alex gagnon - the abstract handbook 2014-libre

8/10/2019 Alex Gagnon - The Abstract Handbook 2014-Libre

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in a while to visit and let us know how we can best ma imi*e your e perience of this site. Thank you and always take

care!

$incerely"

Ale &agnon

The Genesis of The Abstract Handbook

I had a vision many years ago of an Abstract Handbook. It was essentially a +onceptual Te tbook, A book full of

philosophical concepts" a kind of conceptual dictionary or encyclopedia. I wanted to call it the $urrealist Handbook

at first. I worked on the concept for the te tbook project for years. It%s literally been about twelve or thirteen years" if

not more" since I first had the vision.

I would fill up notebook after notebook full of ideas" concepts" formulations.. I made diagrams - other

information designs. It kept /T happening" though" and after a while" I sort of gave up on the idea. 0ut when it

became much easier to publish stuff online" and add to that the fact that many of the publishing platforms online

are completely free" I started thinking about the project again. ow that Wikis are accessible" there%s no stopping

me.

The Profound Beauty and Utility of Logging

I have been keeping logs for a good twenty years now. I can%t seem to get enough of it. I am a 1ifelogger or

1ifestreamer in every sense of the word. I call myself a $trategic Intermedia Artist. 2y motto is the following"

3$trategic art" one move at a time. Humanity" please.4

I believe that what we are doing here online a lot of the time is looking for 30eautiful Truths4 5see, 0eautiful$ignals6. That is" we are scanning through pages - pages of stuff" in hopes to find true beauty. We are in essence

looking for the 0eautiful" the True" and the &ood. These three things populate the inside of our minds" and we are

looking for instances online of something ) whatever it is ) that fulfills our desire to find those three sacred things

encased" enshrined in our very human nature.

Being an Engaged Logger in the orld of the Pro!i"ate Mobile eb

1ogging is about logging. 7ou guessed it. There are many forms of logging" all of which consist of one main activity,

1ogging 5you guessed right" again!6. There are passive loggers and engaged loggers. There are la*y loggers and

active loggers. There are those that read through the logs of other individuals" and those who keep their own

individual logs.

An engaged logger is a special kind of individual. 8sually" they are 1ifeloggers" otherwise known as

1ifestreamers. It is in very many ways a solitary activity" but the potential of sociali*ing within the logging practise

is always there. In true logging" though" it%s about the log" not about being read and having an audience. It is a

fallacy to believe that loggers log to connect with people through some social medium" building social capital"


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conversational capital" conversational currency" etc. (eally it revolves around the daily discipline of keeping logs.

There are scientific logs" bibliographic logs" web logs" video logs" military logs" conceptual" artistic logs" ad

infinitum" ad nauseam. +aptains are known to keep logs. Therapies e ist where one keeps logs of one%s thoughts. I

know that I for one found much that was therapeutic in the practise of logging.

LBS (location-based service) applications

Some examples of location-based services are :

-Requesting the nearest business or service, such as an !" or restaurant

-!urn b# turn navigation to an# address

-Locating people on a map displa#ed on the mobile phone

-Receiving alerts, such as notification of a sale on gas or $arning of a traffic %am

-Location-based mobile advertising

- sset recover# combined $ith active R& to find, for example, stolen assets in containers $here' S $ouldn t $or*

&or the carrier, location-based services provide added value b# enabling services such as :

-Resource trac*ing $ith d#namic distribution+ !axis, service people, rental equipment,

doctors, fleet scheduling+

-Resource trac*ing+ b%ects $ithout privac# controls, using passive sensors or R& tags, such as

pac*ages and train boxcars+

-&inding someone or something+ erson b# s*ill (doctor), business director#, navigation,

$eather, traffic, room schedules, stolen phone, emergenc# calls+

- roximit#-based notification (push or pull)+ !argeted advertising, budd# list, common profile

matching (dating), automatic airport chec*-in+

- roximit#-based actuation (push or pull)+ a#ment based upon proximit# ( . pass, toll $atch)+

5from web, en.wikipedia.org'wiki'1ocation)based9service6

Thoughts #n Ti"e and S$ace and Mobility

When the telephone entered into people%s lives" it instantly created new possibilities. It took time and space

from out of people%s lives. A new culture was born the day the telephone entered into people%s lives. The same is true

for the personal computer. /ne did not have one%s personal computer in one%s kitchen" in the beginning. +hances

are that one had a #+ at work before actually taking one home. 2aybe the one you took home was an old computer

from work that had just been replaced with one that was more performant.

