As the morning progresses you might notice that SuperForest looks a bit different today. That's because we are now hosting our own site on our own server space!
AND we've redesigned things to make searching for your favorite SuperForest posts easy! Want to read all of the posts by a single SuperForester? Just click their name.
Yay!
So we must say a fond "Aloha" to Blogger, which has worked so beautifully for us, as we say "Hello" to Wordpress.
In addition to the increased ease of use, hosting our own site also allows us to grow in some exciting new ways. Now, we can have our own wiki, our own chat rooms, our own social networking site.
In short SuperForest is shaping up. If you like your content elevating, your discussions thought provoking, and your DIY info so tantalizingly informative, well, you know where to go...
At the end of a post about a trip I'd taken to one of the new Wired stores here in NYC, I asked if there was a word or term to describe the feeling one gets when one has only experienced something digitally, (be it a product, place, or individual,) and then is lightly shocked when the item in question is physically interacted with.
We think we're ready to test drive a new term: meet shock.
A play on the word "meat," meet shock is used to describe "the awkwardness inherent in a real life interaction with someone or something you only know from the web."
Here is the conversation that lead to the sparkly new term:
I was actually just thinking about that the other day. Seeing something with just your sense of sight is one thing but to see it in person is something completely different. It is kind of like having a ghost materialize before your very eyes, which yes, would feel quite strange.
Or maybe the ghost and the material object (or person) are two separate entities. The ghost represents that idealistic vision you have of that person or thing. You can't help it, but that ghost will always be present during that first encounter and that awkwardness is born of your comparison between the ghost and the object/person standing in front of you.
Do we want it to be a verb, adjective, or a noun? Maybe we should start there.
I'd say "transwebward". A mix of Transition,Web and Awkward. Because you're going BEYOND (trans-)your WEB relationship and infuse it with AWKWARD.
EX: My transwebward encounter with the shirt I had seen online revealed that it was far too loose fitting. (Or) EX: My transwebward meeting with the Superforest team surprised me greatly.
or instead of meat shock, it could be "meet" shock...a play on words and at the same time, you are meeting (or meating) that object/person for the first time so it kind of works.
So, one can go on an internet date and report back to ones friends:
"We totally hit it off. Light meet shock in the beginning, but we got over it."
Or visit a store and hold a previously coveted item and remark later:
"Man, I checked out the Brunton SolarRoll. Much floppier than I'd expected. Total meet shock."
Or you can actually turn off your computer, and like, go freerunning in the park with some cat from your Warcraft guild, and then go home and sign back into IM and be all like:
"Lulzzz! HiroSandwitch338 is like 1000 yrs old in real life. Mi5555 shizzzzzzzzz!"
You can say or do any of those things. We totes understand if you don't.
"These wooden bicycles are ridden in the Banaue region of the Philippines. During an annual festival celebrating the culture of the regional tribes, wooden bikes are raced by participants in native costume. Notice the cool foot-activated brakes. These photos are from the Flickr pool of Harry Palangchao."
You may have noticed that the layout of SF has changed recently. This is actually for an interesting reason. Well, two interesting reasons:
The first is that visually it looks nicer to have more room for our posts to breathe, and the second is that the blogger template is set up so that you have lots of room on either side to sell advertising space.
Since we will NEVER have advertising on SF, that space has been recaptured for our sweet sweet content.
Fun, right? When I go to sites and blogs, there parts of the page I don't even bother looking at. The same goes for magazines and television.
We've gotten so good as a culture at tuning out the advertising, that traditional advertising is dying away. So, an interesting question is: "how then will goods and services be advertised?"
We have received a question from SuperForester Carolyn:
"Hi Jackson and Co.
I'm Carolyn and I read your blog multiple times a day... admittance is the first step to recovery, right? However, I don't wish to recover from reading Superforest anytime soon.
Let's get down to business. I'm in dire need of a costume idea. In the past I've had some pretty stellar homemade Halloween costumes, but for some reason I'm having a brain-block this season...
So, details... Ummm, I'm in college so naturally I have little money to spend on extravagant's. I don't play the half naked costume game. And I'd really like to be the most eco-friendly trick or treater on my block.
Any ideas ya'll have would be much much much appreciated. Thankssssss!
Kindly, Carolyn"
Dear Carolyn,
Thank you for your excellent question. Thanks to our friend, the internet, the "sweet recycled Halloween costume" meme is in full effect.
A quick search reveals some very tasty morsels! Morsels like this cardboard crocodile:
Or Umbrella Bat!
Oooooo! Or the CloroxBot!
Cardboardy Lego Overlords! Kachoowwww!
Between MAKE, instructables, and a google search, there is a world of recycled costume opportunities at your fingertips.
