Everybody knows that Pablo Picasso was well known for his super-minimalist studio. And that very expensive notebook he wrote his grocery list in. And who can forget his visionary writings like 29 Ways To Clean A Paintbrush For Under $10?
Wait, he wasn’t known for that?
What made him a good artist then? Oh yeah. He made things.
I stumbled across MinimalistMac today, a site I’m sure I remember reading years ago. Its articles and links romaticise the ideology of broad desks, blank computer desktops, and utilities that make it easier to do things. A clean, organised workspace definitely has a good impact on the psyche, and it’s maybe this reason that people read sites like MinimalistMac: they provide a view of creative zen.
Here’s my argument: Why must the writers of these sites so happily sing the priases of Simple™ note-taking applications, to-do list managers and text editors? The idea of simplicity has transformed from a personal ideal to a marketable tag-line, pushed on every person that product is advertised to. Everyone wants to work Simply™, right?
Now, I’m not bashing software developers. It’s important to state when your aim is to produce a simple tool, and these tools are often indispensible to the right people. There’s not a minute that goes by that I don’t use Quicksilver, because I’m a complete keyboard shortcut junkie. That’s the critical part: simple tools often only fit certain people.
When such software is marketed to the wrong people, it becomes a sap on your attention, time and energy. They become extra problems. But here’s the kicker that keeps people coming back time and time again: they’re easy to solve. Simple! Productive!
I could happily sit here all day, tagging each and every one of my emails from the past seven years. Do I need tags for my email? Someone probably does, but I don’t. ‘Prouctivity’, in this sense, isn’t necessarily productive.
Does any of this sound familiar? it should do, because it doesn’t just apply to $20 to-do list managers.
I’m having trouble starting this essay, but it’s so much easier to go make a cup of coffee, or eat something.
I’m dreading making this phone call, but while I’m here, I’ll check my email.
Hey, this article is really inspiring me to make things – I better head over to Twitter and mention it!
(Not that I’d mind the last one, of course.)
What I’m asking of you: Next time you’re tempted by something promising ‘simplicity’ and ‘increased productivity’, stop and think: Does it really deserve your time? Does it have the right to divert your attention from what’s more important? A clean desk is nice, as is a crisp new notebook, but challenge it. Control your time and energy in ways that help you make things.
I know, it’s hard to resist temptation. It’s an uphil sprint sometimes to get to starting, but when you get there? It’s all downhill, I promise.
As work on my current university project comes to a close, I thought I’d share a few tidbits of information I’ve picked up from the past few months.
Part of this project involved taking a series of headshots in a similar style. When it comes to headshots, there are a myriad of styles one could go for. To fit my own work though, and in particular other work in the project, I decided the portraits had to:
be simple and consistently executed;
be somewhat personal/intimate;
make some use of colour.
There was one big constraint, however: the university studio at the time had no strobes, no light-control devices, and no backdrops. Aside from natural light, the only available sources were the buzzing strip lights on the ceiling, and a selection of old halogen lamps.
Here’s the lighting diagram for what I came up with:
Devoid of anything to soften the light directly, I set up a flip-chart with a sheet of plain paper just out of sight, to the camera’s right. Bouncing the bright halogen lamp off of this created a much softer light, which could be adjusted for shadow softness by moving the lamp closer or further from the paper. Shadow contrast could be changed by moving the flip-chart further or closer to the subject.
With the main light provided by the lamp, I sat the subjects in front of a whitewashed wall, with a large window across the room to camera left. This provided a colour-contrasting fill light, which really gives a three-dimensional feel to the final images. Aside from cloning a pock-mark or two out of the wall behind them, very little post-processing work was done. A few colour adjustments were used to keep colour consistency between shoots.
Now the studio has a walk-in light tent, which does a decent enough job softening the halogen lamps. However, having a good understanding of these basic principles allows you to set things up in almost any circumstance.
Back in 2004, Ben Tucker created OpenPodcast.org. The idea: Let anybody contribute to a community-run podcast; anything that gets sent in, goes out to the world.
This was one of the first steps to making podcasting a feasible platform for regular people. At the time, ‘podcasting’ was new, hacky, and took a level of technical understanding to implement. OpenPodcast.org served as a platform for content producers, back when implementing the system yourself was difficult.
I found OpenPodcast.org in 2005, and I was blown away. Every morning, hours of audio would just turn up: rambling telephone monologues (which became the basis for many early audio-blogs), independent music, as well as produced shows like the Sound-A-Day Podcast. I was experiencing a whole new world of content, thanks to this free, unmoderated platform.
In 2006, OpenPodcast.org went offline. It simply disappeared. Devoid of the service it provided, many producers moved to Blogger and Feedburner, which were making podcasting simpler. Content found its new home, as well as a better prospect for being found amid the sea of new media.
The death of OpenPodcast.org left the internet devoid of one particular service, though: a constant, always-on tuner for the audible world. Open, centralised platforms like OpenPodcast.org allowed for an intimate view into people’s everyday lives, from all across the world, in one place.
What’s replaced it? I would say AudioBoo.fm. It’s the only thing to fit the bill since OpenPodcast.org’s demise, allowing people to add a slice of their life to a collective pool. While slightly UK-biased in its active user base, it is truly a successor to the type of service OpenPodcast.org delivered almost five years ago.
