Re: FW: nettime my design me
I tried in a fumbling way to talk about the consumption of images, experience, fashion or trying to imagine ourselves as part of another story. Imagine my surprise when at my local library I ran across a book, The Dream Society, which says pretty much the same thing. The book is quite predictable, so don't run out and buy it. Most of what it has to say is below, taken from the Amazon review site. = The Dream Society : How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business by Rolf Jensen (Introduction) List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $17.47 You Save: $7.48 (30%) Hardcover - 242 pages (1999) McGraw-Hill; ISBN: 0070329672 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.13 x 9.31 x 6.27 Amazon.com Sales Rank: 899 Popular in: Netherlands (#13) , Norway (#3) . See more Avg. Customer Review: Number of Reviews: 3 Reviews From Booklist , April 1, 1999 Even though nearly 80 percent of the world's population is still without access to even a telephone, pundits have already begun to announce the end of the Information Age. Here, Jensen proclaims "the dream society." He heads the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, Europe's largest future-oriented think tank, and he documents humankind's evolution through four previous "techno-economic systems": hunter-gatherer, agricultural, industrial, and information. Two trends signal the transition to the dream society: information tasks are being automated and will be taken for granted, and emotion is becoming commercialized. The result, argues Jensen, is that consumers will no longer buy products but rather lifestyles and the "stories," experiences, and emotions products convey. Jensen sees six separate "emotional markets": adventure, love and friendship, care, self-identity, peace of mind, and beliefs or convictions. He details how the way business creates and sells products will be transformed. Jensen also sees major changes in the workplace, at home, and in relations between the rich and the developing nations; and he enthusiastically portrays the utopia he envisions. David Rouse Copyright© 1999, American Library Association. All rights reserved Book Description The future is uncertain--the world is constantly changing. While anything can happen, some things are far more likely than others. Rolf Jensen, internationally renowned futurist, provides readers with a tangible look at what the future will be like over the next 25 years. By identifying what lies ahead, Jensen gives people the knowledge they need to make informed decisions and strategically align themselves to capitalize on the unknown future, a future Jensen call "the Dream Society." This dream society is characterized by the commercialization of emotions. In this provocative exploration, Jensen says that it will no longer be enough to produce a useful product. He shows that, to be successful, the primary purpose of a product will be the ability to fulfill an emotional need. Those who understand the working of this dream society will be the ones who create the new products, new markets, and new businesses that dominate the world of tomorrow. From the Back Cover "Businesses need to imagine their futures the way good novelists imagine their stories." -Rolf Jensen, Director, The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. What's the future of business after the Information Age? It won't be the latest technology or newest product, but the story behind the product that will provide the competitive edge. The company with the best story wins; consumers will pay for the story that sparks the imagination, that reflects how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us. What are the most important raw materials of the twenty-first century? Stories that will translate information for consumers into accessible, emotional terms. As cookie-cutter products inundate the market, companies of the future will have to differentiate
Re: FW: nettime my design me
I don't think its perfect bodies so much as talking about those things which don't or can't happen. So we see cooking shows on TV (people can't, won't or have forgotten how to cook), we see 4 x 4 cars in wilderness (which wilderness, where), you fill in the rest. I think it is about parody. That which is thrown at us in a variety of ways is something we consume but doesn't represent our everyday lives. A kind of Disney experience, or non-experience, if you wish. We need Dr. Jung, or Dr. Freud to deal with this kind of stuff. arthur cordell -- From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. To: Michael Gurstein Cc: Futurework (E-mail); CPI UA (E-mail) Subject: Re: FW: nettime my design me Date: Saturday, November 13, 1999 7:03AM Michael Gurstein wrote: -Original Message- From: wade tillett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 9:46 AM To: Nettime Subject: nettime my design me http://www.surgery.com/topics/body.html A computer generated golden metallic female body with unbelievable proportions is shown over the faded background of a keyboard. Clickable cyan boxes are shown over specific areas of the body with the following text: *Pick the area you would like to improve [snip] a utopic persona based on a conglomeration of the best. We can no longer be compared to the naturally occurring body because we are no longer reliant on natural means for obtaining (maintaining) this body. Now this increased power and ability to change our body makes the body we live in a design of our own - choosing not to modify our body is just as much a design as modifying our body. Abstention is as much design as creation, if we have the ability to design. And we have always had the ability to design. We constantly design our selves - by eating (or not eating, also what we eat), by walking (or not walking), by reproducing (or not reproducing), by our actions (or non-actions). [snip] Something that "galls me" to no end: Our society is obsessed with "perfect bodies" -- and I must say that I find bodily imperfections abhorrent -- but that's not where the point I wish to make here lies: Our society is obsessed with perfect bodies, AND EVERYWHERE I GO, WHEN I TRY TO "JUST SAY NO" TO FATTENING FOOD WHICH IS PROMISCUOUSLY STUFFED UNDER MY NOSE, PEOPLE ACT LIKE I WAS BEING AT BEST RUDE AND A "PARTY POOPER", IF NOT CHARACTER DISORDERED, etc. If our society wants perfect bodies, why don't we start by mobilizing all restaurants and food stores to push *only* healthful foods, and to make buying a Cocal-Cola at least as shady a deal as buying "coke"? \brad mccormick -- Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] 914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA --- ![%THINK;[XML]] Visit my website: http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
Re: FW: nettime my design me [-- each of us does do this...]
