August 2008 Archives
Karmalizm Spin Cycle
Aug 31, 2008
Cyclists engaging in a bit of Karmalizm: a cross between a club night out, brand spotting - those boys do like their logos and a mass public demonstration of Wii Fit. Some video's from last year's event here.
The Tokyo cycle messenger brand de jour? That's gotta be Huf.
Motivations for Notating Currency
Aug 31, 2008
Punters of this Tokyo camera store are handed a notated coin for this scratch-off lottery card. For any given context - whether ownership needs to be made explicit and for what kind of objects?
Disparate thoughts related to money: alternative forms of currency and value - from airtime to kiva donations, combined with increasingly sophisticated ways to track how money is spent. How will recipients convert donations into the things they really want to spend money and stay under the radar?
Best place to buy used camera gear in Tokyo? Probably here.
Happier Moments
Aug 31, 2008
Future Social @ LIFT
Aug 30, 2008
Heading off to the LIFT Asia next week - contributing to a session on techno-nomadic life with a presentation titled Future Social. The topic? The ongoing dance between existing behavioural/social practices and the disruptions created by new technologies.
As always, the presentation material will be posted here.
Trumpets optional. You can't knock a good Ahmedabad street wedding.
Sense of Scale
Aug 28, 2008
Petrol station in Handan above - with the very large truck just visible under the bottom right hand arch, and in Ho Chi Minh City below.
For every culture - a sense of scale.
Retail Display Norms
Aug 27, 2008
In Kabul the tape cassette is still holding its own.
Kids with Guns, Cheatin'
Aug 26, 2008
To what extent are punters of this Azabu Juban 'rifle' range attracted by the idea that they can cheat the system, i.e. leaning so far into the range that it's nigh on impossible to miss? And to what extent are the prizes calibrated to account for this?
This Is Your City In Name Only (The Art of Co-Cocooning)
Aug 26, 2008
A train plastered in advertising glides into and out of this Bangkok station.
One of the striking aspects of commuting on the Bangkok SkyTrain is the in-your-face level of advertising that dominates the station infrastructure - it includes flat-screen TVs with accompanying audio both on the platform and on the trains. The BST is designed from the ground up to maximise its advertising potential - seemingly with no surface deemed to inappropriate to be adorned with a message about a massage, or credit card, or, or. Revenues from advertising could make the difference between offering a service that is affordable or indeed no service at all, but I'm left wondering how, in cities where no holds are barred how the level of intrusion will play out when there are more ways to identify individuals, their tastes, their everyday interactions.
A scattergun of thoughts on this balmy Tokyo evening: To what extent does an uninterrupted view of the city affect our sense of journeying? And to what extent does this affect our sense of well being? For what kinds of journey is this important? Or for what aspects of each journey? And, assuming it is desirable, how will individuals recreate that sense of journey in real time - perhaps with this or as some other life stream collider.
The speed at which large screen display technologies showing poster quality moving images will replace what is left of windows on commuter transport? Whether (and in what urban centers) we will see a wholesale shift towards commuter transport where passengers expect to be cocooned from what lies out there. Whether this in turn makes the shift towards more autonomous, 'self-driving' vehicles a more acceptable proposition - with passengers pre-conditioned into mentally switching off? Who will be first to offer personal urban transport where windows are an optional extra?
In some cities the future public service will offer passengers a way to get from A to B, mentally and physically insulated from what's out there, creating a head space that's just ripe to feed the message of the day/minute/second. The easiest way to kick-back is to retreat further into your own bubble - using a superlite version of today's head mounted displays perhaps, or simply your tunes.
At some point the race for your mind-share and the wallet-share that goes with it will need to dig a little deeper.
How low will they go?
And, ultimately how far will you allow them to go?
Serving Norms
Aug 26, 2008
Tokyo fairground snack made from a single piece of potato.
Two Passengers Good, One Bad
Aug 24, 2008
What do you think of when you see a car with a driver and no passengers? On the roads Los Angeles sole occupancy is the norm - if you're in the high occupancy/two-passengers-or-more-lane you might feel a certain smugness but in a city like Kabul most local transport is filled to overflowing, a car containing only a driver tends to stands out. Whilst the risk of being hit by a car bomb or VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device) in Kabul is relatively low it is a risk. A stolen car is cheap, martyrs slightly less so - and the security trained risk averse driver gives single occupancy cars a wider berth.
