Monthly Archives: January 2021

During the COVID-19 pandemic, its not fun to be anywhere with strangers. But by far the worst situation is the elevator. Youre trapped in a small box, and you have to touch shared buttons to get to the right floor. You just want to get in, out, and wash your hands as fast as possible.

But the Singapore studio Stuck Labs has a better idea. Theyve devised a conceptual prototype called a Kinect Touchless elevator button. The idea is that when you walk up to the elevator button plate, youll see a series of big numbers. You hold your finger up to one, and it lights up to register your intent. Then, without actually touching the button, you mime pressing it.

And when you do? The button sinks right into the wall, as if responding to telekinesis. Pull your finger back, and the button sticks back out. The system is a mechanical wonder, capable of sensing your finger and responding with motors to its near-touch.

Granted, the Kinetic Touchless button is more the sort of design youd see in a Hollywood sci-fi film than any corporate office building. Thats because design in movies tends to be performative, with no limits to the exciting, animated contraptions that will captivate an audience. Meanwhile, design in the real world tends to focus on simplicity and reliability. Why should an elevator button have a motion sensor and motor inside iteach of which can fail over timewhen you could just press a button? Indeed, even if you want a touch-free elevator, many buildings already have that technology, allowing you to scan a badge to queue an elevator to automatically enter your floor for you.

Voice control could do this job. An elbow press onto a button could do this job. A self-sterilizing copper button can, in part, do this job. Why take such a grandiose approach?

COVID-19 has forced all of us to adjust to new norms. Most of these norms are at least a little painful, like wearing stuffy masks. What I like about the Kinetic Touchless elevator button is that, first and foremost, its familiar. The design builds upon a gesture we already knowpressing a button. UX designers sometimes refer to this approach generically as meeting users where they are. As with any new technology, like self-driving cars or virtual reality, a few familiar affordances bridge the gap to the strange and new. With so much strange during COVID-19, a gesture as recognizable as a button press is a welcome artifact of times before.

It also brings to mind architect Bjarke Ingels theory of sustainable hedonism, which argues that being green can be experienced as a luxury rather than a sacrifice. In the case of the Kinetic Touchless elevator button, you might think of it more as pandemic hedonism, and that making safer, healthier choices can be an amusement rather than yet another burden.

Weve reached out to Stuck Labs to ask if they have any interest in taking their elevator button design to market. But in the meantime, the studio has released all sorts of COVID-19-related designs, like a UV sterilizing box and a face shield free of charge for open license use. Granted, these projects arent quite as fun as the magical elevator buttons. But Im taking the stairs until I get vaccinated, anyway.

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Everyone's terrified of elevators during COVID-19. Could these magic buttons help? - Fast Company

Brontez Purnell, at 38 years old, is already something of a Bay Area legend. If you grew up in the recent Oakland punk scene, youve probably seen him play a show with his garage rock band the Younger Lovers. If you follow queer zine culture, you probably have at least a few copies of Purnells zineFag School, which hes been writing since the early aughts, or read one of the books hes put out with small publishers. You might have watched his art-house soft-core porn film100 Boyfriends Mixtape or seen him perform contemporary dance. But most people in Purnells world know him as Oaklands daddy something of a watchful protector over the gentrifying city, attuned to (but never too involved in) the affairs of the small scene. I literally represent the 0.0001 percent, says the artist, who grew up in Alabama. Black queer men that have been riding around on a bike in the California sunshine for almost 20 goddamned years.

On February 2, Purnell is releasing his first book with a major publisher, the MCD x FSG Originals imprint:100 Boyfriends, a novel composed of vignettes on love, sex, and Purnells love of love and sex. It fluctuates between first person and third person, the present and the past, prose and poetry, and reads like a series of 4 a.m. text messages received from a very smart and very messy friend when theres no way you can wait till morning to respond, What the fuck? Are you OK? Did you at least have fun? If Purnell is a living archive of the Bays queer and punk scenes in last two decades, 100 Boyfriendsis an autofiction anthology of drug-fueled warehouse dwellers, queer skate kids, and regretless heartbreakers.

