A quick Friday post then to point to the Chicago Tribune’s images of past ‘high tech’ gadets.  The weekend homework that accompanies the images – think about stories from science fiction, predictions and forecasts you have heard and look for where parts of them have been realised.

A light-hearted review of some of those are answered in Where’s my jetpack?.

There are a many aggregators and readers of varying shape, complexity and benefit – and one element of Twine I particularly like is that it sends me feeds that are not always tied directly to my interests, but sometime are on the periphery.

A link through to portraits of women through the ages was a great way to start the day this morning.  Not simply for the beauty of the images it shows, nor just for the way the artist has morphed them together.

An art historian could discuss the changes in technique, perhaps in relation to the changes in society and technical processes.  An interpreter may highlight the nature of pose and implied gesture of each ‘model’.  A fabric and fashion expert, perhaps the change of clothing, its relation to social affordance or the economic interpretations of jewellery, clothing and style.

I enjoyed it for two reasons.  The first that it reminded me that I must make more of my next opportunity in London to visit the National Portrait Gallery (and to make more of their digital collections) and second, that it prompted me to consider what the next 20, 30 years of portraits would include.  What changes would different experts pick out?  The change from egg yolk binding to emulsion polymors to enhanced graphics?  Would experts talk about the lost ability of an artist to mix paints, or salute the technique of adding digital layers upon initial representations?  Would the art historian explain RFID-embedded jewellery as symbolising surveillance or enabling new social interactions?  Would the changing landscapes be interpreted as demonstrating progress or lost pasts?

Contemporary representations of the immediate are often reified (or vilified) for very specific reasons – the brushstrokes, the perspective, the new approach, the social story etc.  What intrigues me is what is left unchanged in these representations (what persists), as well as what these images tell us about change and potential change.  I’m still looking for some good examples of images of possible futures that are built on top of the current context – that show the rate of change (rather than simply ‘jumping’ to depict a new future).  Suggestions would be most wonderful, after you’ve enjoyed the show, of course.

Inflection points are those changes in patterns – and as Saffo points out, although we often think change is linear, it’s much more like an ’s’ curve.  The inflection points then, are those tight curves of the s.

So how can we look for these inflection points?  First, Saffo suggests looking for things that don’t fit – juxtapositions of emerging techno/science developments and real life problems (Safo’s example of road accidents and huge developments in robotic cars).  But another suggestion is the mirror – to look back in history for the weak signals that have led to big changes. A good overview of the whole seminar can be found here where Saffo gives some examples of those weak signals in history’s mirror that can help us think about the future.  Although, as Edward de Bono reminded me in a presentation, once you’ve made a new connection, hindsight makes that achievement look easier than it was.

So, as it’s Friday – your weekend homework: Think about something that you do relatively regularly that seems like a pretty recent addition to your daily/weekly routine – recycling, blogging, using Facebook etc – and spend a bit of time trying to trace when that first came into your consciousness.  Google it, talk to your friends, look at news archives.  What were the weak signals in the past that have had an effect on your daily/weekly lives?  Where those signals social or technological etc?

It’s not an easy piece of homework but there are no marks for anything but effort!  I’ll report on my findings in a later post.