Joshua Davis, the clear winner (in my eyes) of this week’s composition, had a fascinating Apple Pro profile written about him:

Davis creates electronically generated graphic compositions of almost unimaginable complexity and individuality. Equally at home with print and electronic media, he builds his own Flash-based programs to combine and recombine colors borrowed from nature with forms that include organic shapes, text elements, and other symbols.

“Working this way allows me to generate an infinite number of compositions,” Davis explains. “I set the boundaries and the rules, but whatever comes out at the end is a surprise. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It could look cool. It could fail. It could be life-changing. There’s always a surprising sense of discovery with this process, because I’m setting up an environment and allowing a scenario to live within it.”

I take a lot of digital photographs just to extract color. I go to an arboretum here on Long Island at different points in the year and take pictures of the orchid show or the Christmas poinsettias. Nature does a pretty good job of blending. You’ll get a flower that starts with green, goes up to yellow, and blooms red. So already I’ve got a red, a yellow, and a green that all complement each other.

Josh is a catalyst — he harnesses the power of objects in his environment and transforms them.Whether it’s from code or from nature, he mixes together a few ingredients, throws it in the oven, and waits to see what comes out.

Dear ROB,

Thank you for $. Me go 2 college. Lern to Right. Get smart. U best uncle evr. Thanks to for coming to visit. I likes 3 look at U. Someday when big me come to DC to see you and sleep over. Me vote for you one day. <3 Maya.

For more information, please visit the Dems.gov Financial Timeline.
]]> http://www.robpierson.com/2009/12/the-impact-of-regulation-on-the-economy/feed/ 0 http://www.robpierson.com/2009/11/but-its-my-bench/ http://www.robpierson.com/2009/11/but-its-my-bench/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:45:55 +0000 Rob http://www.robpierson.com/?p=25 This vignette about mental filters resonated with me.

It is difficult to accept defeat… but retreat does not neccessarily equal weakness. Instead, it can be a sign of flexibility and agility, or a demonstration that you are striving beyond your comfort zone.

I hope to fail more often in the future.

So far, though, I’ve been very impressed with everyone I’ve met in my new office. They’re all incredibly smart, interesting, and passionate. The politics working at this level will be way beyond what I’ve encountered in the past, and I’ll have to step my game up a few levels, but isn’t that what it’s all about? Challenging yourself and working towards continued growth?

Onwards and upwards…

Why do I love yoga?

There’s a host of reasons that yoga is important to me. The flexibility, exercise, and enjoyment of the practices are all factors, but the core reasons are less easily described. What I appreciate most, however, are those subtle changes that aren’t immediately apparent.

In this month’s Yoga Journal, the editor wrote in with a letter about losing touch with what she referred to as the current of life flowing within her, and how re-engaging in her yoga practice helped her to find it once again. Her story encapsulates much of what I love most about yoga.

I recently moved, which is, of course, one of the great unsettling experiences in life. As the move-out deadline approached — the kitchen packed and my diet confined to caffeine and takeout, the days too full for practicing yoga — I all but lost the connection to my body. I had no appetite, couldn’t sleep, didn’t notice the aches and pains from overusing some muscles and not using others at all.

Then, with the last of our belongings out the door, I spent a moment savoring the sweet home that had contained so much happiness, so many tears, the last moments of family life before divorce — and grief washed over me. I was eager to move but also nostalgic, and nervous about the future. As I felt the emotion in my body, I suddenly noticed the tightness of my chest, the breathlessness, the side effects of living on andrenaline.

…

The move has been a good lesson in dealing with stress and the tendency to become so singularly focused on pressing issues that I lose touch with the current of life flowing through me. This is something we all do, and it only makes hard times harder. The yogis interviewed by Dayna Macy in “Selter from the Storm” (see page 70) suggest weathering the current economic crisis much as you would any other kind of stress — by resting, practicing, and feeling what you feel, but also loosening your grip on all that you “must do,” so you can have a little space to see the bigger picture of your life.

In the most recent issue of Urban Climber, several of the most talented climbers explained why they climb. If you’ve ever looked at people dangling on ropes, entrusting their life to a 1 inch piece of nylon, and wondered why we do it, read on:

“I am in constant pursuit of perfect movement, the union of body and mind. I sacrifice my energy and spirit towards achieving this ultimate goal.” – Emily Harrington

“My experience – the act, the movement, the ritual, the normality – is my form of prayer, and my deity is everything. Stone – imperanent and energized, yet not living – it is the point of nature I communicate with.” – Dave Graham

“… it becomes a place of worship, escape, a solitude unmatched by anything else, an incessant need.” – Joe Iurato and Tim Kemple

“Climbing, by the accident of its intensity and place, transports you to a realm of a truly human experience free of the blindness and weight of the observer… As emotions reveal themselves, but don’t explain themselves, a spiritual existence is present. You are simply another piece of this natural world and not an observer of your place in it.” – Kevin Jorgeson

George Bush (the elder) and Bill Clinton (the one and only) both had fax machines installed for themselves. The amount of mail they received is unimaginable, so they had a private line installed for themselves and gave the phone number out to only a select few. By allowing their closest allies the ability to fax them, they were able to puncture the cone of silence that senior management will typically try to enforce around their boss. While a chief of staff can determine which memos reach POTUS, it’s harder to limit the faxes that come through.

I’m glad that BO fought to keep his blackberry. Presidential access to email is a major step forward in electronic communications limited to just faxes. Faxes are a one way form of communication (when is the last time you replied to a fax with another fax?), while email encourages two way communication (or wider distribution through list serves).

With this fight Barack has signaled his determination to ensure that his information sources are not limited. I predict we can expect more actions that will allow him to remain better connected to the public.

One possibility would be to allow the public to vote on the news stories and blogs  which they believe President Obama should read that day. If the President promised to read the most highly rated stories, it would offer citizens a viable way to organize together to bring issues to the President’s attention. There are many paradigms for these kinds of systems, such as those used by Digg, Memeorandum, and Buzz Monitor. With forethought, this could become a useful tool for both the President and for advocacy groups. This sort of program, as well as the kinds developed by MySociety, promise a entirely new way of conceiving of representative government.

The President has appointed a highly talented Googler (Katie Jacobs Stanton) as his Director of Citizen Participation, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing some very interesting experiments in public engagement coming down the pipeline over the next 4 years.

Stay tuned for more soon.

- Rob