Re: Hans Rosling's Shortest Talk Ever - information aesthetics

Posted by Steve Smith on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Re-Hans-Rosling-s-Shortest-Talk-Ever-information-aesthetics-tp7580138p7580141.html

nicely done Hans!

At first I thought he had lost his marbles (only to replace them with stones).

Then I had a moment where i thought I was with a con man playing some version of 3 card monte...

But he pulled it all off in 50 seconds.

I don't think it is good form to kneel down on the floor with a handful of stones in an elevator.

In (more) careful analysis:

1. His use of raw materials out in the open was key to the metaphorical implications.
1. The stones, being of raw materials reminded me that humans are animals.
2. The stones"worn" into shape by natural forces reminded me that every group (even if artificially lumped by billions) of people are different but shaped by their history.
2. By carefully laying out the stones as he did I got a visual and via my mirror neurons, kinaesthetic sense of 7 Billion as divided into the 4 groups.
3. Shifting the stones "up" the affluence axis was very effective, adjusting the distribution in several deft steps... I almost had a physical sense of watching this happen over the next 5-10-20 years.
4. Just as the first/most-affluent billion was represented by a polished, darker stone set visually (and texturally?) apart from the others, the final 10th billion stone was a small, oddly shaped one.  I'm not sure what the metaphorical target for those aspects were, but I doubt it was unintentional.
5. Even though he ran his patter through the whole 50 seconds, he was "showing" rather than "telling"... his narrative acted nearly as a legend or verbal annotation and his hands (rarely pointing, but rather moving stones) were "pointers" linking the "text" to the "graphics".
6. Perhaps all of us should spend some time learning prestidigitizaiont and other forms of "show" over "tell" including deliberate misdirection.

I was struck by his grouping.  I've been bothered by the 99% thing wtih Occupy, I think the more important distinction is the 10% (most or all of us are in that group) vs the 90% (a few of us may know a few in that group).  The ones who aspire to own a better car, a better bicycle, or yes, a pair of shoes!  Unfortunately we are all more compelled to think hard about situations where we feel identified with the victims rather than the victimizers (victors?).

Well done Hans... maybe Mick Thompson can spearhead a new version of Ignite limited to 50 seconds and requiring the use of natural materials and continuous motion, with or without talking.  We don't need the SF_X building with computers and projectors to do this, it can happen squatted down in the middle of  a parking lot or a small clearing in the forest.   I like it... the overhead is about right anyway.

- Steve
.. yes I *am* avoiding a deadline (http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/) as suggested to me by our good friend Carl Diegert!

Excellent, and thank you!

On May 31, 2012, at 10:35 AM, Tom Johnson wrote:

While I usually raise an eyebrow at over-simplification, this one is a pretty good elevator pitch.

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2012/05/hans_roslings_shortest_talk_ever.html

-tj

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

"Over the past few centuries, the book has evolved in tandem with the human. It has bilateral symmetry, a spine and is like each of us, a repository of cultural values."

Marina La Palma

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org