The same thing happened with the telephone. At first" you had one phone and it was somewhere in the house"

usually in a room that everyone used. Televisions" in the beginning" were in a common room" and eventually there


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apples are going for at the supermarket" rather than about what%s going on in #oland 5say" for Americans with no

#olish ancestry" #oland would be an 3e otic4 far away place..6

#ro imity)based notification ? you get a ping every time soda pop goes on sale at the supermarket or jockey

shorts go on sale at Wal)2art..

#ro imity)based actuation ? your mobile phone unlocks the front door when you begin to walk up the steps

leading to your apartment.

#eople are less concerned about the (A @I & of their website with regards to &oogle%s #age(ank algorithm..

ow we can about our 3social ranking4" we are looking for 3social votes4 by way of collaborative filtering or social

bookmarking.. We are really e periencing something beautiful and mind)altering when you sit down and think of

it.. groundbreaking genius" I call it..

Two makeshift terms to think of, 3mobile computing pro emics4 - 3augmented social empathy4..

It is largely about ( 1 :A + .. you%ll see that ( 1 :A + is going to be a key word for a long time now..

The (aily (igital )uration of Beautiful Signals

@antian Aesthetics and The Information Highway

The official verdict is out. $urfing the web for relevant content or in the hopes of serendipitous content

discovery I$ an Aesthetic perience" period. That is" we are looking for information)objects of beauty. The

e perience of information serendipity is akin to the sublime in art. I e plain.

We are hearing more and more being spoken with regard to relevance" content discovery" and the assuagementof one%s information needs. We also hear much on the subject of information noise. What is information noise/(2ATI/ " i.e. unwanted information present in your social stream. $o in a sense" 7/8 are /I$ to me.

That is to say" there are Twitter users whose posts I don%t like reading, They are not beautiful" hence they are

information pollution ' information noise. We even speak of 3cleaning4 one%s Twitter >eed.

$o we%re speaking of an aesthetic e perience" and the way I see it" when we speak of cleaning our social stream"

or keeping it tidy" we%re really speaking about social standing.

What do I mean by this< What I mean is that we%re trying to control what kind of information reaches us" partly

by cleaning up what digital channels will /T reach us. We are choosing kinds of information that we do /T want

to see in our social stream.

In a sense" we are also categori*ing # /#1 in terms of $ound information and oisy information. We are

therefore classifying people as being either &ood or ot &ood 5i.e. &ood or not &ood >/( 2 6.


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$o a different kind of filtering is taking place. We%re not just talking about information filtering anymore, We%re

talking about an aesthetic filtering of # /#1 " because # /#1 in the end are attached to these Twitter or

>acebook or other accounts.

It%s normal to want to control one%s 3listening station4" to get the kinds of information we prefer" and none can

doubt that surfing the web for information is a matter of taste. 0ut it becomes an aesthetic problem and a veryserious ethical debate arises out of it.

How can I judge a human being as being either informative or as being information noise< I can classify

I ;I:I;8A1$ as satisfying my information needs or /T satisfying my information needs. This is horrible"

though" the conse=uences are terrifying. I can dispose of individuals as though they were garbage" and believe me"

the effect is felt. 7ou try being rejected as a #//( $/8(+ of information. 7ou will be ignored" rejected" put on the

0lack 1ist" and you will feel alienated.

$o for the most part" this kind of 3social filtering4 of people is really unethical. We speak of our egalitarian

society as righteous and virtuous. 7et we classify and label people as good and not good. oise" in the digital

information channel" is bad. It is 8&17. It is a matter of taste" but when taste labels - judges individuals" it

becomes a serious ethical problem of :I/1ATI/ and T(A $&( $$I/ .

ust as a piece of information that satisfies my information need is seen as ( 1 :A T and 0 A8TI>81" it also

transgresses the norm of what is 8&17 and /I$7 and /T 8$ >81" or /T I T ( $TI &. The same goes for

the uninteresting" it violates that value we hold so dear" those values indelibly linked to the labelling of our

individual e periences of the Information Highway as beautiful" true" and good.