Older London based readers may remember the IRA mainland bombing campaigns in the eighties or maybe you live in a country where car bombs are a reality today. Something for tomorrow's vehicle-system designers to mull over as they conceptually ease themselves into the passenger seat of their self-driving consumer vehicles.
Social Ice Breakers
Aug 24, 2008
Events that trigger conversations with strangers: mens Olympic baseball - Japan versus USA for the bronze medal. The social tipping point where the interest is sufficiently shared.
Delivery Infrastructure
Aug 24, 2008
Clip outside this Shinagawa hotel room supporting the delivery of up to two newspapers.
There's always a slight frisson from spending a night in a hotel in your home city. Arrive at reception with no luggage aside from a photo-shootingly-large camera, ne. A receptionist sighs, I head to the room.
Pills Popped
Aug 24, 2008
Outside the Shooting Gallery tattoo parlour, Nakame.
Two by Four
Aug 24, 2008
Increasing the effectiveness of using traffic wands to control pedestrians.
Signed, Sealed,
Aug 23, 2008
Books in Japan are by default sealed - if you want to read you gotta, er, have the yen to hand over the Yen. In part sealing books draws a boundary around the widespread and acceptable practice of standing for long periods of time browsing magazine racks without making a purchase. Yes magazine browsing happens in most cultures but the practice is extreme here - perhaps worthy of a study in itself. Whilst part of the reason to seal books is to push consumers to purchase there is also a strong expectation that you are buying something pure and untouched by someone else's grubby hands. This is the land of extra of layers of packaging and a surprisingly high number of second hand goods sold in pristine conditions. The camera phone has quietly aided browsing culture - with it being far easier to simply photograph interesting articles or scan relevant QR bar code without having to make a purchase. How to measure the reach of content as our ability to capture or retain information becomes more fragmented? How is it reflected in the cover price? In how information is written to be taken away?
Incidentally one of the few types of magazine to be sealed are those of a pornographic nature. Whilst there is little if any separation between 'soft core adult' and regular content, there is little notion of top shelf material here in Japan.
On a sort-of related note: one of Apple's successes has been to shift people's mindset of what to expect from a product: the early discussions/grumbles around battery life on iPods were in part a measure of the success in creating a product that people used continuously. How will notoriously precise Japanese consumers react to cracked iPhone cases if indeed cracking occurs? Do you expect your phone to wear over time? How? And how quickly? Read the comments in this NYT article and consider the future perfect of warranties. Everything breaks eventually - 'too early' and its under design, 'later than expected' and it might be over design.
Laptop Customisation
Aug 23, 2008
Rounding off today's Bangkok triple bill - laptop customisation, with comparable logos from London design studio colleague.
Homage
Aug 23, 2008
Don't ask.
Uniform(ity) & Digital Dress Codes
Aug 22, 2008
The dress code variance for office workers - heading out of Shinagawa station's East exit.
The extent to which its acceptable that other carried objects (bags, mobile phone) can be used to project identity, status, peer group affiliation. In a world where, in real time, its increasingly easy to match people with their various digital identities - the contexts where digital dress codes will become increasingly important. And to whom.
Visitors to Japan wanting to witness something a little more dense-urban should be in Shinagawa station by eight o'clock - the volume, direction and uniformity of the commuters is well beyond the norm.
OoO Notification Limbo
Aug 18, 2008
The emails that arrive in the work inbox during the time frame just prior to going on vacation but before setting an out of office reply. With everything else that needs to be done before leaving - there's no way to respond in person, but equally there's a deeply ingrained social compulsion to provide some kind of acknowledgment.
How the social boundaries of who is notified of what continues to blur: as work email goes increasingly mobile; as there are more ways to notify; as we build up an understanding of sufficiently trusted sources of notification information.
More on status updates here.
Bending Light / Lens Hacks
Aug 18, 2008
Telephoto mobile phone lens hack by UK artist Kerrin Mansfield with more the photographic results here.
Impromptu Protection
Aug 18, 2008
Incoming rain.
Beyond Phucked
Aug 18, 2008
Fixie Wheel Personalisation
Aug 18, 2008
Tokyo nights with the Pedal Mafia.
