MetamechanicsWorking out how the internet works

John V Willshire@willshSmithery, London

#IAMW16Barcelona

culture

Thin

gs

People

prototype

strategydesign

Jean Tinguely

Swiss Artist & Scupltor

1925-1991

http://www.vernissage.tv

Most famous for his kinetic sculptures…

if you stare long enough, you see how they work

Like a lot of the exhibits here in the Cosmocaixa museum

Stare at it, see how

it works

Humans love spotting patterns in repeat behaviour

Mechanics

“the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment”

Wikipedia

Mechanics:

What happens to things when things happen to them

What makes the internet go round?

What patterns, what mechanics can we spot?

Let’s think Small, then big…

“an aggregation of many individual pieces of content”At home, I have Lots of packs of cards

Content: what’s on the cards

Design Fiction Kit: Near Future Laboratory

Mechanics: that they are cards

Design Fiction Kit: Near Future Laboratory

artefactshop.com

We make these

Artefact cards are high quality blank cards for working on projects

Deal

Shuffle

Order

Stack

Turn

Spread

Rearrange

card Mechanics are about movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9dIQOrVhM5E - Prof. John Wood, TED, on Synergies

“The Creative Quartet” - Prof. John Wood

1

2

3 45 6

“We are currently witnessing a re-architecture of the web, away from pages and destinations, towards completely personalised experiences built on an aggregation of many individual pieces of content…”

Paul Adams, Intercom

@padday

“an aggregation of many individual pieces of content”

“an aggregation of many individual pieces of content”

The mechanics of cards allow us to design quickly using mechanics akin to the internet

Let’s zoom out…

but this year…

Two separate friends

recommended I read these

two books

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

What if these two models fit together?

FAST

SLOW SLOW

FAST

Does fast move fast, and slow move slow?

The most interesting part of the hybrid model is the gearbox

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5

S5

S4

S3

S2

S1

THE GEARBOX

slowFast

slow

Fast

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5

S5

S4

S3

S2

S1

The slow drift east

cronuts for lunch

We can see conventional relationships of fast and slow

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5

S5

S4

S3

S2

S1

Lighting displays based

on actions

But start to see how the internet allows us to create new things

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5

S5

S4

S3

S2

S1

product futures as marketing

But start to see how the internet allows us to create new things

Internet Mechanics:

continually moving, always unexpected, often unintended

http://www.vernissage.tv

“Working out how the internet works”

This isn’t really the right thing to aim at…

Stare at it, see how

it works?

Stare at it, see how

it works?

“We wanna see the patterns…”

Pattern match that, kids

People keep getting in the wayhttp://www.vernissage.tv

And the internet

helps people keep get weirder

“In science, when human behaviour enters the equation, things go nonlinear.

That’s why Physics is easy and Sociology is hard.”

@neiltyson

Strategy is dead. design appropriately.

Strategy is dead. design appropriately.Where once a strategy would hold for years, we are now witnessing a world in which a strategy can’t even hold for the time it takes to formulate one.

Everything keeps changing.

OODA Loops

Observe Orient Decide Act

Observe Orient Decide Act

Observe Orient Decide Act

A metastrategy, a strategy of

strategies: do the most appropriate

thing for your circumstances

Design WITH the mechanics, not AGAINST them

Kareisu (empty Chair)

</happyending>

?

Jean Tinguely Study for The End of the World 2

self-destructing

machines

These are all products of the internet.

For all the good the randomness brings, other stuff is made possible too…

self-destructing

machine?what if the internet is a

Thanking y’allJohn V Willshire@willsh

#IAMW16Barcelona

smithery.coartefactshop.com