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Who will free me from my slavery to advertising

So much of the advertising we encounter we don't even think of anymore as advertising. the logos on our t-shirts, shoes and bags. the packing on our toothpastes, cornflakes and plastic bags. Our journey through our day has a constant companion in advertising.

So it was a rude shock to me to read this letter in Today.

"Public spaces are the responsibility of the Government. Licences for aesthetically-designed and strategically-placed billboards can be awarded to advertising agencies on a revenue-sharing basis. ...

State land can be rented out for suitable events. Lampposts can have small television sets attached to them.

... What is needed is a single coordinating body between the various Government ministries and the advertising agencies." [ref]

Andrew Yap, who wrote the letter, actually wants more advertising. He want the government more involved in commercial activity. What he is suggesting is that the state set up some kind of trust fund into which advertising revenue from leasing out public space is channeled. state land, lampposts, parking coupons - its all worth using for advertising.

the essential concept and the first truth

I have often wondered if we could have another Kakfa or Camus in our age. They were two great adsurdist writers, but I think they would struggle to make things more adsurd that they already are.

"...Saudi girls would have to change into workout gear - and good girls should not disrobe outside their homes. Changing in a locker room might cause them to lose the shyness that is the hallmark of good morals, the booklet warned.

It went on to say that the girls might become attracted to each other after seeing their classmates in tight leotards and tops.

...

But it's not just a matter of persuading them to get off their couches. It's changing a mentality that believes that workouts in schools, gyms or outdoors are an evil that will lead, through giving women more freedoms, to the decline of society.

...

"There is no faster way to corrupt nations than the emancipation of women - that is getting her out on the street to entice men and ruin their morals," he added." [ref]

Winter Morning

  Winter Morning 
  Originally uploaded by terryjohal.

Sometimes, there is nothing more peaceful walking to work with Nancy Wilson and a latte on a foggy winter morning.

Connectivity and Silence

One price is a decrease in down time. James Katz, in his book Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, warns perpetual contact means "those who treasure respite may find themselves pressured to replace otherwise excusable isolation with productive tasks. Once ... being on board an airplane excused an executive from having to interact with colleagues. No more, for the fax and phone even follow at six miles high." Worldwide, he says, more people now own a phone than a TV.
Link: The person you called is switched off - Mobiles & Handhelds - Connectivity.

That space that we used to get away from being connected seems to get smaller and smaller all the time. We are rushing towards 24/7 connectivity, always-on-internet and the such, truely towards Gibson's vision of cyberspace - "a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions ... in the non-space of the mind".

It always reminds me of ''The Machine Stops' by EM Foster.

But there came a day when, without the slightest warning, without any previous hint of feebleness, the entire communication-system broke down, all over the world, and the world, as they understood it, ended.
...
Then she broke down, for with the cessation of activity came an unexpected terror - silence. [full text].

For many of us, the death of a mobile  is a near catastrophic situation. We cannot call anyone, we cannot reach out and touch anyone. It not merely a phone but rather a pathway into our social arena, where our support network lives. It represents not just where we are but also all the places we could could go if only the rest could reach us.

I often switch my mobile off for hours on a weekend. I dont check my email. Dont read the news online. I have taken to walking aimlessly for hours.

It at almost the only time where I can hear myself think.