And what a fine morning it is. I just want to begin by saying "Thank you" for reading this blog, commenting on our posts, and especially for encouraging Team SuperForest.
Okay, the Peace Alphabet...
This project began several months ago when I wrote a post about the lack of cool iconography to communicate Peace. Peace has the Peace Symbol, the dove, and..... that's about it. Right about that time I saw this:
In this amazing short film, John Lennon speaks about how everything you do should be done for Peace. Smile for Peace, kiss for Peace, go to school for Peace, don't go to school for Peace, piss for Peace...
That last one really stuck with me. Piss for Peace. I love that idea. Wanting only to make some folks and myself laugh, I quickly drew up what would become the first letter:
P is for Peace.
"P" lead to "A", which lead to "B", and so on... I drew them out of order, doing whatever letter I felt inspired to do at the time.
For me, this project has very little to do with the creation of the 26 images, and everything to do with the spread of the idea that Peace is a brand, and as a brand, needs attention, nurturing and support in order to succeed.
The Peace Alphabet idea is a very good one (IMHO) as it gives anyone willing to undertake their own version twenty six chances to get one thing right. Even if I fail 25 times, perhaps that 26th image might just be one that sticks. 26 chances means you can fail a great deal while conversely increasing your chances of succeeding.
The Peace Alphabet idea also put SF and myself in a new position, as now that the series is completed, we have for the first time created a product. A product that we would be proud to offer to the world, in whatever form the world wanted it in.
If you would like a poster with every letter on it, I'd love for you to have it. If you'd like a book, ditto. A print, ditto. Whatever form you desire, we'd like to offer you.
So, we SuperForesters have been discussing how exactly we can make the move from producing ideas to producing "things" in as clean and responsible a way as is possible.
For the future, we plan on creating a site for the PA exclusively, a nice little cyber-home for it online, to develop as it will. What really excites me is the idea of other artists and makers doing their own versions of it. Hopefully, like a tomato plant, the Peace Alphabet will grow and produce fruit and spread, and in the end we will have a deluge of clever new images to represent Peace. Images that everyone can experience and use via the magic connecting power of the inter-cyber-web.
I'd would love some feedback, any feedback, positive or negative on the execution of the idea, the idea itself, and what we could best be doing to spread the "Brand Peace" meme.
Without further ado, the Peace Alphabet:
There you have them. 26 new images for Peace, for your consideration.
I would like to dedicate this to Andrew Zuckerman, whose support of me, SuperForest and the Peace Alphabet have been unflagging.
To Christine Norrie, who taught me to draw in the first place, and who gave me the confidence to start making my own images.
Posts
I was actually just thinking about that the other day. Seeing something with just your sense of sight is one thing but to see it in person is something completely different. It is kind of like having a ghost materialize before your very eyes, which yes, would feel quite strange.
Or maybe the ghost and the material object (or person) are two separate entities. The ghost represents that idealistic vision you have of that person or thing. You can't help it, but that ghost will always be present during that first encounter and that awkwardness is born of your comparison between the ghost and the object/person standing in front of you.
Do we want it to be a verb, adjective, or a noun? Maybe we should start there.
December 7, 2008 11:41 AM
Adjective! Adjective!!!
Yeah yeah yeah!
December 7, 2008 1:16 PM
I'd say "transwebward". A mix of Transition,Web and Awkward. Because you're going BEYOND (trans-)your WEB relationship and infuse it with AWKWARD.
EX: My transwebward encounter with the shirt I had seen online revealed that it was far too loose fitting.
(Or)
EX: My transwebward meeting with the Superforest team surprised me greatly.
December 7, 2008 1:31 PM
Oh! And as the only teenage girl on this team, I think i MUST mention that it sounds like "Edward" from the Twilight saga. haha.
December 7, 2008 1:33 PM
I have one of those Arbor boards! Their stuff is great.
December 7, 2008 10:42 PM
transwebward is good.
Has anyone played Second Life? In SL they refer to the real world as "meat space." Maybe something along the lines of "meat shock"?
That sounds awful.
But when something makes the leap from purely mental to physical it is definitely jarring. Mostly in a good way.
December 7, 2008 10:59 PM
I like transwebward. "Meat shock" is good too. lol I've never played Second Life but "meat shock" sounds like something a vegetarian would experience.
And yes, I agree, hopefully all of our transwebward experiences will be full of joy and excitement! :D
December 8, 2008 1:02 AM
or instead of meat shock, it could be "meet" shock...a play on words and at the same time, you are meeting (or meating) that object/person for the first time so it kind of works.
December 8, 2008 1:30 AM
Meet shock is brilliant and you are brilliant.
Meet shock.
Amazing.
December 8, 2008 9:56 PM