To make something really beautiful, you have to treat it like a lover. It has to be personal. It has to obsess you when you're falling asleep. It has to be in your dreams. It has to be with you when you wake. It has to torment you.
- Jonathan Harris, from Telling stories using data: An interview with Jonathan Harris
He's my latest geek crush
more from him:
One thing technology hasn't figured out is how to enhance, rather than limit, our individuality. This is largely because technology, in order to be profitable, has to be mass-produced. And when things are mass-produced, everyone gets the same version. This would all be fine, if technology weren't so damn addictive.
Most tools (hammers, pencils, leaf-blowers) don't impose themselves on the lives of their users. Tools should accommodate us when we need them, and then go away until we need them again. This is the implicit pact between tools and their owners. But technology is different. Devices like Blackberries, iPods, iPhones, and laptops are the first tools to violate the pact of tools and their owners. They go too far, and they take over our lives.
I don't have anything against these devices in particular; I just think every so often, people should go outside and smell the wind.
when asked, "How do you find stories to tell?":
Oh, they're everywhere! Everything is a story. Sometimes it overwhelms me. I love walking around New York and making intense eye contact with strangers as they pass me, sharing a few brief moments of knowing, guessing intimacy.
Every face holds so much. I could do an entire project about anyone I ever meet. I just find people endlessly fascinating.
isn't he such a darling??? :)))
im so giddy, cant believe it, yey, it's such a gift to have a real crush again, thank you God! :)
ever since i saw his talk on ted.com, couldnt stop thinking about him, who he is, what he does, what goes on in that head of his
ive always fallen for the geeks, the curious, the artists
well this guy's all that
and he loves to travel and document everyday stories
plus obviously he's eloquent and extremely intelligent
did i mention he paints and keeps sketchbook journals of handmade chunks of paper where he sticks anything from leaves to tickets? ive been doing that since grade school!
he's also a computer geek-- does graphic design, websites, and complex interactive sites that my low-tech pc cannot even explore properly: universe , i want you to want me , whale hunt
but wow, check out his sites (im such a stalker, you can tell?)
www.number27.org-- his latest "resume", listing all his projects, his biography, where he's given lectures or exhibited works (he's traveled quite a lot, and travel in the sense that matters to me-- for stories, as spectator/observer who jumps in and mingles with the culture)
www.flamingtoast.net -- his old website, with his artworks (he has a painting of a dream scene!!! amazing how so much about this guy resonates in me!)
he's so prolific, it's inspiring! and he's our age, born 1979...haaaaaaaaaaaaaa..... when i was watching him on ted.com my initial impulse was to literally cup his head and "feel" what was going on inside it--i kept thinking, man this guy's such a geek....
oh, jonathan harris. you wanna come to manila?
but seriously, him or being introduced to the reality of him--someone who is so CURIOUS and prompted by such multiple disciplines-- it's made me rethink what i want to do in my life, particularly when ive paid my dues and go "disappear"...makes me want to study again, to get in the thick of the newest trends in technology, art, design...be in a driven, top-tiered, stimulating environment...which, well, spain is not...i want to get out there and be bright eyed and have the facility to act on it, through and through... no holding back, just exploding!
ayayayay!!
(photo from www.number27.org)
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