7es" we are actually seeking the &ood" the 0eautiful and the True" and are labelling people this way in theprocess. 0ut an individual is neither good" nor beautiful" nor true" nor is he or she the opposite of this. Humans are

just what they are. They can be annoying" but really when one takes offense" one is usually looking to be offensed.

$o this" for me" is the final verdict on the e perience of surfing the World Wide Web. It is a matter of aesthetics

and aesthetic taste" and a seriously unethical matter of >I1T (I & # /#1 as objects of knowledge. And so a

=uestion arises with regard to the liberal art of $aving)>ace, To put it politely" we%re looking for social standing" and

the judgment of others" as to our aesthetic beauty" goodness" or truth" is profoundly important to us. $ervices such

as >acebook permit us to gauge the responses others have of us" so it works to keep us in check. 1ike the 1iberal

Arts in the BCth and BDth century in ngland" the 1iberal Arts serve a public function of promoting the civic virtues. We are doing the same at present, We are using each other to promote civic virtues. (elevance and 8tility have

become civic virtues" and others can take on the >ace)Wasting role of lacking in civility. 2ore to come on the

subject of >ace)$aving and >ace)Wasting 5i.e. The Antiface $trategy6.

Golden 'adio: The Beautiful Signal God

I once liked to think of irrelevant" uninteresting or unwanted information as 3noise4 in language media '


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communications media.. 0ut then people started using the term signal)to)noise ratio and I thought the analogy was

taken too far. (eally if it is information that is impertinent" just call it impertinent. If it has to do with the level of

background noise" say level of background noise. I don%t like it when metaphors or analogies are used merely to save

time. 1ike instead of e plaining the intricacies of the Trinitarian concept of &od in +atholic doctrine" you use an

analogy like a three)leaved clover.. it can be pretty even cute" but I find such time)saving shortcut metaphors to be

awfully 3noisy4 themselves.. $o I try to ignore it.. and when I%m not listening"I fall into silent contemplation again..

See /i*ipedia: en+$i*ipedia+org0$i*i0Signal1to1noise1ratio

2Signal-to-noise ratio (often abbreviated S3R or S03) is a measure used in science and

engineering to quantif# ho$ much a signal has been corrupted b# noise+ 4t is defined as the ratio

of signal po$er to the noise po$er corrupting the signal+ ratio higher than 5:5 indicates more

signal than noise+ /hile S3R is commonl# quoted for electrical signals, it can be applied to an#

form of signal (such as isotope levels in an ice core or biochemical signaling bet$een cells)+

4n less technical terms, signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such asmusic) to the level of bac*ground noise+ !he higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the bac*ground

noise is+

2Signal-to-noise ratio2 is sometimes used informall# to refer to the ratio of useful information to

false or irrelevant data in a conversation or exchange+ &or example, in online discussion forums

and other online communities, off-topic posts and spam are regarded as 2noise2 that interferes

$ith the 2signal2 of appropriate discussion+2

A *e+ Signal

I%ve been thinking about signals a lot and for a very long time. I%ve been obsessed with signals since I started

playing the electric guitar about twenty years ago. I eventually studied sound design and my love of signals has only

grow with time.

$o naturally I met the new discourse around signals - noise in information technologies with eagerness and an

open heart. 2any of us have been following $ocial $treams now for =uite some time" and the discussion over the

signal)to)noise ratio is currently raging strong.

I began thinking about an hour or so ago about different signal types. When I record audio signals" whether it%s

my voice or my electric guitar" I work with analog signals usually streaming through electronics e=uipment which Ithen digiti*e" ending up with digital signals.

What we are calling $ignals in computer)mediated communication is closer to the definition of 3market

signals4" which are a form of Information. At any rate" I%ve been thinking of these information streams and trying to

think of what the ne t type of signal might be.