I spoke to Purnell on one of the last warm days of Bay Area autumn,while we sat on the back deck of his Victorian house in Oakland. He shared how he conceives love for the page, what it was like to work on 100 Boyfriends,and why he just cant stop making art. Saam Niami

I was a zine kid in the 90s I started writing zines when I was about 14 years old. I never really felt that there was a hope or a life or a context for me down South. And so when I got to Oakland, I just felt for all the mistakes, all the crazy shit, everything that happened. It really was a breath of fresh air just to set foot on the soil. I was so developmentally regressed when I got here at 18, I essentially had to come and have my for-real teenage years life was so repressive in Alabama. My mother never really let me out of the house because I was too Black and punk and queer. She was afraid somebody was going to fucking kill me. So when I got here, I really had to just grow up in a really intense way. I had guides, but I didnt have any parents. I really had to rely on myself as a moral compass.

It was really fucking intense, but I wouldnt trade that shit for nothing in the world. Its all a patchwork quilt or a blanket: You remove any one thread, it dissembles the whole blanket. If I could talk to my younger self, I wouldnt go up in that kids face telling them what to do. Id just be like, Bitch, its going to be really fun and really hard. Go ahead.

There were so many wild, public displays of hedonism back then. If you did that shit these days, these kids would call you out on the internet so fast. But I wanted to be in that scene. We did these things because we were punk. Because we were crazy, radical queers. We came to these things because we were fucked up, because our parents were drug addicts or neglectful conservatives. We were trying to escape it and we let our trauma ricochet off of each other. But also, deep within it, there was a sense of love.

My book,100 Boyfriends,doesnt really deal with a hundred boys that just sounds like a horrible rom-com. Its really about how, every time you date someone, youre left with a ghost of someone, and that persons left with the ghost of someone, and were all just carrying around the baggage of everyones relationships, even when we deal with each other. Theres this line in the book that goes: Between two men, there can be a hundred ghosts in the room. Its about dealing with the residual effects of entanglement.

When I write about a real experience, it depends on where Im calibrating from because I have theater IQ. Maybe its all about the physical space a bedroom where you see every single squiggle mark on the ceiling. Whenever youve broken up with someone, what do you remember from that day? Do you remember if it was sunny? Do you remember cologne, perfume, or a smell, or a meal you ate? Or maybe you just strictly orient from an emotion you felt. There are lots of insertion points for memory. You can be as sacred or as secular as you want.

I think the older I have got, I dont approach relationships at all. I just exist and things happen. If you call that a fucking very earned weariness, then sure, you can say Ive changed. That gusto, that do-or-die love I have to be with this person. My heart and whole being is going to fucking break in two if I dont have this person I havent felt that way since my goddamned 20s. But then, you know,100 Boyfriendsis definitely more for, you know, old jaded whores. Its about the time after that first feeling has passed.

Ive never had this much parental intervention. When youre in the cut of DIY art for years, youre like, No ones supporting this. I got to do all this myself. I gotta make sure all this shit is doing it. But then when I got up in FSGs house, I was not ready because one page would have like 12 questions: Well, what do you mean by this? How do you mean this? Maybe we can say it this way. Blah, blah, blah. And Im like, Oh shit, this is what it means to professionalize now. Almost wasnt ready for that shit. But I think you should be able to approach any language and find where you vibe with it. Plus, who knows about ever getting this chance again? So, you know, I stuck with it.

I like zines and I like something episodic and periodical, which is why I still doFag School. I think its always good to go back every couple of years and reevaluate how you feel about something state what youve learned.

At the end of the day, my band, the Younger Lovers, has never been a heavily supported thing. Its a pop-punk band, but its too Black and too queer. Its something that I do as a labor of love. I think most people in Oakland would just remember it as the band that played for free at all the warehouses for years.

