I’ve finished another Blender project—per tradition, this comes from a dream I had. Inspiration I dreamed I was in something like the Nintendo video game Metroid Prime. The Prime series of games features a lone human explorer making her way … Continue reading
A world of symbols (Part 5): Language’s arbitrary influence
The concepts you most readily use to understand your experiences are determined by the language through which you learned them. And that language has been shaped arbitrarily by your own culture as well as cultures that came before it. Only by consciously avoiding those ready-made concepts can you actually notice the full spectrum of your experience. Continue reading
A world of symbols (Part 4): The need for symbols
We need symbols because we need to break down our complex experiences into simple comprehensible parts—both for easy communication with others and for easy comprehension ourselves. Continue reading
A world of symbols (Part 3): Surrogation of language
Remember that language exists as a mechanism for conveying ideas. If the ideas themselves have been effectively shared, you have no honest reason to continue dwelling on the particular words. If you find yourself failing to share the ideas, you should try using different words. And finally, if you’re using words to cleverly obscure ideas in a way that feels advantageous to you, you’re committing deception and should be called out for it. Continue reading
A world of symbols (Part 2): Responses to surrogation
You should stop committing surrogation whenever and wherever you notice it, but there’s more than one way to do this. Continue reading
A world of symbols (Part 1): Surrogation
(If you haven’t read the Introduction and are wondering what I mean by “symbols,” I recommend you read that first.) Part 1: Surrogation Because we deal in symbols every day, and the substances behind those symbols are often agreed upon … Continue reading
A world of symbols: Introduction
A human’s life is full of symbols. A red heart symbolizes love. A red octagon symbolizes the command to stop. A sideways triangle symbolizes the “play” function of a media device. But it’s not just combinations of colors and shapes … Continue reading
Tiered Mansion interior (image series)
This creation is another indoor space—a large atrium containing three tiered platforms, each being a semi-private space leading up to a curtained-off bedroom area. The platforms are narrow in the center which gives the look of overlapping bridges and leaves most of the atrium as empty space. Continue reading
Penthouse Platform interior (image series)
– In which I take a dream I had and make it as photorealistic as possible – Like my Harbor Terminal project, this piece is based on a scene that I saw in a dream. It was a penthouse apartment … Continue reading
Campanile di Giotto lightshade (hardware)
My friends from college know there’s something about me and lamps… Set-up I recently bought a small automatic plugin light for my bathroom, so I don’t have to blind myself with the main lights in middle of the night. But … Continue reading
The problem of ads (Part 3): Ads and art
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I talked about how ads come with costs, are generally a burden on a happy lifestyle, and should be blocked where possible. I’m confident in the opinions I described there, but this … Continue reading
The problem of ads (Part 2): Targeted ads are worse
In my last post, I aimed to show that even if advertisements don’t cause us to spend excessively or unwisely, they are still costly in ways that we don’t often talk about. In this post, I’ll explain why targeted ads … Continue reading
The problem of ads (Part 1): Ads are costly
I think about ads a lot. That may be because I work in consumer technology, the medium through which most advertisements are delivered nowadays. Or it may be because I have strong feelings about consumerism, which is really the spirit … Continue reading
Dance billboard (image)
I made a fun image—a mini-project. It’s special to me because I saw it in a dream; it was on a billboard in a city. Sometimes when I’m having a dream, I realize I’m dreaming and that it’ll end soon, … Continue reading
Ear Hockey, a Microsoft Garage project
For the past year and a half, I’ve been working with an unofficial team at Microsoft to develop audio-based games—games that can be played with just the sound. Now I’m happy to announce that Ear Hockey, a game which I’ve … Continue reading