Ged Carroll

Category: culture | 文明 | 미디어와 예술 | 人文

Culture was the central point of my reason to start this blog. I thought that there was so much to explore in Asian culture to try and understand the future.

Initially my interest was focused very much on Japan and Hong Kong. It’s ironic that before the Japanese government’s ‘Cool Japan’ initiative there was much more content out there about what was happening in Japan. Great and really missed publications like the Japan Trends blog and Ping magazine.

Hong Kong’s film industry had past its peak in the mid 1990s, but was still doing interesting stuff and the city was a great place to synthesise both eastern and western ideas to make them its own. Hong Kong because its so densely populated has served as a laboratory of sorts for the mobile industry.

Way before there was Uber Eats or Food Panda, Hong Kongers would send their order over WhatsApp before going over to pay for and pick up their food. Even my local McDonalds used to have a WhatsApp number that they gave out to regular customers. All of this worked because Hong Kong was a higher trust society than the UK or China. In many respects in terms of trust, its more like Japan.

Korea quickly became a country of interest as I caught the ‘Korean wave’ or hallyu on its way up. I also have discussed Chinese culture and how it has synthesised other cultures.

More recently, aspect of Chinese culture that I have covered has taken a darker turn due to a number of factors.

  • Old mix I’d done

    Digging through my digital archive I came across an old mix CD I’d done.

    Two Technics SL-1200 decks, vinyl records, a no-brand mixer with bass and treble levels on each channel that I had picked up at Maplins (think Radio Shack in the US) and a HHB CD-R 800 recorder to take it down in one take.  (For hi-fi heads, the CD-R 800 was made for HHB by Pioneer based on the respected Pioneer PDR-99. The differences were in the rack mount capability on the HHB in place of the wooden side pieces, HHB branding and some additional balanced connections on the back for recording in a studio.)

    It was sent out and given to friends as a CD in an A3 sleeve that folded down to CD size designed by Stephen Holmes at bloodybigspider.

    Track listing (as best I can remember) – if you recognise any of the other tracks let me know so I can plug the gaps

    1. Unfinished Sympathy (Nellee Hooper club mix) – Massive Attack. I am a great believer in starting with something people know. I prefer the Nellee Hooper mix over the more famous Paul Oakenfold mix of Unfinished Sympathy
    2. Reality (main vocal version) – DJ Spinna featuring Rich Medina
    3. Marscarter (BLHIII original) – Bernard Leon Howard III. A really nice track on the Tweekin label which I really liked. BLH didn’t release anything after this 
    4. Inspirations From A Small Black Church On The Eastside Of Detroit – Moodymann. I loved this track but wasn’t sure how to use it. In the end I just threw it in
    5. Unlabelled white label
    6. City People (Migs Dubpusher Rub) – Miguel Migs
    7. Jazz 2 B U (Johnny Fiasco’s after midnight mix) – Chris Simmonds
    8. Saxomus Bill – Jay Tripwire (you can find this on Beatport as Saxamus Brown – presumably because the original namechecks Bill Clinton)
    9. Hypnose (Tony Hewitt remix) – Phil Weeks
    10. Unknown white label
    11. Unknown white label
    12. My Dusty 303 – Dano – it manages to do acid house in a way that allows room for all the instruments to ‘breath’
    13. I go back (main mix) – Harry Romero featuring Robert Owens. Both are great in their own right but together this becomes phenomenal
    14. The Love Scene (Henry Street remix) – Joe – this is a remix of an R&B track that I hadn’t heard of. I like the way its built into a dreamy track, ideal for finishing this mix on.

    More culture related topics here.

  • IBM guilty + more news

    IBM guilty of age discrimination

    I, Cringely Is IBM guilty of age discrimination? – Part two – I, Cringely – this could get very interesting, IBM guilty in a court of law would pose a wide range of problems from a political and regulatory point-of-view. There will also be issues in terms of skillsets for looking after large legacy systems. More on IBM here.

    Consumer behaviour

    Has Desktop Internet Use Peaked? – WSJ – Data from the research company indicate overall time spent online in the U.S. from desktop devices—which include laptop computers—has fallen for the past four months, on a year-over-year basis. It dipped 9.3% in December 2015, 7.6% in January, 2% in February and 6% in March (paywall)

    Culture

    A Japanese guy remade The Life of Pablo without hearing it | Dazed – I think its better than the real thing

    Media

    Copyright fight club – POLITICO – Hollywood in one corner, internet companies in the other

    6 Reasons BuzzFeed’s Revenue Miss Is OMG! – BuzzFeed’s supposed to be the media company that holds the answer to the media business’s future in a post-banner world

    Online

    UC Davis pepper spray: PHOTOS – Business Insider – interesting case study of online PR clean-up that didn’t quite work out

    Rocket Internet Vows to Limit Losses After 2015 Cash Burn | BoF – just wow

    企鹅智酷 | Tencent Penguin Intelligence – great online research resource in Chinese

    The CIA Is Investing in Firms That Mine Your Tweets and Instagram Photos – (paywall)

    Security

    FBI hasn’t learned anything from unlocked San Bernardino iPhone, says report – CNET – quelle surprise, I can’t even believe that this is news

    Daring Fireball: Motherboard: How Canadian Police Intercept and Read Encrypted BlackBerry Messages – basically if you aren’t running your own Business Enterprise Server, your BlackBerry messages and email are up for grabs. If the police have the key you can bet other people can get their hands on it as well – a la the criminal record database access that is acquired by private investigators through nefarious means

    Web of no web

    Why New York Subway Lines Are Missing Countdown Clocks – The Atlantic – if you look at the lifespan of the equipment deployed, how would Intenet of Heavier Things last as long?