I would have to say the Younger Lovers is more of a global scene. When people are like, Oh, I love the Younger Lovers, its always some random person from the Philippines or some dude from France. Ive gotten more congratulatory remarks from people way outside the bubble than I ever did inside the bubble.

My problem with Oakland is just that it really can be a slacking-ass, beer-drinking town. Considering how much money we pay to live in this motherfucker, it makes sense that theres not a lot of support. Im not bitter or angry about it because, at the end of the day, I see what most garage rock bands have to do. If anyone wants to tour the Younger Lovers and sit me in a fucking Trump state, with me talking all the shit that I do, the only thing they gonna do is lynch my Black ass. So its probably better that I just make some music in a garage in Oakland and, you know, keep it moving.

If it had been up to me, I would have gotten all my rock-and-roll accolades at 24, and I would have gladly ODd at 26 and just left a beautiful corpse. But it wasnt up to me. God was like, No, your fat Black ass going to keep working forever and ever. Amen.

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Brontez Purnell and the Ghosts of Exes Past - Vulture

The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work and live across the world, and according to a new report from Backslash, the cultural intelligence unit of TBWA Worldwide, some of these changes may persist over the long-term. In its recently released annual glossary of cultural insights, which it calls Edges, the shop has identified some key shifts that could permanently transform social norms worldwide.

As marketers prepare to grapple with catering to consumers who have made sweeping changes in the past year, it may be prudent for them to keep a close watch on some key shifts that could have a deep impact.

The pandemic has precipitated a cosmic reshuffle of global realities, social norms and individual beliefs," says Says Agathe Guerrier, co-chief strategy officer of TBWA Worldwide. "2021 isnt just another year, its Year Zero. And so this isnt just a trend report. Its a glimpse into a new chapter of our history.

As marketers look to keep pace with constantly shifting social mores to keep their brands and businesses relevant, here are six broad trends that could transform the way consumers live, work and play.

Body Debates: Previously personal debates and decisions are now being made in the open. "Whether or not to get a vaccination, go vegan, wear a face mask, and have children are no longer private and personal. Theyre at the center of heated public disputes related to freedom of choice versus societal responsibility," the report notes. This shift will impact brands and industries in sectors as diverse as entertainment and pharma.

Roots Revival: BeforeCOVID-19, people prided themselves on being global citizens. However, as the pandemic has swept across the globe, consumers have started have battened down the hatches, borders have slammed shut and were now turning inward and getting in touch with our local and national heritagegaining new appreciation for the people, land, and traditions that came before us. Buying local may just be the beginning of this trend.

Unglossed: Society is turning its back on impossible standards around one-note beauty, buttoned-up professionalism, and picture-perfect lifestylesushering in a new, unapologetic attitude," the report contends. Celebrating imperfection is apparently in and constantly aspiring for perfection is out.

Stability Pursuit: The global job market has perhaps never seen so many cuts, withautomation and pandemic-driven shutdowns, causing millions of roles to disappear. As this transition accelerates, businesses will begin placing a new emphasis on stability.

Counter Cancel: Stuck at home and in front of multiple screens, consumers have perhaps never been more aware, and woke folk saw a record number of brands and public figures being felled for a range of statements and positionsmaking for a lengthy 'cancel culture' list in 2020. This hyper-aware consumer caused brands and individuals to tiptoe around important issues, constantly fearing a boycott. However, as woke fatigue sets in, a growing group of people are refusing to participate in this sharp cancel culture, instead favouring nuanced debate over public shaming.

Health Hedonism: From hospitals that feel like luxury hotels, to at-home test kits that offer insights into our biology, healthcare is going from dreaded to embraced. Every brand is now in the business of making us well.

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'Body debates', 'stability pursuit', 'counter cancel' and three other shifts that could transform marketing in 2021 | Marketing - Campaign Asia

The GameStop debacle has put the stock market on everyones radar this week even those who rarely pay it any attention. Many are depicting the incident as a David-and-Goliath battle between small investors gathering on Reddit message-boards and Wall Street powerbrokers finding themselves unexpectedly on the back foot at their own game. Billions of dollars are in the balance.

