Links For February 19, 2014
Getty Images: Still Kinda Sexist?
The results of Getty’s partnership with LeanIn do not match the sophisticated understanding of identity that we see in DIS, but mostly they’re fine. We see different body types and races, different types of jobs, more real-looking social interactions.... The modern Getty woman goes to Crossfit and surfs and jogs. She works at home on a computer, in a factory, in a hair salon.... It’s more interesting, though, to think about what’s missing. Nowhere in this collection of 2,500 images are there any representations of formal child care. Adults with children are identified as pediatricians, mothers, fathers, and grandparents, but never as babysitter, nanny, or au pair. LeanIn is a world without day care.
“DISimages is a fully functioning stock image library. Dedicated to manipulating the codes and trends in stock photography, DISimages invites artists to create alternative scenarios and new stereotypes, thus broadening the spectrum of lifestyle portrayal.”
Behind Sochi’s Futuristic Logo
Anyone who has watched an Olympics whose vision is sharp will notice that the logo for Sochi 2014—which appears in every stadium, on every ticket, and on tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Olympic merchandise—is remarkably different from those of previous Olympics. It contains no drawing and features only unassuming lowercase lettering, the five Olympic rings, and a Web address.
But one unique quirk sets [L.J.] Smith’s work apart from most fanfic. She is the original author of the series, now banished from officially contributing. So she is finishing the series by means of a new enterprise: Amazon’s Kindle Worlds, the world’s first corporate venue for fan fiction.
Rhizome | I'll Send an OS to the World: "Her" as Critical Design for the Electronic Embrace
At best, Her is a perfect example of what designers Dunne & Raby call “Critical Design;” it uses “speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life,” interrogating and opening up the secret language between products and consumers. What’s unique about Her is that though its speculative objects, the OSs, circulate as commodities, they can never be owned.
Climate Change – Visualize whirled peas and also rising temperatures.