Nearness
Sometimes I stand in awe at my friends’ talent and dedication. It happens pretty often, actually: every so often somebody I know will release a piece they’ve been working on that’s just so right it’s difficult to do anything but stand back and say: Yeah: that. That precisely. I find it both humbling and inspiring. I’m sure you know the feeling.
I never do get quite used to it, either. Today’s frisson is provided by Timo Arnall and Jack Schulze, who’ve between them put together this exquisite film illustrating near-field communication (NFC) interactions in the style of Weiss and Fischli’s The Way Things Go.
What really gets me about it is the fusion of technical insight, aesthetic sense, skill in execution and sheer patience it represents. If every made thing in the world were even one-twentieth as carefully thought out as the most offhanded gesture here, we’d all of us be in inestimably better shape. Maximum kudos.
4 responses to “Nearness”
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- - 16 September 2009
- - 16 September 2009
- - 17 September 2009
Adam Greenfield's Speedbird 
My older brother possessed a book once called “The World We Have Lost,” all about how the 1800’s were better (in quality of living) than the 1900’s. Now in the 2000’s (twenty-hundreds), Adam, you seem to be yearning for a way to hold onto the finer, simpler things of life even as your globe-trotting pace in life accelerates.