Logo's Twixed
Aug 18, 2008
Today's Office
Aug 11, 2008
Wake up to a dawn over the pacific.
90 minutes before touch down, coffee arrives.
Head down / write up field notes.
Do. Not.
Aug 10, 2008
Karaoke bus - with sign extolling passengers to adhere to the: no durian; pets; smoking; sex; drink, rules.
A day's decompression in Bangkok before connecting to Tokyo.
Offsetting, Forgetting
Aug 10, 2008
An opportunity to try the newly launched we:offset for the Kabul - Dubai - Tokyo flight. The semi-automated nature of the application reflects both the boon and curse of carbon offsetting - in that it's so easy to use that you don't need to think about it (it figures out that you've made a flight and helps calculate the offset costs and set up payment to climatecare.org).
As designers we're often looking to make processes a painless as possible - but in what contexts is it desirable to add extra steps, to force the user to, well, stop. and. think? Thought for today: the critical moments where it is possible to affect behavioural change? And the effect (if any) of introducing random costs into the process process? Hmm, perhaps this already a feature in we:offset - the text message to confirm the credit card transaction indicates that I've paid 3,809 Euro to offset my travel - the amount is supposed to be 3,809 Yen. Personal bankruptcy is one way to reduce travel.
Related: extrapolating the consequences of actions.
Itch's, Surfaces Scratched
Aug 10, 2008
Shipping out in a few hours. Leaving with more questions than answers.
As-salaamu alaikum Herbert, Aryn & Tamim.
Texture of a Bus Graveyard
Aug 09, 2008
Postures of Use, Enjoyment
Aug 09, 2008
Rules, Exceptions
Aug 09, 2008
"Conveying sincere compliments, you are requested to prevent and disallow and Muslim or Afghan National having alcoholic drinks within your operational workplace" written on the sign on the door of Kabul's Gandamack Lodge bar. The written/institutionalised rules for locals versus foreigners and the social rules for the same.
Every Call, Lucky
Aug 09, 2008
For every culture/faith/context, lucky numbers.
Mullahs in Space
Aug 09, 2008
Crude - but your icon is only a Photoshop away from becoming someone else's icon. Actually - your everything is only a Photoshop away from becoming someone else's something.
Depth, Temperature
Aug 08, 2008
Refrigeration in the mountain.
Truck Deco
Aug 08, 2008
Cultural preferences for personalisation over efficiency.
Gadget de Jour
Aug 08, 2008
This Afghani cigarette lighter includes a rudimentary single image light that projects Ahmad Shah Masood onto any given surface. Passing through Bangkok on the way here - the same object was offered for sale except that topless ladies were projected.
A pre-cursor of sorts to the pocketable projectors - good immediacy but challenging times ahead.
Colour, Wear
Aug 08, 2008
Popular (Male) Media
Aug 08, 2008
Media for sale outside every mobile phone store - content market alive and kicking in Kabul.
Infra
Aug 07, 2008
Contextual Touch
Aug 07, 2008
Proximity interaction / touch in a country where touching the wrong thing results in loss of life/limbs.
Photos from OMAR - the Organisation for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation.
The Ice Cream Man Cometh
Aug 07, 2008
What goes through your mind when you hear the jingle of an ice-cream van? Maybe it offers up the promise of summer - hanging out with friends, a chance to go where you want, when you want. But for many foreigners in Kabul - its both a symbol of freedom and a reminder of their relative captivity.
One of the features of life in Kabul - is the amount of time spent inside high walled compounds - a reflection both of local living norms and the preferred security setup of foreign organisations. For many a trip to the supermarket or local MOSS (Minimum Operational Security Standards) approved restaurant means arranging a driver and/or security personnel to shuttle you there and back - and as a consequence there's a need for advance planning and on occasion waiting around for the right personnel to be freed up. For many/most foreigners in Kabul - there's a clear distinction between life in here, and life out there with the border between the two manned by armed guards 24/7.
What does this have to do with the ice-cream man? When you're inside the compound the one sound that cuts clearly through the Kabul haze is gradually approaching and receding jingle of the Walls ice-cream kart. Hand pushed - it takes a good quarter hour to pass and in the [redacted] compound where I'm staying and on this street at least - comes by up to five times per day.
The promise of summer is out there. Just not for you.
