Global Professional Services.

The future of marriage - Nerve's VoiceBox feature

"The future of marriage is a contentious topic, even around the Nerve offices. Some of us are getting hitched before the year is out. Others are avoiding it like a family reunion. It's at once an incredibly personal matter and a major issue on the national stage. Is the institution obsolete? Should same-sex marriage be legal? Are children raised by single parents more likely to go postal? Is this generation waiting too long to get married? In search of insight, if not answers, we assembled an e-roundtable that included the resolutely single writer Jonathan Ames, comedy queen Margaret Cho, the conservative commentator Maggie Gallagher, a gay historian and the editor-in-chief of Maxim. — Tobin Levy"

Link: http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/voicebox/futureofmarriage/

Margaret Cho's Notorious show on TV tonight SBS 10.00-11.40pm

DOCUMENTARY: NOTORIOUS - C.H.O.

"Korean-American comedienne Margaret Cho's performance at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. The show is preceded by an animated two-hander that defuses cultural stereotypes by exaggerating them. It's followed by an interview with Margaret Cho, interviews with the audience about to go into the theatre and an interview with Cho's parents. Cho's one-woman show sends up September 11, the anthrax scare, gay bars, colonic irrigation, periods (if straight men or gays had them as well), token roles by Asians on US TV, drag queens, her mother's accent and attitudes and many more social issues. (From the US, in English)."

Source: http://www.ebroadcast.com.au
Margaret Cho's website: http://www.margaretcho.com

Trump's Trend-spotting Tips

This article in Entrepreneur.com outlines 6 tips Donald Trump has for helping entrepreneurs to capitalise on the next big thing: 1. Do your research for a big-money payoff, 2. Try a variation on an already viable trend, 3. Consider a contrarian approach, 4. Fine-tune production, 5. Jump in before anyone else, and 6. Go with your gut. The article also lists 10 websites to help you keep informed of the latest trends. W: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,315568-4,00.html.

NUCA (Network of Un-Collectable Artists) card set swap meet - Sydney

"We are having a swapmeet 2-4pm on 26 June (Sat) at The Cross Art Projects. It's so anyone who is trying to collect the whole set (which isn't easy) can hook up with others to trade and swap!"

33 Roslyn Street Kings Cross Sydney 2011. T: +61 2 93572058, E: joholder@aic.net.au

Source: email from Lucas Ihlein. 16/6/04.

The key to email: a two-second grab

This article talks about people spending about 2 seconds to decide whether to read or delete your email. W: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/14/1087065076891.html.

The article refers to Jakob Nielsen's 2nd Edition report titled: Email Newsletter Usability:
127 design guidelines for subscription interfaces, newsletter content and account maintenance based on user research.

You can read the summary of the report, and the table of contents of the report at: http://nngroup.com/reports/newsletters/.
The full report costs $298 (U.S.) for the 293 page pdf file.