Warhol iconography on web time

Web-time is faster. That is no secret. More people participate in more sharing of information in more places at a greater speed. Faster, quicker, bigger, wider. More people in more places communicate and share more information.

The type of imaginative satire that would have taken Andy Warhol months or years to develop can now be done in a matter of days. If crowd-sourced, the compilation can easily exceed anything that anybody alone could have imagined. On web time everybody is famous for fifteen nanoseconds.

Which means cultural cycles beat to a faster rhythm. Fads grow quickly among the online hoards, and just as quickly become replaced by new fads.

Sometimes, however, it is astonishing. In a blink an iconic image becomes established.

Even more astonishing is the speed of the next stage. In a blink newly minted iconic images transform into parody.

As illustration, consider this now iconic photograph, taken by the White House photographer, released on Monday, May 1, after the death of Osama Bin-Laden.

It has become known as the “situation room photo.” Over lunch at work my colleagues and I have had conversations about “that photo from the situation room.” Everybody knows it.

It deserves the attention. The photo shows an intense meeting among US leaders in the situation room during the execution of that raid. Obama is hunched over. The VP looks up from his laptop. Hillary Clinton covers her mouth, as if in shock. It is a great photograph, capturing the intensity and tension of the moment.

Such an icon was just asking for a bit of humor. It did not take long.

Look at this parody, which has come out in the last few days. It includes one additional participant, a little girl covering her ears. Where have you seen that little girl?

Talk about iconic photograph. That little girl came from a photograph taken Saturday of the balcony of the royal wedding, where the newlyweds kissed for the crowd. That little girl gained worldwide fame for covering her ears when the crowd roared.

Look, it is funny to have her in the situation room. Give somebody some credit for imagination. I had a great laugh. Didn’t you?

Now, here is my point. Once you get the idea behind the parody, there is no reason to stop with little girls. Within days others have started to paste lots of different people into the situation room. These parodies are all over the Internet.

If you are curious, see a whole list of them here.

Think about this for just a minute. The royal wedding resulted in a bunch of iconic photographs. The kiss on the balcony emerged as one, especially due to the little girl covering her ears. Her actions tell a story about the level of noise.

One image from one newly minted iconic photograph then got merged into another newly minted iconic photograph, resulting in a marvelous piece of Internet humor.

So that is the consequences of living in Web-time. Iconic images emerge with astonishing speed. Iconic images get merged easily. Iconic images descend into parody quickly.

If Warhol were alive, he would have laughed too. On web time everybody is famous for fifteen nanoseconds.

(Thanks to Marty Parker for showing me the parodies).

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Late follow-up: Alert readers have sent email. The little girl’s name is Grace Van Cutsem. She is three years old. Little Grace is getting more than her fifteen nanoseconds of fame. She has been put in many pictures, not just the situation room. If you would like to see some, click here. 

Apple and the Charlie Factory

Or was that Charlie and the Apple Factory? No, wait, wasn’t that Willie Wonka and the JAVA Applet Factory? Oh, whatever.

Here is a little humor at Apple’s expense, care of the creative video makers at College Humor. It is a parody of the the movie, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

In case you are confused, let’s set a few things straight. This is not a parody of the recent remake starring Johny Depp, which was called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (using the title from the original book, written by Roald Dahl). Instead, this parody plays off the first movie, the one that starred Gene Wilder.

It even includes a few songs (Ahhhhhhh, that will make one sentimental). It is a wonderful way to waste three minutes. Enjoy!

My favorite line:

“I-Phone 5s! What do they do?”

“Slightly better camera and it doesn’t drop calls… as much.”

What is your favorite line?

A little play on words: A broken blackberry

If you are among those who have not seen the following, then go watch and enjoy. Here follows a little play on words, aimed at the pretensions of modern computing and communications, a wonderful way to waste three minutes and laugh at ourselves.

Oh, the video is titled “My Blackberry is Not Working.” It will be quite apparent why. And do stay for the end. The last pun is a groaner.

A Modest Moment for Mobile Maps in Midtown Manhattan

Let me start by getting one thing out of the way. I am not just another doofus guy who has trouble asking for directions. If anything, I ask too much.

Nonetheless, I do have a tendency to get lost. Nothing unusual made me lose my way on a beautiful evening in early June in Midtown Manhattan. I was late for dinner because I could not find the restaurant.

The plot of this story is simple. I was lost, but the map program in my iPhone helped me find the restaurant. It is just a little vignette, a modest and self-deprecating story that illustrates the wondrous capability of mobile maps.

The point is also simple. There is nothing particularly special about the use of the technology. Using mobile maps has become routine, almost mundane.

If you stop and think about it, however, this mundane and routine event represents a big change, especially in comparison to a decade ago. It builds on a remarkable combination of  technologies. These all must work together rather seamlessly to make that routine moment possible. That is the deeper point behind this post.

Two warnings before starting the story. First, this story is a shaggy dog. I will try to deliver it with a sense of the absurd and a touch of dry humor, but if you do not have five minutes to read a lot of trivial detail, then do not read this post.