ID Transience
Aug 07, 2008
Softcore / Hardcore: VCD Preferences
Aug 07, 2008
Most popular VCD's at this Kabul street stall? Popular warlords, saucy singers, military campaigns, including footage considered to sensitive for your TV screen. Self censorship? In a time of war? Surely not.
Volts Stabilised
Aug 06, 2008
Or not.
Status, Communicated
Aug 06, 2008
Not quite the local equivilent of "baby on board" but intriguing none the less.
(Quality of) Service
Aug 05, 2008
For any given service - how to reassure the customer that they are getting what they paid for?
Or conversely to fool customers into believing they have received a service they are in fact not getting?
Mobile phone charging services in Kabul using low watt light bulbs to highlight that the stall indeed has access to power. Wonder if this was triggered by people offering spurious 'charging services'?
Related - two presentations on mobile phone street charging in Kampala and car battery charging services in rural Uganda.
Local Brands
Aug 05, 2008
See also: straw serving norms
Motivations For
Aug 05, 2008
Bus stop with Japanese flag - public transport one of the services in Kabul supported by Japanese aid.
Tainting
Aug 05, 2008
Why is it more acceptable to bundle chew sticks but not regular toothbrushes? The psychology of 'tainting' objects through touching object with a similar purpose / objects with a different purpose. And how this perception changes as increasingly we're able to track what, where and who with.
Related from Ahmedabad and beyond.
Soviet Tank Graveyard Graffiti Norms
Aug 05, 2008
If you're a male visitor to Afghanistan then chances are you've made a trip to the Soviet tank graveyard on the outskirts of Kabul. It's the local equivilent of a topless Disneyland - a compelling idea (for a red-blooded males) that sort of fizzles out like damp ordnance (red-blooded males with too much whiskey in their bloodstream). You might assume that most of the vehicles here fell victim to the RPGs and mines of the Afghan resistance - in reality 85 - 90% died from mechanical failure, with limited signs of damage. There are still some beautiful objects, colours and geometries to be found but less than you might imagine.
In the past few years the graveyard been discovered by the English language spray cam brigade whose creations either show a distinct lack of imagination or a purity to the form: I love u Reece/Heather/Kristina/Tonya; Barnhill was here 2008, Bertie 07. The one touching missive - Miss You Michelle a reflection perhaps of macho-mechancholy - where the excitement, oh, of being surrounded by all that hardware gives way to the very basic need for something, deeper.
A lesson for anyone who gets caught up in the hacker cycle.
Hmm - how long before the Omar has a Posse stickers turn up in Kabul? (See also: Tokyo or Bangkok).
Related: the emerging tag-graffiti culture in Tehran here and PingMag has a writeup here.
The Language of Connectivity
Aug 05, 2008
Moments Captured
Aug 04, 2008
Numerous box cameras are still widely used in Kabul - the getting-a-passport-photo experience includes a manual shutter i.e. the photographer quickly removing and replacing the lens cap, developing inside the box and a optional crowd of onlookers.
50 Afghanis (0.8 Euro) buys you a single slightly grainy black and white photo and memories that linger.
Notating Distance
Aug 04, 2008
Use of a bulldog clip on this box camera to measure and maintain distance.
The Transparency of Processes
Aug 04, 2008
A used shoe market - with numerous pairs refurbished with a healthy coat of black polish.
Head, Hand, Posture
Aug 04, 2008
The Origins of Objects
Aug 04, 2008
The brick maker's brand molded into each creation - before being laid in the sun to dry. Whether consumers are particularly 'sophisticated' to prefer one brand of brick over another?
This site is up there on the top of a list of dry and desolate places to work.
Passport Covers
Aug 04, 2008
In a country where what % of people will travel abroad.
Relative Values
Aug 04, 2008
Visual and mental stimulation i.e. pornography.
Ce n'est pas une porte
Aug 03, 2008
One of the mysteries of Kabul for which I found no wholly plausible explanation - the word "Door" written (mostly) in English on doors. Why not "step" or "window" or, or...
Assumptions of Disconnectivity
Aug 03, 2008
One of the features of Kabul is the prevalence of annoyingly loud ring tones particularly amongst foreign workers here - in part driven by a need to stay aware of incoming communication and keep 'home base' informed of whereabouts. In a city where foreign workers are considered relatively high-risk kidnap targets there's a set of assumptions that comes not answering the phone.
