Category: Marginalia

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Aesop Rock’s Website and Hail Mary Mallon’s New Video

After much hemming and hawing and discussion, Aesop Rock finally took the web plunge and launched his own website. Though Aes has been active online for a minute (e.g., on the now defunct DefJunkies discussion boards, on Twitter, and on 900 Bats), this marks the official launch of his own spot online. The cat belongs to photographer Chrissy Piper. His name is Andy.

In his defense, the man has been busy with several records by him and his friends (Rob Sonic, DJ Big Wiz, Kimya Dawson, et al.). Here’s the latest from Hail Mary Mallon, which consists of Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, and DJ Big Wiz: “Smock” (Live from the Burgundy Camry), directed by Alexander Durrant, Justin Metros, and Rico Deniro [runtime: 4:44]:

URfttPuxcL4

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Generation BMX: New ESPN Piece

I finally have a new piece up on the ESPN BMX site. This one is about the generational differences between first and second generations of riders. Heraclitus once wrote that generations turn over every thirty years. Well, it’s about that time.
You’re right, Roy, you’re hopeless. Hopelessly obsessed with a time in your sport that died a long time ago… — McGoo
Roy Christopher executes a Backwards Elbow Glide at a Jacksonville NBL contest circa 1990. (photo by Peter Cowley)
Here’s an excerpt:
The experience of a BMXer today is much more likely to be mediated by technology than it was in the ’80s. Given the proliferation of technology into every aspect of our lives, that’s not much of an insight, but hear me out. In addition to the lack of dope video games, the riders of thirty years ago were also missing out on the parks. There were like three ride-able skateparks in the whole country. Now there are at least that many in every city of any size whatsoever. Where the past was spent riding curb cuts, banks, walls, streets, and backyard ramps, today the terrain consists of those as well as many human-made options. It makes for different riding, different tricks, and different values.
The full piece is up today. As always, thanks to Brian Tunney for the opportunity and for coordinating these things.

…

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Ogilvy Notes picks “Disconnecting the Dots”

So, Ogilvy Notes is going to do a graphic representation of my talk at SXSW Interactive, Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices are Divisive. Here’s the announcement I got today:

We are pleased to inform you that Ogilvy has selected your session, “Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices are Divisive”, as one they would like to graphically record at the event.

What does this mean exactly? This means an artist will visually document your SXSW panel session in real-time, and then share their interpretation via Ogilvy’s online channel and with limited-edition prints in the SXSW Trade Show Day Stage. Ogilvy is only able to provide this service for a very limited group of panel sessions, so it is quite an honor to be selected.

More information on this program, along with examples of work from all the talented artists involved, is available on their site. I love these live renderings and am super stoked to have been selected for this.

——–

Here’s one by Heather Willems from the Ogilvy site:

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The Austin Chronicle: “The World is Your Cubicle,” featuring Me

For Nora Ankrum’s recent roundup of SXSW Interactive panels and talks having to do with distance working, “The World is Your Cubicle,” she interviewed me about my SXSWi talk Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices are Divisive and my book-in-progress, The Medium Picture.

Here’s the excerpt that features me running my mouth:

“Having a beer with someone is still one of the most connecting things you can do,” agrees Roy Christopher, a communication studies doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin. Still, he says, “the nature of being human is having technology.” Christopher is currently writing a book about human relationships with technology, which he’ll discuss in his panel, Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices Are Divisive. “Every new technology falls on a continuum between obstruction and augmentation,” he says, and as such it poses unexpected paradoxes. For instance, “Everyone says ‘location doesn’t matter’ – but it makes location all the more important because you can choose to be anywhere.”

Admittedly, that last insight is not mine. Nicholas Negroponte pointed that out in his book Being Digital (Vintage, 1996). I’ll claim at least the synthesis of the rest though. I’m anxious to talk about this stuff at SXSW Interactive and in the new book.

Many, many thanks to Nora Ankrum and The Austin Chronicle for their time and attention.

 

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Yoxi Live Twitter Interview

The good folks over at Yoxi decided to interview me live on Twitter today mostly about my upcoming SXSW Interactive talk. Below is a transcription of the chat. I’ve edited it for chronology, continuity, and obvious text limitations, but overall it’s just as it appeared live.

Yoxi: Excited to have you as our 4th guest for #yoxichat. We’re stoked about your #SXSW panel!

Roy Christopher: Thank you! Glad to be here. I’m stoked on the #SXSW talk, too. Should be a hoot.

Y: Definitely! Speaking of #SXSW, what inspired your panel, Disconnecting the Dots: How Our Devices Are Divisive?

RC: In the midst of a book about technological mediation, I proposed this talk to #SXSW to work through some of those issues.

Y: Technological mediation, interesting! Tell us more about your research in that area!

RC: The book and talk are about all the ways we mediate our relationships with each other, our world, etc. through technology. Trying to develop a theory of technology that can account for new and old mediation alike.

Y: That’s great and truly relevant. Tech continues to consume our everyday lives.

RC: I’ve been exploring the land between thees lines for years, trying to assess it from the broadest possible perspective.