Along with such major news events, though, come the instant internet experts. Lets face it: most of us understand diddly squat about the stock market and rely on Hollywood to inform us about an industry that it portrays as a place in which, to quote from the tyrannical, fictional Gordan Gekko: lunch is for wimps.

Want to join the conversation about GameStop? Here are five films and TV shows that might help you muddle your way through.

Don Cheadle turning charm and smarm up to 100. Regina Hall in blue eyeshadow and big 80s hair. Tony-award winning Andrew Rannells adding another besuited straight-edger to his acting credits, along with The Book of Mormons Elder Price at least at first. Black Monday, in this series, refers to 19 October 1987, still the single worst day for Americas stock market. Produced by Seth Rogen, this technicolour comedy purports to tell the story of who caused the crash that day and how. Its a kind of cocaine-fulled narrative rollercoaster in which everyone is double-crossing everyone else and youre never quite sure which character to root for until you realise that the answer is none of them.

In this film, Martin Scorsese a director celebrated for making great gangster movies turned his focus to Wall Street, applying the same kind of rise and fall narrative structure as his films about the Mafia. The Wolf of Wall Street was inspired by former stockbroker Jordan Belfort (adapted from his memoir of the same name), who reacted to the film by suing the financiers and requesting $300m in compensation.

Scorseses film is damning in his portrayal of Wall Street culture as a pit of toxic masculinity and various kinds of isms hedonism, chauvinism, sexism. The film suggests succeeding as a big-name stockbroker involves not only being ruthless and calculating but also putting on a show and appealing to peoples base instincts like an inspirational speaker or a late night TV evangelist. There is no nobility in poverty, Leonardo Di Caprios Belfort tells his sales team during a shouty pep-talk. In this portrayal, there was no nobility in wealth either.

If you think the stock market is wild, just wait until you learn about commodity futures. All will be explained in this vaguely Dickensian Eddie Murphy Christmas comedy that features the price manipulation of oranges, attempted murder, a sex worker with a heart of gold and a live gorilla. If you havent guessed by this summary, the answer to your question is yes, this film was made in the 1980s. Viewers be warned: some of the language, politics and visuals of this film would see it very much cancelled in 2001, let alone 2021.

This reviewer was never much of a fan of Mary Harrons frankly disgusting 2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis equally icky novel, about a New York stockbroker (Christian Bale) who commits various hideous crimes that will not be retraced here. For one thing, the ending (spoiler alert!) strongly implies it may have all been a series of hallucinations inside the protagonists head, attempting to justify grotesque gratuity by contextualising it as a kind of sick recurring daydream.

The prominence of murders and orgies does however carry an unsubtle metaphorical message about capitalism and the way it works. This confession has meant nothing, Bales character famously says towards the end, his crimes going unpunished.

There were people in Wall Street who saw the global financial crisis coming and dove in. Adam McKays playful 2015 film follows sharks who got wind of the impending crash and endeavoured to profit from it, including a shoeless heavy metal enthusiast (Christian Bale) and a self-loathing investment maverick (Steve Carell).

Aware that his subject matter is potentially dry and confusing, McKay breaks the film up with comedy scenes in which various concepts are explained straightforwardly but in wacky contexts. The director includes, for instance, Margot Robbie in a bubble bath, who, glass of champagne in hand, breaks down the ins and outs of subprime mortgages. Its a trick designed to make you think, by the end of it, that youve actually learned something.

If you want an actual primer on the global economy how it works, how it fails, and how it can affect so many peoples lives try John Lanchesters easily accessible book about the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No-One Can Pay. Or you could reach for the NPR podcast Planet Money, which offers fun, digestible explainers on complex financial questions from Modern Monetary Theory to how antitrust laws work. They even have an episode about Trading Places. You can also listen to Full Storys episode on modern monetary theory here.

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Confused about GameStop? Five films to watch to help you pretend to understand the stock market - The Guardian