With the mainstreaming of devices that are capable of sharing location information - how long before the why-is-he-not-picking-up shifts to why-is-he-not-sharing-his-current-location?
Photo: late night - bumping along dirt-track side streets trying to track down a restaurant in a city with few house numbers and no street lighting.
Kabul Fried Chicken
Aug 03, 2008
A local, shall we say independent franchisee of KFC - Kabul Fried Chicken. Time magazine has a write up here.
Notice the addition of a chicken photo to the delivery logo, possibly related to the cultural need/expectation to articulate freshness.
Arteries and trademarks be damned.
Infrastructural Branding
Aug 03, 2008
Identity Posture and Background Norms
Aug 03, 2008
Notably all examples are male.
What differences for male and female identity card requirements? In a culture with significant gender separation in public spaces - the level of infrastructure catering purely to females. For any culture - the contexts in which traditional male and female boundaries blur - for example the bandai style sento in my local neighbourhood here.
With more people carrying devices capable of capturing and time-shifting experience i.e. taking photographs, the extent to which visibility of women leaks into the public domain, or at least outside the home space, and the consequences of that visibility on the individuals photographed, their families. The highly-personal-photos-on-my-camera-phone whoops-it's-lost situation today is mitigated by the difficulty of identifying who is in the photo. Until of course the various forms of facial recognition go mainstream and services start to data mine existing archives of photos..
Related: photo studios in rural Fujian Province, Ho Chi Minh City and Lhasa.
Shooting in Kabul
Aug 02, 2008
Take out a camera and start shooting neutral scenes in Delhi - people assume that you want them to be in the picture. In Kabul people are more likely to assume that you want them out of shot. (This refers to males, portraiture street photography of women is largely off-bounds.) For every culture an acceptable level of intrusion from the photographer, and from by-standers.
Still getting to grips with the etiquette of photography here.
What, if anything does this have to do with these photos? The kid who is holding the painting in the top photo automatically ducked out of sight. Related: camera carrying in early hours Brazil.
Design Details
Aug 02, 2008
Locker. #. Direction.
Aug 02, 2008
Gravestones & Gender Orientation
Aug 02, 2008
If the head and foot stones are aligned with the grave the body is female, perpendicular to the grave, male. Green flags - either martyrs or the deceased has completed the hajj.
Car Blessing
Aug 02, 2008
5 to 10 Afghanis will buy you and the occupants of your vehicle an impromptu smoke box blessing. Officially should be using incense - but if my nostrils are accurate its more likely to be old tires.
Kite String Norms
Aug 02, 2008
Popular kite string brands including: Captain 2007, Regency 2007, Olympic (no doubt officially authorized), Khyber Shaheen and the Mamilon Shutranj no 1. Surprising to see dates associated with the products given the timelessness of what is being sold
Power is Power
Aug 01, 2008
And the destruction of power infrastructure is a power play.
Objectification
Aug 01, 2008
The use of the female form - in a city where the 'revelation' of adult women in public ranges from headscarf to full length burka.
Strange Fruit
Aug 01, 2008
The most popular confiscated item in Dubai airport's Terminal 2? Energy saving bulbs.
Drink + Straw Serving Norms
Aug 01, 2008
Based on the following local assumptions: drink needs to be opened in the presence of or by the customer; that the straw shouldn't touch any surfaces - the level of dust here is phenomenal. By-products: makes the old style ring pull easier to, um, pull; and risks damaging the straw.
What Gives?
Aug 01, 2008
Somewhere down there in the haze that is Kabul is my home for the foreseeable.
This visit is an opportunity look beyond what ends up in the global data stream and maybe, just maybe get a clearer sense of the future perfect. Sometimes you need to push a little to see what gives, and then push some more.
Movie Posters, Cultural Stereotypes
Aug 01, 2008
Bollywood posters lining this local Kabul movie theatre walls – including one featuring the stereotypical English hooligan. For every culture, yes including yours - a thoroughly negative stereotype. For every person- a willingness to buy into that stereotype.
Seems like only weeks ago that we blagged our way into (and were eventually thrown out of) a Ahmedabad movie theatre to catch the local Bollywood midnight showing..
Humour in Duplication
Aug 01, 2008
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