1et%s face it" we%re mostly dealing with a stream of information" mostly in the form of links to media or links to


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profiles" blogs" various other kinds of dynamic websites" etc. A lot of the time" too" on sites such as >acebook and

Twitter" we%re still seeing a stream of $tatus 8pdates.

0etween a stream of e=ual part links and status updates" I wonder about what new kinds of streaming

information might occur in the near future. We have people following the stock market and the kinds of information

found therein. A lot of what is streaming we could just call ews. $ome of it is personal information" informationabout various 3states of affairs4.

$o I have to ask you" what new kind of signals do you think might appear in the near future< 2aybe machine)

to)machine signals in the form of what is called electronic negotiation< In other words" your washing machine

might negotiate with energy sources to optimi*e the electrical signal being used by the machine" or the other

appliances in the house" negotiating with the price of sources per kilowatt)milliseconds.

Hu"an &nfor"ation Beha,ior% &nfor"ation *oise% and Social Strea" -iltering

I%ve been thinking a great deal about information filtering" particularly social filtering and noise filtering too. Insound design" I%m used to hearing terms like 3noise filtering4 and the famous 3signal)to)noise ratio4. In recent

times" however" I%ve seen the term noise used with regard to information overload ' information pollution and the

term signal)to)noise ratio used with regard to social streams.

In digital signal processing" we can speak of 3low)pass filters4 or 3high)pass filters4" which made me think of the

3pertinence)pass filter4 that could e ist for filtering social streams.

I guess you%d have to e=uate relevance with a given fre=uency or fre=uency range.

I%ve also been thinking of black noise" i.e. 0lack oise and #opulation #ersistence" as well as oise Trading.

$o many thoughts" so much to synthesi*e. I%m thinking of $$" $urvivalism" volutionary 1earning Algorithms"

egative >iltering 5filtering 3out4" i.e. opting)out what you don%t want" ;igg%s 30ury4 button6.

I want a system that can learn my information preferences. It would be re=uisite that information gathered" i.e.

the dataset" have appropriate metadata" so that filtering agents could filter through metadata)rich data" through

some sort of sorting algorithm" 3listening4 for my preference ' attention profile.

I%m also thinking of bioelectronics and oise $ervers" oise 2odelling" 2atching" $ignal #urification" >ilter

$ynthesis" and Human Information 0ehavior 5also, +ollaborative Information 0ehavior" i.e. +ollaborativeInformation $eeking. The point is that sound designers need to get together with computer programmers and solve

the social stream filtering problem once and for all. ust treat it as noise and use digital signal processing algorithms

to 3cancel out4 or 3remove4 what is a noise in the 3signals4. We should also begin treating social streams as signals"

because that%s what they are.


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The .uery as /irtual )urrency

The keywords that I punch into &oogle%s $earch ngine are a form of virtual currency. 2y =uery is a payment I

make in e change for something valuable to me" i.e. pertinent web results. I essentially pay for relevance. 2y =uery

is also measured against the relevant results that I receive" so I suspect that there is a price mechanism involved in

the $earch ngine" since I am told the value of my =uery with the results I receive. That is to say" the relevance 'relevant results I pay for with my web behavior 5i.e. the Euery6" fi es the price of the keywords I punched into the

search engine.

$ocial voting platforms such as ;igg have a similar feature, 2y social voting behavior adds value to a given

piece of information" i.e. my web behavior 5$ocial :oting6 helps add value by organi*ing information. In both cases"

my behavior is a payment which accesses something valuable" or contributes to a thing%s value. It is in this sense

that I say that the Euery is :irtual +urrency" because it is e changed for something valuable. And the Euery as a

virtual currency is universal" i.e. very Euery is a Euery is a Euery. We all make the same transaction, keywords as

payment for relevance.