Harv Nelson wrote: Hi, Here in the Madison, Wisconsin area, there has been a big push toward "No Smoking" in restaurants, much improving the atmosphere (and the health of those of us who take our meals there)... Much the same could be accomplish with regard to caloric intake by simply reducing the size of the plates used in restaurants ... making them 3/4-inch in diameter smaller. Then, you could acheive the same "perceived" value ... "Big meal", "Full plate", etc. with less food. Less food on the plate means less calories to walk/jog/sit off. [snip] The perceived amount of food "required" for each meal is dictated more by the size of the plates than by metabolic needs. Sorry, but I had something else in mind: *Gourmet* vegetarian meals, heavy on garlic, olive oil, etc. becoming the *norm*, by there being moderately priced such eateries in every neighborhood (oops... sorry, I forgot that, at least in The United States of Levittown there aren't many neighborhoods...) and workplace and school commisary Preferably with a glass of better-than vin ordinare red wine I think we *are* to a large extent what we eat, and workers who return to work from a Big Mac are more likely to produce Big Mac products and tolerate Big Mac working conditions than if their lunch was an example of a higher form of life (yes, the value judgment is intended: I don't think Coca-cola and Richebourg, or the "taste" for them are created equal) \brad mccormick Harv Nelson (just a lurker ... and casual terrorist ;-) stuff snipped so that my ISP would send this Something that "galls me" to no end: [snip] Our society is obsessed with perfect bodies, AND EVERYWHERE I GO, WHEN I TRY TO "JUST SAY NO" TO FATTENING FOOD WHICH IS PROMISCUOUSLY STUFFED UNDER MY NOSE, PEOPLE ACT LIKE I WAS BEING AT BEST RUDE AND A "PARTY POOPER", IF NOT CHARACTER DISORDERED, etc. If our society wants perfect bodies, why don't we start by mobilizing all restaurants and food stores to push *only* healthful foods, and to make buying a Cocal-Cola at least as shady a deal as buying "coke"? -- Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] 914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA --- ![%THINK;[XML]] Visit my website: http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
FW: nettime my design me
-Original Message- From: wade tillett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 9:46 AM To: Nettime Subject: nettime my design me http://www.surgery.com/topics/body.html A computer generated golden metallic female body with unbelievable proportions is shown over the faded background of a keyboard. Clickable cyan boxes are shown over specific areas of the body with the following text: *Pick the area you would like to improve * Head (face, neck, and hair) * Arms (sagging skin, excess fat flab, etc.) * Breast (sagging, too big, too small, uneven, etc.) * Abdomen (excess fat, excess skin hanging down, etc.) * Buttocks (too fat, saggy, etc.) * Thighs (excess fat, cellulite, etc.) *Calves (too small, too fat, etc.) The examples in parentheses suggest what could be wrong with your body - that is, what varies from the perfected computer generated model. We can no longer be compared to the ideal naturally occurring body, but rather to a computer generated model - a utopic persona based on a conglomeration of the best. We can no longer be compared to the naturally occurring body because we are no longer reliant on natural means for obtaining (maintaining) this body. Now this increased power and ability to change our body makes the body we live in a design of our own - choosing not to modify our body is just as much a design as modifying our body. Abstention is as much design as creation, if we have the ability to design. And we have always had the ability to design. We constantly design our selves - by eating (or not eating, also what we eat), by walking (or not walking), by reproducing (or not reproducing), by our actions (or non-actions). "Where nothing is in its place, lies disorder. Where in the desired place there is nothing, lies order." (Brecht qtd. in Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 155) * Thigh Liposculpture * What would you like to do? * See Before and After Pictures * Find out about usual Costs * Read about this operation * Find a doctor near you that would be glad to explain your options What has changed is the transferability of our actions. We can now sit at a computer instead of walking; the money we make while sitting at the computer can be transferred into a liposuction (or 'liposculpture' as this web site calls it). The action attempts to correct its own non-actions through a design transference. * Pick the area you would like to improve *Hair (for baldness, thinning hair, etc.) *Upper Eyes (tired looking eyes, sad, small etc.) *Lower Eyes (tired looking eyes, bags, extra skin, etc.) *Ears (excess fat, excess skin hanging down, etc.) *Nose (too big, too small, too wide, too narrow, etc.) *Mouth (enhance the lips, improve wrinkles, etc.) *Neck (fix sagging skin, take away excess fat, etc.) *Face *Facelift *Skin Resurfacing (Laser) *Skin Resurfacing (Chemical Peel) We have also increased the limits of our designs, the possibilities of our design. There are a lot more choices here than on the barbie my design site. This is beyond mass production. There are a lot more choices now than were previously possible through actions as design, deterministic choice. We didn't used to be able to design noses. Now with surgery, prosthetics, eugenics, genetic engineering, we can modify the design of life itself. We have modified deterministic choice, natural selection, evolution. We are now our own gods - products of our own design. "Are we adapting our bodies to the dress, or the other way around?" (Thanks to Tjebbe van Tijen for the quote) We still operate within the limits of our design, within the program, although we are constantly expanding these limits. What limits our designs the most is our social program of utopia. This is the definition of utopia: the exclusion of possibilities. (No possibilities of adding a third arm. The body is limited to our utopic idea of it. Detachable prosthetics such as the internet or airplanes are used to extend our bodies' possibilities without modifying our utopic definition of self.) "But let there be no misunderstanding; it is not that a real man, the object of knowledge, philosophical reflection or technical intervention, has been substituted for the soul, the illusion of the theologians. The man described for us, whom we are invited to free, is already in himself the effect of a subjection much more profound than himself. A 'soul' inhabits him and brings him to existence, which is itself a factor in the mastery that power exercises over the body. The soul is the effect and instrument of a political anatomy; the soul is the prison of the body." (Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 30) # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