Y: If our “devices are divisive,” how do we find a balance in our digital lives?

RC: The same way we keep up with our lawns: sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. Technology is a part of our nature.

Y: Very true but if tech is part of our nature, how do we find a balance? Do you think people should just disconnect?

RC: Meta-attention is key: Assessing what one pays attention to and adjusting accordingly. Disconnection is not the answer.

Y: In terms of solutions, what advice do you have for teams in Yoxi’s Competition #2: Balance Your Digital Diet?

RC: I think “balance” is the wrong word. It’s more of a “tension,” and I think backing up and assessing it is the first step. Meta-attention and metacognition are not as widespread phenomena as they need to be. This is not elitism; it’s literacy.

Y: Thanks so much for joining us. Great thoughts. Hope everyone will check out your #SXSW panel. See you in Austin!

RC: Thank you for the time and attention. I appreciate it. See you in Austin in March!

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Many thanks to Arielle and Randy at Yoxi for their interest and for setting this up.

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“In The Pink” Redesign

So, I crawled out from under my largely word-based creative existence and did some design work this week. Not that it was a major feat of Photoshop and code, but it felt good to work out the design cobwebs. My friend Eileen Smith needed to revamp her web presence, so I turned her WordPress blog from this:

…into this:

It felt especially good since I used to do this stuff as my nine-to-five, and now I pretty much only do it for myself (as well as since my major creative work these days is done with words). Hoopa!

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Sandy Carson show at L. Nowling Gallery

My good friend Sandy Carson has another show of his photographs coming up soon.

Here are the details from Sandy:

I want to formally invite you to the opening of my first group exhibition of the year Storytelling at the L. Nowlin Gallery here in Austin. This exhibit, curated by the Austin Photography Group, features 40 Austin photographers and opens next Saturday, January 15th from 6-8pm. I shall be showing a piece from my Black Friday series from 2009.

Here’s a preview of the show. See you all there!

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A Prayer for a New Year

More stretch, less tense.
More field, less fence.
More bliss, less worry.
More thank you, less sorry.

More nice, less mean.
More page, less screen.
More reading, less clicking.
More healing, less picking.

More writing, less typing.
More liking, less hyping.
More honey, less hive.
More pedal, less drive.

More wind, less window.
More in action, less in-tow.
More yess, less maybes.
More orgasms, less babies.

More hair, less cuts.
More ands, less buts.
More map, less menu.
More home, less venue.

More art, less work.
More heart, less hurt.
More meaning, less words.
More individuals, less herds.

More verbs, less nouns.
More funny, less clowns.
More dessert, less diet.
More noise, less quiet.

More courage, less fear.
More day, less year.
More next, less last.
More now, less past.

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New Steve Aylett Stuff

Our man Steve Aylett has been busy. Not only is the Lint movie set for release next year, but he has a new collection of short stories out, and an anthology of the “Accomplice” novels, as well as a new edition of The Inflatable Volunteer, all of which would make excellent Christmas presents. There’s also this nifty item right here, but here’s the news as received from the man himself:

Smithereens collects 19 Steve Aylett stories including ‘The Man Whose Head Expanded‘, ‘The Burnished Adventures of Injury Mouse’, ‘Voyage of the Iguana’, the last ever Beerlight story ‘Specter’s Way’, ‘Horoscope’, the prophetic ‘Download Syndrome’ and the closest thing Aylett has ever written to a traditional SF story, ‘Bossanova’ (featuring a robot and two spaceships!) There are also animal-attack-while-writing reminiscences in ‘Evernemesi’ and top-of-the-line declarative bitterness in ‘On Reading New Books’. Snails, whales and cortical drills. Aylett’s last collection. Steve Aylett has been described as “utterly original” (SFX), “the most original voice in the literary scene” (Michael Moorcock), “an unstoppable master of space and time” (Asimov’s) and “the coolest writer alive today” (Starburst).

All four of Aylett’s “Accomplice” books in one volume. Revised. With introduction by Michael Moorcock. New preface. Weird graphics.

Starburst Magazine has called the books “a hugely impressive example of outrageous literary wit and uncommon good sense, demonstrating once more that Aylett is the coolest writer alive today”. SFX has called them “Bizarre, innovative and utterly original”. Collecting the titles Only an Alligator, The Velocity Gospel, Dummyland, and Karloff’s Circus, The Complete Accomplice follows the simple Barny and his friends through the intertwisted power manipulations of Accomplice, a zone where hell’s defected demons discover they can never match or out-do humanity when it comes to spectacular dishonesty and evasion. “Something this rapid shouldn’t be so intoxicating or so dense with ideas. It’s a roaring, groaning perpetual motion machine decked out as a fun fair attraction. Read it and you’ll need resuscitating” – 3:AM

There’s also a new edition of The Inflatable Volunteer out now from Raw Dog Screaming — the first publication of the book in the US, a new book called Rebel at the End of Time out soon from PS (UK), Novahead (follow-up to Slaughtermatic) out early 2011, and the aforementioned Lint Movie. For all the latest, check out Aylett’s website.