the future of air travel

Oh yes, the glorious days of air travel are over : Forget the smiling and friendly ladies behind the check-in counters. Instead one is being yelled at for not having the brainy means to figure out their computer glitches at the electronic check-in machines (which almost never work..). Then me and my bag are being scanned (whichever comes first) only to be ousted in front of other weary travelers because i left that damn disposable lighter in some side pocket of mu bag. My bad ! Ahmm.. imagening that I am sitting on thousands of gallons of fuel any spark could do whatever my lighter is suspicious of (or I might stab that annoying flight attendant with it). After body and body temperature scan, my passport is scanned and then my fingerprint scanned and then of course also my eyes and perhaps brain volume. By the time I reach the duty free shops the only thing that hasn't been scanned (yet) is my credit card. They know where I live, where I want to go, when I will be back and ... how I look naked.
Given all this scanning with ever evolving technology, why are flights still delayed, service crappy and people crammed into this old-fashioned flying sausages ? Do they just want to know who we are and check on us using air travel as an excuse ? No longer that far fetched I think, but on the other hand I am looking forward to the day when a body scan can actually teletransport me to the destination where I want to be. Saves fuel too. AJ

the invisible consumer

I thought this was an interesting picture of a Chinese performance artist applying his artwork on his outfit to blend into the environment. To me it is also a metaphor how we, as consumers, are being consumed and not vice versa. Wish I could find the link. AJ

the dark side...

There was a lot of speculation about the 'dark' side of the moon which is not visible from earth until this shots were taken recently. Looks to me like our moon has taken a lot of hits to keep our blue marble protected. AJ

synaptic systems

is the way we live and organize ourselfs in fact biomimicry ? The picture on top shows a close-up of our synaptic nerv system, while the one below was taken from space showing a city at night. It's not just that this pictures look similar at first glance, but it does raise the idea that humans may compare to neurons being 'transmitted' by electrical or chemical processes using an interconnected mesh-type system spanning the globe. Are we just a part of a much larger organism called 'Earth' ? Perhaps about time we think that way. AJ

reality commerce

Life imitates art..or how did that go again ? F1 honcho B. Ecclestone was recently mugged off his 200 grand watch while the thieves left a gentle 'thank you' note in his face. He then thought it was a brilliant idea to use his battered mugshot for promotion with the tagline 'see what people do for a Hublot' to promote an equally expensive watch. Initially I thought it was quite a quirky idea, but then.....wouldn't it remind me that the chances to be mugged and beaten are higher the more expensive my watch is and wouldn't my face in an ad for Swatch look much healthier ? To me this ad looks like 'buy a Hublot to guarantee stitches in your face and look like a corpse for a couple of weeks' -especially when you are a very rich old man.

Monkey business 2

besides the graphic design references in your previous post i also found that there's always been a fascination with various forms of humanoid-ness, let it be the the representatives of our evolution or any monkey-types living in the forests - being regarded as our closest relatives. I think it is not the similarities that fascinate us, but our differences in appearance and behavior, often serving as inspiration for earlier Sci-Fi
movies with 'Planet of the Apes' the closest example, in which apes represent the highest form of evolution.
we still see a slight distortion or variation of the expected human reference as being alien enough, while perhaps we have no idea in what form or shape a real alien life form may appear. I have a gut sense that that permanent itch at my neck is caused by some alien-mutant-bedbug. AJ

Monkey business

                                     

Am I missing something here? Forget orange as cool - it is so OVER. Overdone in dot com boom town and a dead giveaway you are Gen X ready to roll in your design coffin...but what about the fascination with monkeys with headphones? And more ridiculous is that as it is monkeys are supposed to be copy-artists so when humans copy logos, we out do monkeys, as we not just copy but copy copies and regurgitate them to create mutants of the original copy. Looking at the logo of 'Ambassadors of Design' that I recently came across in HK I was left wondering...this is supposed to be an alternative movement, unofficial-cool-renegade-avante garde...wow...but what does the logo communicate? Monkey Ambassadors? Skull on fire? Headphones made out of cheap plastic that will flame your brain? skull heads with Anime hair-do's?