The above podcast is one way to look at :irtual +urrency" a way that I haven%t seen many refer to. In that sense"

it is original. 0ut the value of my posting it really comes by way of your reactions. $o please comment on this post if

it was helpful in any way. ven if you think it is complete 0.$." please humor me by posting your feedback. This blog

and everything that I do online is forever a 3Work in #rogress4. As they say"4It isn%t over Ftill the fat lady sings!4

I don%t hear any singing" so please post your comments. 1et%s sit down and discuss this" I think it concerns us all

a little. It could e plain ) logically ) why &oogle was such a success with search. It is a virtual currency ' price

mechanism embedded in the very idea of the &lobal $earch ngine. Without our Eueries" &oogle wouldn%t e ist. It

is also said that &oogle%s $earch ngine gets 3smarter4 with every Euery" ergo we have a great starting)point for

articulating how &oogle%s advertisement strategy was dominant from the get go" but also where all that value comes

from in the first place, The Euery as volunteer time and energy spent" solidified into the artefact of the Euery)as)

+oinage.

(emember" $haring is less a social activity" is more of an economic activity" a transaction" an e change. 2y

posting behavior is payment for your attention)seconds. 7es" attention is measured in the seconds and milliseconds.

Thanks for giving me yours at such a low price. (eally I%m proud to say I was on a roll with this oneG it just came out

all in one piece" in a flowing se=uence of ideas as I walked home from the store.

Anyway take care and keep in touch.

$incerely"

A.


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#n Electronic -rustration 0 &ts Satisfaction

If we%re in need" we might be seen as being in a state of frustration with regard to our needs. In seeking new

discoveries online" we then either increase or decrease our electronic frustration" otherwise known as that elusive

information need.

The relevance of retrieved information can be said to be the degree to which our information need is satisfied.

$ince our information need is really a desire to decrease information frustration" we should maybe look at the whole

electronic e perience in terms of its potential to relieve us of this frustration.

@nowledge discovery is just one of the many ways the electronic e perience can be non)frustrating. Another is

the passive enjoyment of media files or digital cultural artifacts" sometimes linked" in fact" to a prior discovery

e perience.

The usefulness of the relief of frustration is evident" and the timeliness of the event even more so" we might say.

The point is that in not being frustrated by information or a lack of it" one is in an advantageous position.$atisfaction or satiation is generally an advantageous position to be in.

Information satisfaction can lead to more of the same kind of satisfaction just like frustration can augment in a

cascade of frustrating events. >rom a bioenergetic perspective" such accumulations of tension tend to lead to a

tipping point where a peak event occurs that leads to an immediate discharge of the tension load. If we call this

discharge of tension or tipping point an orgasm" we can maybe speak of the 3 ureka moment4 of digital content

discovery" and its highly satisfying nature" as a form of electronic orgasm.

I am speaking of course of web)based e periences. We surf the web because it satisfies a need. It is our favorite

pastime because it relieves us of built)up tensions and frustration. ;iscovery is just one of many forms of

satisfaction online. ;efinitely" though" there is an optimum or flow e perience that we are seeking" akin to what

athletes sometimes call being 3in the *one4. It might be important" also" to seek to leave this 3e)+omfort one4 at

times and seek some stranger e periences online because our capacity to be satiated in our information needs by

the e periences risks decreasing over time. It may be important" therefore" to seek new e periences" what we might

call encounters of a 5digital6 third kind.

In conclusion" if we speak of relevance as how well an information need is served" we speak of information

needs and their satisfaction and therefore also of information frustration. Information overload and other forms of

information pollution are all forms of information frustration. Irrelevant search results and time wasted online or

on computers" are forms of electronic or digital frustration. If the relief of frustration is our main information need"

then discovery and relevant information are both digital foods to satisfy our digital appetites. The ureka moment"

being an e perience of 3having found it4" i.e. the information food" is balanced by an Anti) ureka moment, the

e perience of 3having lost it4" or information frustration. We cannot always win and so are never satisfied once and

for all. Hence" we return every day to our computing devices and to all those web)based e periences we so love"

seeking the Holy &rail of lectronic (elevance and ;iscovery" - other like satisfactions.


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Attention Econo"ics% Social Media% 0 &nfor"ation Pollution 1 #,erload

It is true that social media and the use of social software is taking up more and more of our time. When it comes to

our Attention" we have a scarce resource. /ur attention is being pulled in every direction. Also" the Fnoise% levels in

these digital channels is always attaining new heights. How can we filter the data streams to e tract only what is

most relevant< And what about information pollution" how can we effectively deal with that very real phenomenon

alex gagnon - the abstract handbook 2014-libre

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