Second, this story ends up sounding like a walking commercial for Google Maps. Honest, that was not my intent. All of it actually happened.

Making humor out of technological absurdity

This absurd little autobiographical story captures a wonderful slice of the modern technological experience. We have all been there: The gizmo does not work; The call is important to the service provider when it is not; The customer is on an endless hold; The user is ultimately helpless and baffled by the entire episode.

Throughout the ordeal the author shows patience and good humor. It is worth a read. (Thanks to Marty Parker for the recommendation).

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Is it technology or is it magic?

A computer, a router and a gizmo: When things fall apart, who are you going to call?

By Barry Goldman

Barry Goldman is an arbitrator and mediator and the author of “The Science of Settlement: Ideas for Negotiators.”

May 23, 2010

My computer stopped working. No Internet, no email. The little picture of a computer that lives at the bottom of my screen and usually has happy computer beams coming out of it lost its beams and showed a red X through its heart. I called customer support.

The automated voice told me the system was experiencing technical difficulties in my area and the anticipated time of restoral was three hours from the time of outage. I have heard this message before. It’s as phony as the made-up word “restoral.” I pushed on. The voice said I could get answers to most questions by logging on to the system’s website. I gritted my teeth and stayed on hold.

Eventually a person came on the line. What was my phone number? What was my four-digit secret code? What was my favorite restaurant? When I was able to convince her I was who I said I was, she asked me what she could do to provide me with excellent service. I explained my problem, and she said she could help me.

Norwegian humor about encyclopedias

A wonderful piece of Norwegian humor came my way from Terje Wiesener, a student at the Sloan/MIT. This is worth sharing.

Terje read my business case about Encyclopedia Britannica. This case focuses on that firm’s crisis in the early 1990s, as it reacted to the introduction of CD based encyclopedias, namely, from Encarta. (If you want to read the case look here.)

That made him think of this comic, which he emailed to his instructor, who emailed me. He is delighted to share with you:

If you do not speak Norwegian, you probably need some help. Ah, here is Terje’s translation, quoted directly from his email:

“Square 1: (Pretty self-explanatory)

Square 2: Hold on… Honey, can you come here for a sec?

Square 3: – Ok, can you please repeat that?
- Uh, well… This great encyclopedia could now be yours for…

Square 4: (On the phone) -Knut, listen to this!
(The woman) – Ency-hahaha! What are we, The Flintstones? (Laughing maniacally)”

(If you care to look, here is the web site for all these comics.)

So what do we learn from this example of Norwegian humor?

First, some Norwegians have a recognizable sense of humor. (Not a surprise, but we have to start somewhere.)

Second, the decline of encyclopedias is a general phenomenon, recognized by comic writers in most of the developed world. That includes Norway. (Also not a surprise.)

Third, well — whatdoyouknow? — most Norwegians have heard of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. (To my mind this latter observation is a bit more surprising than the first observation.) Perhaps there is also something universal about “Yabba-dabba-doo.”

And for good measure, here is a small epilogue: Terje also passes on the following information about the norwegian equivalent, Store Norske Leksikon. They are in bad financial shape. Their ad revenues declined recently after they launched their free web service in 2008. Here is the wikipedia entry about them.  I particularly like the other article he recommend, a Google-automated translation of this Norwegian news article.

Thanks Terje!

A few laughs at Apple’s expense

It was only a matter of time. A company that takes itself so seriously is just asking for parody and online ridicule. Apple was going to get it sooner or later.

The over-hyped launch of the iPad has generated more and more humor. For example, consider this amusing parody of the iPad and iPhone.

This fake ad is clever. Somebody went to a lot of work.

Notice the clean finish. They even got the fonts right.

Bravo.

But my favorite is a recent YouTube video by the Onion. It is about an Apple product called “The Wheel”, a new product Apple has just launched.

Watch the entire video just to get to the best line — near the end. While listing all its wonderful traits, the announcer says breathlessly, “Virtually unbreakable unless dropped or hit.” Well, there you have it! Bless them.

If you have not had enough, then try this video from the folks at College Humor.

It is not as good as the video from the Onion (but nothing ever is). Still, it has its moments — for example, when Steve Job (imitator) in the video takes credit for inventing the printing press. Still, not too many laughs in your five minutes, so if you are pressed for time, skip it.

The same outfit also did a parody of an iPhone commercial that was shorter and more pointed. Many more laughs per minute. I liked it a bit more.

Seen any other Apple humor? Make some suggestions.

The Internet has a birthday and turns 40

National Public Radio has started a series on the history of the Internet. The reporter tried to go back and find the first Internet message ever sent.

He concluded it was sent on October 29th, 1969, between UCLA and SRI (Stanford Research Institute). Here is a link to the story.

In the process the reporter uncovered one trivial but amusing factoid, but also over-interpreted the events. In this post I want to explain why the factoid is amusing and why the report misinterpreted it.

Who is on first in computing?

The classic routine by Abbott and Costello considered the names of the players on a baseball team. Very clever play on words. Here is a variant on that routine, but it considers computing… This routine has circulated for a while on the Internet, but without credit. I want to know the author.

Who wrote this? No, no, who is on first….