    The return of the QR code? | The Digerati – the QRcode never really went away, what is interesting is how Facebook has gone for something proprietary in its code design for Messenger

  • Context collapse

    Disclaimer on context collapse

    Years ago I wrote a series of posts with the link-baiting titles of ‘Facebook is a dead man walking’; the first post written in 2008. I say this so you can form an opinion up  front about my interpretation  around the idea of context collapse.

    Facebook page

    According to The Information, Facebook is worried about a drop in users sharing their own content.

    As of mid-2015, total sharing had declined by about 5.5% year over year while “original broadcast sharing” was down 21% year over year, the confidential data show.

    This loss is especially acute with under 30 year old users. This loss in sharing according to Bloomberg company staff have branded context collapse.

    Context collapse

    What are the likely causes of context collapse? Here my are my hypotheses.

    Negative network effects. Just five years ago ZDNet published research were respondents admitted that they were drunk in 75 per cent of their photos on Facebook. In 2016, when ‘friends’ means colleagues, superiors, clients, teachers or parents there will be a lot more self-censorship going on.  A more subtle form of self censorship will be also brought about in terms of societal norming.

    When Facebook initially arrived the volume of content that people shared was larger, now it isn’t only the nature of the content that people will consider but the volume of the content. Are they too noisy, do they overshare?

    Facebook lost a lot of trust with consumers with things likes Beacon. Consumers didn’t necessarily understand the nuances, they were told that it wasn’t good and their privacy settings are a major hassle to tweak – when you’re on edge about privacy, you are more likely to put a filter on your content.

    Just over five years ago, Netbase had released brand research that showed consumers had a stronger, negative feeling towards Facebook than brands like Microsoft, Google or Twitter. That left room for other services to creep in for self-expression, messaging and sharing to small groups. Facebook bought some of the major players Instagram and WhatsApp, but doesn’t own all the pieces.

    More information
    Facebook Struggles to Stop Decline in ‘Original’ Sharing | The Information (paywall)
    British Facebook users are drunk in 76% of their photos | ZDNet
    Facebook Wants You to Post More About Yourself – Bloomberg
    Why Facebook is a dead man walking | renaissance chambara
    Why Facebook is a dead man walking part II? | renaissance chambara
    Why Facebook is a dead man walking part 2.5? | 技术品牌的情绪 | renaissance chambara
    Facebook and advertising or why Facebook is a dead man walking part III? | renaissance chambara

  • Woz + more things

    Woz

    Reddit have interviewed geek heroes. In each interview they discuss their formative moments for a series of videos on YouTube. The complete playlist is below. Steve Wozniak aka Woz is one of the geek heroes highlighted . It’s a a quality interview with the Woz on form on various topics. You can read more about Woz here.

  • Holly Herndon + more things

    Holly Herndon

    Holly Herndon and Jace Clayton in conversation. Holly and Jace are interesting characters. They are academics, at least one published book author and artists. They have explored areas such as sampling themselves and the use of machine learning in composition and sound creation.

    Holly Herndon on process is fascinating. I think this has wider implications for creative industries. It does raise question about the nature of creation itself in terms of intellectual property.

    James Lavelle

    James Lavelle on the history of Mo’Wax. These films by FACT magazine are nice. Although they miss a few things.

    Lavelle’s impact goes beyond music:

    • James Lavelle has been a taste maker, he helped popularise a lot of Japanese clothing including A Bathing Ape (BAPE) in the UK and Europe
    • Lavelle’s Unkle was more than a music brand. There was a strong focus on merchandise and clothing including the Surrender streetwear brand. The merchandise was a great product as you can see in Lavelle’s archive. You only see Surrender items come up on eBay every so often because they are so valued and highly prized by owners. The big issue seems to have been one of distribution and hype. There is no interest on the likes of StockX for these items despite the heat behind designers Futura and manufacturers Mediacom and BAPE – again distribution would have been so important for awareness

    Lavelle has managed to self destruct and reinvent himself, which is only obliquely touched upon in this footage.

    More on the history of Mo’Wax. There is more serendipity in this than this video lets on. Also Japan’s Major Force Records needs more kudos than seems to happen in this video. If you liked this it is well worthwhile checking out the

    Sleep app pivot

    How J&J Research Led From Bath-Time to a Mobile Sleep App | Digital – AdAge – fascinating story how consumer insights can dramatically shake up product development and or service design