The War on Stupid is looking for recruits

War on Stupid Recruitment Video from Andrew on Vimeo.


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Random Goodness #4

 Here's a little roundup of some lesserknown things you might like:

• The new single by Jean Grae "Me & U & EveryoneWeKnow" popped up on RapRadar today, and it's worth a listen. Production by M-Phazes is expansive and thoroughly jazzed. It takes a minute for her to actually come in because the instrumental just builds. Real music. No word on whether the title is a reference to the Miranda July film of the same name.
• Ever thought the awesomest thing the universe could offer was to see Booker T. & the MGs in a little club in Paris in 1968? You might be right. Aquarium Drunkard found this video as proof. The band just tears it up.
• Drink a lot of coffee? Good has an article explaining why your morning kickstart is about to get more expensive.
• The Iowa Caucuses are tonight. While the mainstream media drools over the political bloodshed, few have actually gone about explaining what the caucuses are (and why their different from other states' primaries). The War On Stupid links to a flowchart that helps explain.

War on Stupid at DMA

 Earlier this week I was up in Boston co-presenting "The War on Stupid" with Andrew Davies, a designer extraordinnaire with Paragon Design. As part of the Geekend Roadshow we presented at the Direct Marketers Association conference. It went well, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. If you read/speak Danish, let me know if this article about the talk is good or bad.

The basic idea is that people need access to important information about the world around them, but most people either don't like to read, or never find time to keep up with more news than what is available via cable news channels. They are left under-served in the realm of informational nourishment. We propose to combat that through the collaboration of creatives (designers, illustrators, filmmakers, sound designers, etc) with 'sense-makers' (journalists, research scientists, etc) to turn complex ideas and data heavy material into short videos.

We created a demo of our idea. Drew took a 3-part investigative piece that I did about a nuclear reactor project outside of Augusta and turned it into a minute-and-a-half long motion graphic video. Check that out here.

You can follow the War on Stupid blog, which highlights other folks working in the realm of information translation.

The War on Stupid demo

Last October, I collaborated with graphic designer Andrew Davies from Paragon on a presentation called "The War on Stupid Needs You," for Geekend. We discussed how the increase in information available to people hasn't been accompanied by any increased ability to process or analyze that information. We talked about how "data" collectors like scientists, journalists and others need to develop new relationships with digital creatives like designers, filmmakers and illustrators who will translate complex ideas into more palatable info-tainment.
As a demonstration, we worked together to take a 3-part series I wrote about funding for Georgia Power's nuclear development of Plant Vogtle and turn it into a short animated video.

Nuclear Bailout from Andrew on Vimeo.

And now we're back...

Saturday night inside the Moogaplex during a secret DJ set by Caribou and Four Tet.

Whoah. Sorry for the delay between posts. It's taken me several days to recover from the weekend in Asheville and to catch up on everything else going on - like my Geekend talk this Friday (11/4) with Drew from Paragon Design called "The War on Stupid Needs You."

The talk is about information translation - taking the important issues covered by long form journalism (which relatively few people can tolerate because of our society's collective media-induced A.D.D.) and distilling them into pill-sized caplets of information that are readily digestible quickly but are able to impart relatively complex discussions on policy, politics, etc. It lays out some guidelines for creating a new system, which is already starting to develop in small clusters, where journalists and creatives of all kinds (designers, animators, recording engineers, etc) join forces to create effective bursts of information that will help explain the issues of the day.